BANGLADESH INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONAL AND STRATEGIC STUDIES

UNITED STATES-PAKISTAN RELATIONS DURING THE MUSHARRAF REGIME: US POLICIES, STRATEGIES, AND THE OUTCOMES

Author: Mohammad Ashique Rahman

DOI Link: https://www.doi.org/10.56888/BIISSj2011v32n2a5

ABSTRACT

United States-Pakistan relations and devising appropriate policy responses surfaced as one of the most critical foreign policy challenges for the United States since late 2007. The heightened US concern followed the simmering growth of suicide terrorism and extremism in Pakistan as well as the unprecedented increase in al Qaeda and the Taliban attack on the US allied forces in Afghanistan staged from the “safe haven” of Afghanistan-Pakistan border areas. Scholars, analysts and the policymakers started to venture what is wrong with US-Pakistan relations. After the tragic event of 11 September 2001, the United States renewed its relationship with Pakistan, and declared it as an “indispensable ally” against the “global war on terror”. It has also been incorporated as a “frontline state” in fighting the US-led war against terrorism in Afghanistan. Ironically, this post-11 September deep alliance between the US and Pakistan also coincided with the latest round of military dictatorship of General Pervez Musharraf in Pakistan. Therefore, a comprehensive analysis of US-Pakistan relations during the Musharraf regime might help us in explaining the problems that their bilateral relations are currently facing and may shed light in formulating future policies for Pakistan afresh. The present paper therefore, focuses on three aspects of the US-Pakistan relations during the Musharraf regime. First, it intends to assess United States’ policy objectives during the Musharraf era. Obviously, fighting and eradicating terrorism and extremism was a dominant objective, but there were other objectives as well viz., Pakistan’s and global security, nuclear non-proliferation, US’s economic and strategic opportunities in South Asia, and democracy promotion in the Muslim world.