Nations rarely fall to external invasion; they fall when their economic foundations erode.
That is the unflinching message of Economy: Backbone of National Security. For a country that has long mistaken military preparedness for resilience, this book is a timely intervention. It insists that a weak economy is not a secondary concern but an existential threat. The editors, Prof. Dr Aneel Salman, Prof. Dr Steve Breyman, and Rex Moser, have not compiled a conventional anthology. They have created a mirror that forces Pakistan to confront its own vulnerabilities with honesty and without refuge in old illusions. The early chapters strike with the weight of recognition. Salman and Maryam Ayub write of déjà vu, of crises that return in endless cycles: IMF bailouts, import restrictions, temporary reserve injections, all recycled while the structural imbalances deepen. What they expose is sobering. Fiscal deficits, inflation, and over-reliance on remittances are not sterile statistics but fault lines that spill into daily life: as crime in Karachi, as absent schools in Balochistan, as despair among educated youth. Dr Khurram Ellahi and Shaheryar Ahmad take the analysis beyond economics into the domain of identity, showing how Pakistan’s fragmented social fabric compounds economic weakness. Dr Usman W Chohan demonstrates how modern conflicts have shifted from the battlefield to the marketplace, with sanctions, financial coercion, and disinformation replacing missiles as instruments of disruption. Together, these chapters dismantle the illusion that security can be separated from economics. The narrative then moves into the marrow of Pakistan’s vulnerabilities. Iqtidar Ahmad reveals the consequences of neglecting investment-led growth. Banking guruZafar Masud and Sayem Ali uncover the fragility beneath Pakistan’s banking sector, and Salman with Sheraz Choudhary show how climate shocksare not just environmental events but security threats. Further, Salman and Muneeb Shah argue that Pakistan’s ocean, long ignored, is critical to sovereignty through the blue economy. Cyber fragility, cryptocurrencies, and technological stagnation follow, each chapter more urgent than the last. Air Marshal Arain’s assessment of Pakistan’s technological ecosystem brings the point home with clarity. In the twenty-first century, the wars that matter may not be lost at borders, but in laboratories, data centres, and innovation hubs.
The final section widens the frame to geopolitics and trade, situating Pakistan within its web of bilateral relationships. China is analysed as both a lifeline and dependency. India is described as a tragedy of mistrust where political hostility has blocked the dividends of trade. Iran is presented as a case study in shadow economies under sanctions, and Russia as a pragmatic partner offering diversification. The United States is analysed with realism, as a partner defined by cycles of aid, sanctions, and conditionality that have eroded autonomy. Bangladesh emerges as perhaps the most surprising chapter. Once dismissed, it now offers lessons in development, integration, and economic governance that Pakistan can no longer afford to ignore.
What makes this volume exceptional is that it refuses to remain at the level of critique. It offers a blueprint: taxing untaxed elites, deepening industrial capacity, investing in human capital, and creating social safety nets that recognise the vulnerabilities not only of the rural poor but also of the unemployed urban graduate. It speaks of digital regulation, industrial indigenisation, and social protection not as academic ideals but as imperatives for national survival. At every stage, the book insists that the economy is not a technocratic debate but a lived reality: the price of bread, the cost of education, the choice to emigrate. By its conclusion, the thesis is unavoidable. Pakistan’s security crisis is not primarily military, it is economic. Missiles cannot defend against hunger. Alliances cannot substitute for resilience. Borders cannot shield a population drained of trust, opportunity, and hope. Yet the book does not lapse into despair. It points to the tools within reach, the reforms long known, and the capacity latent in society. What it demands is not technical ingenuity alone but political courage and moral clarity. Economy: Backbone of National Security transforms economics from the language of spreadsheets into the grammar of sovereignty. It insists that security is not only about protecting territory but about ensuring dignity, opportunity, and resilience for citizens. Its pages remind us that the true arsenal of a nation are its people, and the true test of sovereignty is the strength of its economy. The book should be integrated into the curriculum of policy schools, civil service academies, and defence institutions ensuring that future decision-makers internalise the critical link between economic resilience and national security. The book ends not as a lament but as a challenge: Pakistan needs to rebuild its economy as the backbone of its security.
— Reviewed by Sarah Siddiq affiliated with sustainable development policy
