ECONOMIC RESILIENCE AND NATIONAL SECURITY
What does Bangladesh need to build a strong future?
S M Haseeb Aziz
The ongoing unrest in Bangladesh's ready-made garment (RMG) sector, with workers demanding an increase in the monthly minimum wage from Tk 12,500 to Tk 30,000, has once again disrupted one of the country's principal economic engines. On 1 November 2026, operations at 529 factories were interrupted, prompting the government to establish a new wage board. Such developments are hardly unprecedented. Wage-related disputes resulted in factory closures in Ashulia in 2016, widespread demonstrations in 2018–19 and 2023, and renewed industrial unrest in 2024. Despite these recurring disruptions, the industry has repeatedly demonstrated its capacity to recover and sustain its contribution to the national economy.
This recurring experience raises a question beyond the immediate wage dispute. Why does a sector capable of consistently recovering from disruptions remain vulnerable to their recurrence? The legitimate economic interests of workers, manufacturers and the wider national economy need not be treated as competing objectives. Yet the repeated interruption of production suggests that existing arrangements for reconciling those interests require greater institutional effectiveness.
The concern extends beyond the garment industry. Throughout its post-independence history, Bangladesh has navigated political upheavals, economic difficulties, natural disasters and changing international circumstances. Its productive sectors and population have demonstrated considerable capacity for adaptation and recovery, even when political and institutional arrangements have experienced disruption.
In FY2025–26, Bangladesh received US$35.59 billion in workers' remittances, while ready-made garment exports generated approximately US$38.70 billion. Agricultural production, entrepreneurship, emerging digital enterprises and wider commercial activities have similarly contributed to the country's development. These achievements demonstrate substantial national resilience, although they do not imply that every sector has experienced uninterrupted growth.
Bangladesh's principal strategic challenge may therefore lie not in its inability to recover from adversity, but in the insufficient protection of the conditions that enable its development to continue.
This analysis considers how Bangladesh might convert its demonstrated resilience into enduring strategic strength through three mutually reinforcing elements: a whole-of-nation understanding of fundamental national interests, the protection of economic continuity and credible military deterrence supporting its established diplomatic posture.
Recognising Bangladesh's diplomatic identity
Bangladesh's foreign policy tradition provides an important foundation for such an approach. For more than five decades, the country has maintained a diplomatic posture grounded in peaceful coexistence, non-interference, mutual respect and constructive engagement. Its guiding principle of friendship with all reflects a preference for dialogue and cooperation rather than coercion or intrusion into the affairs of others.
Bangladesh's participation in multilateral institutions, long-standing contribution to United Nations peacekeeping and diplomatic engagement across differing international alignments demonstrate a consistent preference for peaceful international relations. This record deserves recognition as part of Bangladesh's international identity. The country's demonstrated preference for cooperation can strengthen confidence among international partners and create opportunities for diplomatic and economic engagement.
Colonel Nazma Begum, the Bangladesh Army’s first female contingent commander to a UN peacekeeping mission, poses with members of a 56-strong medical contingent at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport before departing for Ivory Coast. Bangladesh’s longstanding contribution to UN peacekeeping reflects its commitment to peaceful international engagement.
Japan's post-Second World War transformation provides a relevant illustration. Through economic development, international cooperation and a peace-oriented diplomatic identity, Japan established considerable international confidence while developing distinct arrangements for its national security. The broader lesson is that a peaceful international identity can become a tool for influence when consistently demonstrated and supported by credible capabilities. Bangladesh should similarly be confident in projecting its established diplomatic character.
Therefore, the purpose of strengthening economic and military capabilities should not be to alter this posture, but to ensure that peaceful engagement remains a deliberate national choice supported by adequate strategic preparedness.
Credible deterrence should reinforce the confidence with which Bangladesh practises diplomacy, without changing the peaceful character of that diplomacy.
The necessity of strategic continuity and resilience
Over the years, Bangladesh's economic development has established substantial productive capacity. However, the persistence of its major economic sectors should not obscure the costs associated with recurring institutional and political discontinuity. Economic resilience allows productive activities to recover from disruption, while strategic continuity enables a country to preserve long-term commitments, institutional capabilities and developmental priorities through political transitions. When major development are repeatedly interrupted, investment decisions are delayed, institutional confidence weakens and development expenditure becomes less effective. These losses accumulate, even when economic activity subsequently recovers.
For Bangladesh, the objective should therefore extend beyond recovering from successive difficulties. It should involve identifying and protecting the institutional and economic conditions that permit development to proceed with greater continuity.
For any country, economic strength and national security are mutually reinforcing. A productive economy provides resources for infrastructure, technological advancement and security preparedness. Equally, reliable institutions and predictable policies create the confidence necessary for sustained investment. The strategic requirement is to preserve this relationship across political transitions.
Recognising national interests beyond political differences
Democratic societies are necessarily characterised by competing political ideas, ideological preferences and disagreements over public policy. Such differences are essential features of democratic political life. However, democratic disagreement itself depends upon the preservation of a common institutional and civic foundation. Political groups may differ over economic policy, constitutional arrangements, foreign relations or the allocation of public resources. Yet they share an interest in preserving the conditions that allow those disagreements to be expressed and resolved through legitimate processes. These conditions include constitutional order, the rule of law, functioning public institutions, economic opportunity, national security and fundamental rights.
As a nation, we must therefore recognise that certain interests transcend the political preferences of individual governments or parties. Governments may pursue different economic strategies while maintaining a common commitment to protecting productive capacity, essential infrastructure, institutional continuity and the national economy.
Special forces personnel from Bangladesh, the US and the UK participate in the joint counterterrorism exercise ‘Thunder Fist’ at Patenga, Chattogram. Such exercises strengthen operational readiness and international defence cooperation, supporting Bangladesh’s efforts to maintain credible deterrence and peaceful diplomacy.
The same principle extends to citizens.
A whole-of-nation approach cannot be established solely through formal declarations or a charter per se. It requires a broader civic understanding that the country's common achievements, rights and essential institutions deserve protection irrespective of political affiliation. Such a commitment is more sustainable when citizens possess a meaningful stake in national development. The equitable distribution of economic opportunities and benefits is therefore relevant not only to social welfare but also to the stability of the national framework. A nation is more than the sum of its political divisions. Its citizens must recognise a shared responsibility for the conditions under which they live, work, prosper and disagree.
Political differences define the contest of democratic ideas. A shared commitment to fundamental national interests protects the common ground upon which that contest takes place.
The need to protect economic strength
Bangladesh's economic resilience now requires corresponding mechanisms to protect its principal productive sectors and essential resources. Among the many vulnerabilities, two deserve particular consideration: recurring domestic disruptions to economic activity and exposure to an increasingly unpredictable international hydrocarbon market.
The garment industry's recurring labour disputes demonstrate the first. Workers' concerns over wages and living costs, manufacturers' need for competitiveness and the country's interest in uninterrupted production are interdependent. Reconciling these interests requires arrangements for periodic review, timely dispute resolution, reliable industrial utilities and consistent enforcement of labour standards. Such mechanisms should serve the interests of workers and manufacturers while reducing the economic consequences of recurring industrial interruptions.
The second vulnerability arises from Bangladesh's dependence on imports of vital resources, such as energy and hydrocarbon products.
International relations operate within an anarchic system in which no overarching authority guarantees the economic security of individual states. For a growing economy dependent on imported hydrocarbons, disruptions occurring far beyond national borders can therefore affect domestic industrial stability. The March 2026 disruption to contracted LNG supplies from Qatar illustrates this exposure. Bangladesh procured replacement cargoes from the international spot market at more than twice the prices paid earlier in the year. Emergency procurement was necessary under the circumstances, but repeated reliance on expensive spot purchases cannot provide a sufficiently predictable foundation for long-term industrial and energy planning. The National Energy Policy of 1996 envisaged petroleum reserves covering 60 days of consumption. Three decades later, the government is pursuing a programme to expand storage capacity towards 90 days by 2027. How is that an expansion? That remains to be understood. Yet the distinction between installed storage capacity and physically available fuel stocks remains important, as does the question of whether reserve arrangements are adequate for prolonged external disruptions.
Although Bangladesh has already initiated measures in several of these areas, the immediate priority should be to assess the constraints that have affected the process so that these problems do not recur.
In this context, resilience should primarily mean minimising the impact of external economic pressures by ensuring that critical national functions continue despite disruptions. This requires protecting productive industries, reducing avoidable dependencies and preserving the country's ability to make independent economic decisions. Although these objectives may sound ambitious, their practical implications for the economy and people's livelihoods are significant.
Military deterrence as an assurance of peaceful diplomacy?
Economic strength constitutes one dimension of aggregate national power. Credible military deterrence provides another. Bangladesh's geographic position, maritime interests, economic infrastructure and proximity to major centres of regional competition make long-term defence preparedness an important consideration.
Containers are handled at Chattogram Port, a vital gateway for Bangladesh's international trade. Reliable logistics and critical infrastructure are essential to sustaining economic activity during domestic and external disruptions.
This does not suggest that Bangladesh faces inevitable confrontation or requires a departure from its established diplomatic principles. Rather, military deterrence should preserve the environment in which the country can pursue its economic and diplomatic interests without unnecessary interruptions.
Bangladesh's Defence Policy already recognises deterrence and defence diplomacy among its central objectives. The issue is therefore not the absence of deterrence from national policy, but the extent to which that objective is supported by sustainable capabilities, operational preparedness and institutional continuity. Credible deterrence cannot be determined solely by expenditure or military acquisitions. It depends on the integration of operational readiness, intelligence, effective command arrangements, trained personnel, logistics and the demonstrated ability to employ available capabilities when necessary. For Bangladesh, deterrence by denial may offer an appropriate orientation. Its purpose would be to discourage coercive actions by making their intended objectives difficult to achieve. Such an approach need not seek military parity with larger regional powers. It should concentrate on capabilities appropriate to Bangladesh's geography, economic resources and legitimate security requirements.
Maritime domain awareness, surveillance, air defence preparedness, integrated command arrangements, cyber resilience and critical infrastructure protection are areas deserving continued professional assessment. The precise configuration of these capabilities should remain a matter for defence professionals and relevant national institutions.
The underlying principle is that military preparedness must complement economic strength and diplomacy. Military deterrence is probably most valuable when its credibility reduces the likelihood of military confrontation and permits diplomacy to remain the preferred instrument of international engagement.
Translating resilience into strategic strength
The question is how Bangladesh might connect these separate strengths within a coherent national framework. To me, the glue that should bind us is our people and their awareness of a shared strategic culture.
A whole-of-nation approach is needed wherever national interests converge. Of course, there are numerous possible approaches, and their detailed formulation would benefit from the expertise of specialists in national security, economics, public administration, diplomacy and constitutional governance. Nevertheless, three considerations appear particularly important.
First, institutionalising national-interest convergence. Bangladesh would benefit from a consultative and broadly representative process for identifying fundamental national interests that should be maintained across political transitions. Such interests must remain distinguishable from the individual policies adopted by different governments and should be subject to parliamentary scrutiny and periodic review.
This would preserve democratic competition while encouraging shared responsibility for essential national functions.
Second, protecting economic continuity. Economic planning should place greater emphasis on securing the productive foundations of development. This would involve strengthening mechanisms for resolving industrial disputes, identifying critical economic dependencies, maintaining adequate energy supply arrangements and ensuring that growth contributes to broader social and institutional stability.
Women workers sew Bangladesh’s national flags at a workshop in Kodomtoli, Dhaka. Protecting productive industries, ensuring economic continuity and strengthening a shared sense of national purpose are central to building Bangladesh’s long-term resilience and security. Photo: Palash Khan
A periodic national economic security assessment could help identify vulnerabilities, evaluate reserve requirements and establish implementation priorities before disruptions become serious.
Third, strengthening credible and sustainable military deterrence. Long-term capability development and operational preparedness should be aligned with clearly identified national interests and realistic economic resources. Defence diplomacy and professional military cooperation should remain complementary instruments supporting Bangladesh's peaceful international posture.
These considerations do not require an entirely new understanding of the state's purpose. Their foundations already exist within Bangladesh's constitutional principles, diplomatic tradition, productive capacity and defence policy. What deserves greater attention is the manner in which these strengths can be coordinated and sustained across successive political administrations. This does not call for a more confrontational Bangladesh. It calls for a more confident Bangladesh, capable of maintaining its peaceful international identity while possessing the necessary economic and military strength to protect the foundations of continued development.
Bangladesh has already demonstrated its capacity to endure adversity. A whole-of-nation commitment provides common purpose. Sustained and broadly beneficial economic growth provides the material foundation. Credible deterrence helps maintain the environment in which diplomacy and development can proceed.
S M Haseeb Aziz is a retired Bangladesh Army officer who served at the rank of major and is currently Research Coordinator at the Osmani Centre for Peace and Security Studies. He holds a master’s degree in International Relations from the University of Dhaka and is a former MONUSCO peacekeeper and instructor.
Bangladesh Defense
