THE TROUBLED PAKISTAN-US RELATIONSHIP: A DIPLOMATIC HISTORY, 1947-2012

Zaman, Adil (2014) THE TROUBLED PAKISTAN-US RELATIONSHIP: A DIPLOMATIC HISTORY, 1947-2012. Doctoral thesis, University of East Anglia.

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Abstract

The bilateral relationship between the US and Pakistan has been highly
significant for the foreign policies of both countries. Since 1947 Pakistan has
sought US support in its quest for regional security and the US repeatedly turned
to Pakistan as an irreplaceable strategic ally in its quest for global power and
security. Despite this the relationship became fractious and increasingly
distrustful. Many accounts describe the relationship and analyse events which
have shaped it but fail to satisfactorily understand why it became so difficult,
particularly from the Pakistani perspective.
This thesis seeks to bring a fresh perspective by analysing the whole of the
relationship as a cumulative process shaped not just by events but by reciprocal
behaviour and expectation. It is a diplomatic history examining episodes of the
relationship since 1947 through existing primary and secondary sources but also
contributing new material from 20 field-work interviews conducted in Pakistan
with military, government, media and academic actors.
The study finds an underlying contradiction in the relationship in which
fundamental national interests have never converged sufficiently for sustained cooperation.
As such relations have relied on transactional opportunism. Cooperation
has depended on temporary wilful blindness by the US which cannot be
maintained beyond episodes of crisis. Pakistan uses its geostrategic assets as a
reverse influence on the US but consistently hedges its strategies against
anticipated abandonment when the crisis episode has passed. Through this has
evolved a cumulative legacy of mutual negative expectation and mistrust which
has become deeply ingrained in the relationship. The study also finds that the
strategic utility of the relationship has favoured the US but that Pakistan’s reverse
influence has grown, making it more difficult for Washington to abandon the
relationship it finds so frustrating.

Item Type:	Thesis (Doctoral)
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Arts and Humanities > School of Politics, Philosophy, Language and Communication Studies
Depositing User:	Users 2259 not found.
Date Deposited:	30 Jun 2015 13:34
Last Modified:	13 Apr 2018 00:38
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/53424
DOI:

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