Reimagining National Security ; from rhetoric to reality

Facing evolving global and internal complexities, Sri Lanka seeks a pragmatic and inclusive national security policy to safeguard its future

A National Security Policy... serves the requirement to inform the public, institutions, enterprises, industries, state and non-state actors alike and international partners of our enduring approach to National Security and the evolving strategic environment

For Sri Lanka, establishing a clear National Security Policy (NSP) is crucial to inform citizens and partners of its enduring approach, articulate a shared vision, and prioritize the effective utilization of resources. This policy must reflect the nation’s democratic path and address contemporary threats, challenges, and risks that have profoundly impacted its way of life 

What is National Security? It is a question that has long been asked. While recently posed rhetorically, the question remains vital because we live in a moment of human history marked by exponential changes and transformations in our way of life.  

Most importantly, a National Security Policy (NSP) paper serves to inform the public, institutions, enterprises, industries, state and non-state actors alike, and international partners of our enduring approach to national security and the evolving strategic environment. The policy paper also aims to provide a shared vision, unity of effort, and prioritization for the effective utilization of means, minimizing costs, managing risks, and creating opportunities for the country and its citizens. This is also intended as a safeguard against possibilities of despotic governance. It further reflects our development path, our democracy, and its framework. We need to depart from the past and reassess existing threats, challenges, and risks.  

Our National Security perspective should encompass the collective realization of our enduring values, interests, aspirations, and efforts aimed at guarding, sustaining, and advancing against internal vulnerabilities and external threats that undermine elements of national power, social cohesion, national will, and resilience to succeed in our darkest hours. It is also fundamental to realizing our vision through opportunities presented locally, regionally, and globally. What would be an ideal framework to follow its formulation?  

A comprehensive NSP development process should encompass a wide array of actors. Although the drafting and approval stages occur at the highest authority levels, assessment, research, and formulation phases must involve expertise and input from all concerned and interested parties. This includes civil society organizations, academics who perform an oversight role, and security sector personnel at every level who implement and experience first-hand the dictates and effects of NSP, up to the Government, ministries, and the Parliament, whose role in overseeing the entire process is of crucial importance.  

The appointment of a National Security Advisor (NSA) is important. A National Security Advisor will help bridge the gap between the national level and concerned stakeholders of national security. Furthermore, it is required to have consultation with the National Security Oversight Committee at the Parliament, consultation with non-governmental actors (Opposition, focused groups, academia, media, experts, civic groups, etc.), and also public consultations.  

Sri Lanka’s National Security approach is constantly affected by its unique geo-strategic location and the country’s post-independence history. There is a need to understand the reality of our vulnerabilities – economically, politically, technologically, environmentally, and militarily – in a world that has experienced fundamental changes in traditional geopolitics and socio-economic dynamics. Our assessment of the global security environment suggests that we need to be ready for a resurgence of identity-based conflicts. In this context, global perceptions will be deeply divided and further fragment into minute identity matters that will remain extremely difficult to resolve, leading to harsher decision-making and actions. Thus, Sri Lanka must be aware of blind emulation. We need to be more assertive and pragmatic in our global outreach, otherwise, this would result in our very own ‘Sputnik Moment’. The principle of the ‘rule-based order’ or even the ‘sanctions regime’ no longer looks as self-evident as it appeared years ago, partly because doubts have risen over its construct and usage. The same benign necessity and practical abuse appear among the parties into which each state divides itself, whether opponents or defenders of the ‘rule-based order’.  

However, Sri Lanka cannot be ignorant of the existing global and regional realities. We do find ourselves in an economic stalemate while being dragged into a tough contention between two powerful entrenched groups.  

The island state should be equally concerned about the events occurring in the high seas and the residual effects of the ‘Himalayan conundrum’ that have direct implications for our interests, peace, prosperity, and partnerships. The Indian subcontinent’s security should be accepted as an enduring concern, and this should precede our strategic outlook and engagements with regional and extra-regional parties. However, this should not undermine the exercise of our sovereignty and the pursuit of our interests. Our assertive neutrality in international relations should be defined as transformative and results-oriented, nurturing enduring partnerships without political entanglements and military alliances. Certainly, diplomacy is not a zero-sum endeavor.  

Although Sri Lanka’s geostrategic location in the Indian Ocean is undisputed, it is no exaggeration that the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) is becoming a region of intensified contention and conflict between aspiring and existing power players.   

This demands that Sri Lanka pursue a pragmatic, multi-pronged path in asserting and securing its interests for prosperity and stability, while elevating the island as a credible stakeholder in the IOR.  

Sri Lanka is challenged by limited natural resources, geographical scale, and terrain, unlike other countries that value these for sustainment and defense. Sri Lanka lacks an immediate hinterland. Moreover, we must appraise the possibility of threats and risks involved with any form of sabotage, criminal, or terrorist act in our cyberspace, electromagnetic spectrum, energy distribution, and critical infrastructure, thereby undermining our virtual security, livelihoods, transactions, and connectivity. Certainly, there is a need for a culture of meritocracy, honesty, and pragmatism within and among our institutions, the state, and the people. We are also acutely aware of the perennial issue of endemic corruption that is at the core of institutional dysfunctionality. The state and our society should be immune from such divisive constructs and embrace a culture of zero tolerance for corruption and corrupt practices. National Security depends on political and economic stability. When political and economic stability collapses, social crisis erupts.   

Thus, swift and decisive decisions must be taken to restore the economy first. Sri Lanka as a nation-state since independence has witnessed a considerable portion of social upheavals, unrests, and insurrections. A deeper understanding of these events suggests that Sri Lanka needs to be more astute and assertive in responding to influences from the periphery to its center. We are aware that misleading engagements create new opportunities for violence, also deepening cleavages that exist in societies, exacerbating inter-group tensions. Thus, the way forward is to articulate a well-conceived and thoughtful engagement which results in a positive impact. This brings our attention to the youth population, which forms the most valuable and the most under-realized potential of our state. They are the most disadvantaged segment of our societal fabric. Ironically, this same population has become a critical vulnerability of the nation, often exploited, misinformed, misguided, manipulated, and herded into bankrupt ideological ‘camps,’ led by narcissistic personalities hell-bent on self-serving and living off others’ misery and disdain. The lack of structural and institutional reforms, opportunities, and social mobility over decades has resulted in a frustrated youth segment that has become envious of the very fundamentals and constructs of our society. It is our responsibility to provide equitable opportunity and social mobility to this vital asset in reshaping Sri Lanka to its fullest form and in realizing their optimum potentials. Meanwhile, all Sri Lankans need to appreciate and appraise our unique Buddhist cultural identity that has formed the nucleus of the island’s civilization over millennia. We ought to be proud of this unique civilization inherited by our forefathers and ensure that our individual identities are forged, preserved, and harmonized under this umbrella.  

Way-forward

Today’s problems are far more complex than being one individual’s fault. National Security must be achieved through a whole-of-government and whole-of-nation approach. A ‘National Security Policy’ is the pivot towards the envisioned roadmap of our strategic leadership in the transformation process into a developed nation.  

We can no longer be prisoners of circumstances nor blame everything else other than ourselves as we transit through the third decade of the 21st Century. The way forward is by taking control and owning our circumstances through accountability, charting a new passage plan to realize the enduring vision of ‘transforming into an advanced progressive nation’. We need to become a fully functional democracy through pragmatic decisions and a learning society. As humanity has learned to break free from the shackles of gravity and venture into space – our people, the state, and institutions need to learn to break free from this paradox of underdevelopment and debt. So, let the ‘National Security Policy’ guide us in this transition process, united as one – One Sri Lanka. The author, CDR BARI Abeysekara, Sri Lanka Navy (Retired), is a prospective doctoral student at the University of New South Wales, Australia. He served 22 years in the Sri Lanka Navy, retiring in April 2024. He holds master’s degrees in Conflict and Peace Studies, Naval Weapon Science Technology, and Defence and Strategic Studies.