Daily Times

One of the primary purposes of political leaders across the globe is to remain relevant for their voters. To do so, at times political expediencies do override state interests and even public interests. Sometimes such politicians get away with their acts but not always. The political elite at times overlook the public mood and face the consequences in the face of losing their power base.

Since the tragic events of 9/11, security considerations have overtaken domestic issues in many states and election debates in many countries are centred around security imperatives. Even in the US where domestic issues always dominated the campaign, the security issues have now become important.

Seeing the public interest in security matters, the politicians thought it appropriate to build a narrative around security issues. Generally, the respective leaderships in many countries decided to create an element of external security fears among the populace to earn domestic support. The political leaders first created a bleak security scenario and convinced the people that there was a serious threat to their lives, liberty, and the values they had guarded jealously for so long. Once the political elite notices that their security-insecurity narrative is taking root among the populace, and people seem to be concerned about their security as well as community security, they come up with remedial measures to impress the people. Usually, they would project themselves as more appropriate to deal with serious security threats. Concurrently, they would paint the opposition parties as casual or inept in dealing with such serious security matters.

One can recall the Republicans’ election campaign of 2004 when George W, Bush was seeking reelection in the first elections after 9/11; the entire campaign was focused on the Global War on Terror (GWOT). Bush successfully created fear of another 9/11 among the people and managed to secure the second term by winning with a comfortable lead in Electoral Votes (EV). Bush-Cheney earned 286 EVs against the requirement of 270 and defeated John Kerry and John Edwards.

Politicians worldwide create security fears among the populace to earn domestic support during elections.

9/11 has proved to be a game-changer in the electoral history of the US. The security issues are now figured out in every election campaign. In the ongoing election campaign also, Ukraine, Gaza, Lebanon, Yemen, and Iran are furiously debated between the contestants. While the Wall, immigrants, abortion, and the economy are still figured out prominently, security matters have attracted a lot of attention in the media.

Elsewhere in South Asia, one can recall the Indian Elections of 2019 when BJP’s leadership stage-managed the Pulwama incident and blamed Pakistan without any investigations into the events. Prime Minister Modi orchestrated the Balakot strikes inside Pakistan to which Pakistan Air Force responded in kind. Despite losing at least three aircraft (two combat aircraft and a helicopter), Modi successfully created fear of a wider war among its voters and easily managed to win the second term.

Likewise, Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu also adopts a similar security-insecurity narrative during the elections. He successfully projects himself as the saviour of the Jewish state, even if there are several other issues that the people of Israel are faced with including settlements.

Security as an election issue has now become a norm in the democratic world. One can see the same in Europe since the start of the Russia-Ukraine war in February 2022. Presidential elections were scheduled to be held in Ukraine in March or April 2024. However, since the incumbent “Volodymyr Zelenskyy issued, and the Ukrainian parliament approved, a declaration of martial law on 24 February 2022 in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, no elections were held because Ukrainian law does not allow presidential elections to be held when martial law is in effect.”

In Pakistan too, the security figures out prominently in the election campaigns and the contestants often blame each other for risking the state security for winning the support of the people. The parties tend to project themselves as the saviours of the nation and paint the opposition as traitors and inept in dealing with such sensitive issues. Also, the political elite tends to win the support of the establishment to project themselves to be on the same page so that people vote for them in the larger interest of the state. Unfortunately, the issues are not debated in public and therefore the politicians can get away with such serious allegations against each other in the run for general elections that are held every five years. However, due to the revolution in information technology and the popularity of social media, the people in the urban areas are more aware of such issues and have started to question the political elite in these matters.

The fact remains that politicians worldwide create security fears among the populace to earn domestic support during elections.

The writer of this article has authored three international books: “Nuclear Deterrence and Conflict Management Between India and Pakistan” “South Asia Needs Hybrid Peace” and “Understanding Sun Tzu and the Art of Hybrid War.”