Has Pakistan's Military Doctrine Transformed?

Abstract

The importance of military power will remain as long as the nation-state exists. Some prominent military strategists and thinkers like Chanakya, Clausewitz, and Sun Tzu believed that no nation could be secure unless it had a powerful military, which could deter a potential adversary. Military power is the power that not only determines a country's power ranking but, for many states, the development and growth of their military power becomes a catalyst for their rise to great power status. For any military of the world, it is perhaps necessary to have a basic rule/principle or a set of beliefs to serve as its foundation. This is best encapsulated in the form of a doctrine. But the question arises: should the doctrine also reflect the modernisation and transformation which is required to keep the military upgraded and up to date? This would involve a change in the mindset/thought process, review of doctrine, strategy, war-fighting, concept, organisational structures, human resource optimisation, training methodology, and logistics concepts in order to meet the operational challenges of the future. In other words, the transformation would require a profound change in the overall military affairs. In view of this, the article will examine if any changes have taken place in Pakistan's military doctrine. In doing so, the article is divided into three parts: part one traces the etymology of the word doctrine and defines military doctrine; part two, covers the typology of doctrine; and part three, studies the fundamentals of Pakistan's military doctrine in a two-fold perspective: (a) functions of a fundamental military doctrine; (b) roots of a fundamental military doctrine, and analyses the changes in the doctrine.