Pak-US strategic partnership post 9/11 : Analyzing the nature of relationship through convergence and divergence of interests

Abstract

Pakistan and US have repeatedly come together to forge alliances in the past but have always faced the problem of disunity of interests featuring repetitively throughout the history of their relations. The latest misadventure, the Global War on Terror has proved to be the most challenging of all past engagements, but it hardly comes as a surprise. The common thread that weaves through all previous Pak-US partnerships is evidenced boldly once again: the desirability of engagement as pronounced by circumstances. Hence it appears that there isn't something inherent in US or Pakistan that brings the two countries together. In fact, it is the inescapable influence of the atmosphere that hijacks the relationship and dictates it's dimensions. Over all these years, one thing that hasn't changed in Pak-US relationships is the clear divergence of national interests each time they came together. This observation is not only spelled out through historical evidence alone, but also through events that are peculiar to the very recent partnership of US with Pakistan over War on Terror. It is this very phenomenon of divergence of interests that this thesis seeks to investigate.