Pakistan Relations Research Articles

Sino-US Global Competitive Dynamics Post 9/11 and its Impacts on Pakistan's Security

In this paper we examine the security implications for Pakistan after the engagement of two powerful states, China and United States. After the incident of September 11, 2001 (9/11) and their security impacts in the capacity of Pakistan's domestic and peripheral front. Their rivalry in the 21st century at the geo strategic, geopolitical and geo-economic level have been explained on the basis of realism, neo-realism and complex interdependence philosophies of international relations. The drastic political and strategic change in the status of Kashmir propelled Pakistan and China to review their foreign policies in future. In response, China wants Pakistan a strategic partner to closely look onto Afghanistan's political crisis during and after the withdrawal of the US from Afghanistan. However, the strategic relationship nuclear partnership between America and India has allowed the Sino-Pak strategic and nuclear partnership to level the magnitude of the United States' influence in South Asia. The issue of cross border terrorism, infiltration from Afghanistan and Indian espionage policy further sabotaged peace and security calculus in Pakistan's internal and external levels. India-Afghanistan Strategic Partnership has further deteriorated Pakistan's relations with Afghanistan.

Iran Pakistan Relations between Cooperation and Distrust from 2001 to 2015

This study is qualitative research and is descriptive in nature. It starts with the cataclysmic events of 9/11 and the influence of US War on Terror on Iran and Pakistan. The war was realized by Iran and Pakistan with awe and shock. Initially, Iran cooperated the US, but soon President George Bush's fiery speech estranged Iran. While Pakistan, under duress became a front lien State in the War on Terror. Therefore, the two countries took different directions, and their relations were somewhat strained. There were also many other reasons such as Jundallah factor, controversial Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline, US sanctions, and Iranian nuclear deal, border trade issue, Saudi-Phenomenon, competing Gwadarcs Chabahar ports, Indo-Iranian collaboration, which impacted the relations between the two countries. All this indicates that there was no warmth in relations between the two countries, and there was an element of mistrust.

CONSTRUCTIVISM IN INDIA-PAKISTAN RELATIONS: A CRITIQUE FROM REALISM

India-Pakistan relations have been tried to be explained through constructivist perspectives. It is common fact that ideological and identity differences resulted in the division of Indo-Pak subcontinent in 1947. The Two Nation Theory is put forward as the main factor responsible for the division of India. The postindependence international relationship between the two regional giants is also explained through constructivist perspective. It is argued that the ideational differences of ideology and identity between the two nations are so wide that cooperative relations cannot ensue between them. However, this paper considers material interest or power politics as not only responsible for the division of India but that post-independence rancor owes much to the material aspect of India-Pakistan relations. In a word, this paper is a critique of pure constructivist approach to IndiaPakistan relations and instead, presents (neo) realist approach in explaining India-Pakistan historical and present animosity.

Afghanistan and Pakistan Relations: What Issues Matter

Afghanistan and Pakistan Relations: What Issues Matter

The Abraham Accords and Pakistan

AbstractIn a major diplomatic realignment, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain normalized their relations with Israel in September 2020 by signing the Abraham Peace Accords in Washington. However, this normalization has created a noticeable divide; other majority‐Muslim states, including Morocco and Sudan, have also accepted incentives to normalize relations with Israel, while pressure is mounting on Pakistan from its close allies in the Gulf region to recognize Israel. Pakistan, which enjoys multifaceted cooperative relations with all states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), now faces a dilemma, as it has a longstanding position on the Palestine issue through which it views its policy on Israel. Considering the dilemma, this article focuses on the impact the Abraham Peace Accords have had on Pakistan's relations with the GCC states and its own Israel policy. Based on the examination of various ideational and geopolitical factors, it is argued that Pakistan has more to lose than gain by changing its historical position and recognizing the state of Israel.

How Should China and Pakistan Respond to the Criticism of CPEC?

Since the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Pakistan in 1947, it has gone through 74 years. China and Pakistan are regarded as models of state-to-state relations between countries with different political systems. After the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) was launched in May 2013, it opened a new door for the development of China and Pakistan and contributed to the friendly development of China-Pakistan relations. however, some groups such as jeay Sindh Muttahida Mahaz, Pakistan Taliban and baloch Republic party began to put China as the most antagonistic target, which cast a shadow over China-Pakistan relations. This paper holds that China should consider Pakistan’s interests from Pakistan’s point of view and make contributions to the friendly development of China- Pakistan relations.

Pakistan Relations with Azerbaijan in 21st Century

Pakistan Relations with Azerbaijan in 21st Century

UNDERSTANDING PAK-CHINA RELATIONS THROUGH CPEC: GEOSTRATEGIC IMPLICATIONS FOR SOUTH ASIA

In the prevailing geopolitical environment, China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is the new addition with hopes of exploring new horizons in economic cooperation and expected to have regional and global geopolitical implications. Strategic thinkers, policy-makers, and scholars have heralded CPEC as a magnificent trade and investment project of future geopolitics. Yet many analysts have raised their eyebrows about the USA and Chinese competition ultimately seeking robust security and economic strategy by China and Pakistan to avoid Indo-US designs. The objective of this study is to focus on the all-weather relationship, which China and Pakistan are enjoying with shared goals and interests in the region. This article focuses on the China and Pakistan relations while keeping in mind the emerging strategic partnership of the United States with Pakistan’s belligerent neighbour India through a neo-realistic perspective focused on structure and anarchy in the international political system.

Pragmatic analysis of CNN Headlines on US Pakistan relations

Current study investigates the pragmatic devices used in CNN headlines on US Pakistan relations. The study argues that in addition to the news coverage, headlines also have pragmatically encoded meanings. The research is quite significant as the representation of US Pak relations in media has rarely been studied. Moreover, the selected period ranging from January 2010 to May 2011 covers a series of important on diplomatic ties with the United States of America. All these events were subject to constant media debate, especially on CNN, a news channel available to two billion people worldwide. Quantitative as well as qualitative descriptive methods were applied to analyze and discuss the news headlines. The results indicate that Osama Bin Laden, militancy in Pakistan and US Pak diplomatic ties were commonly found topics in the headlines. The results also indicate that the representatives are the most frequently found illocutionary acts in the data as compared with the expressives, directives and commissives. The study finds that the headlines have variety of other illocutionary functions closely related to these acts.

CONFLICTS OF INTEREST IN PAKISTAN AND UNITED STATES RELATIONS (2008-2019)

The ambit of Pakistan’s relationship with the United States is based on convergence as well as divergence of interests, whereby the United States kept intense engagement followed by periods of utter indifference. Most of the times mutual mistrust and suspicions makeshift the policy parameters to the strategic impasse. Considering the trends of the relations, the US policy revolves around the struggle for global hegemony with policy parameters of off-shore balancing and buck-passing, and Pakistan is mainly focused on security imperatives. This piece of research investigates that what are grounds of conflicts between Pakistan and the United States relations? The study is conducted by explanatory and analytical approaches. Data sources are both primary and secondary where for primary source data was collected through Interviews with ministry of defence and foreign office. The United States and Pakistan relations remained uneasy due to mistrust and accusations and the US preference to India in the region in general and in Afghanistan in particular and the China’s growing influence in the region. The need is to understand Pakistan’s security concerns, an acknowledgment of the contribution to the war against terror and above all to revive cooperation for regional peace and prosperity.

Military dominance in Pakistan and China–Pakistan relations

ABSTRACT The China–Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) has been touted as the centrepiece of China’s Belt and Road Initiative and the key to its strategic partnership with Pakistan. Notwithstanding claims about the CPEC’s economic potential, however, Islamabad’s economy continues to be dire. This article attempts to better understand the ramifications of Pakistan’s economic viability and its consequences for China. It does so by examining China–Pakistan relations from the lens of Pakistan’s civil–military relations, paying attention in particular to what the Pakistan Armed Forces (PMA)’s domestic dominance means for China’s interests, including economic interests, in Pakistan. We suggest that PMA preponderance and its attendant influence on the country’s economic performance bring another dimension to interpreting Sino-Pakistani relations. As Beijing’s most trusted political partner in Pakistan, the PMA’s local dominance has considerable benefits for China, particularly in the security and political aspects of its interests. However, this dominance also entails a number of complications for Chinese economic interests, a factor that has implications for the future of China’s CPEC investments and their financial sustainability.

Renegotiating societal-military relations in Pakistan: the case of the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement

ABSTRACT This article examines the Pakistani military’s changing response to the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM), to better understand pathways to military accountability and democratic change. An apolitical, non-violent civil-society movement, the PTM challenged the military’s domestic-security practices for over a year, eliciting uncharacteristic concessions despite the apparent motive, opportunity and precedent for repression. Curiously, though, the role of civil society in renegotiating military behaviour has been overlooked in mainstream civil–military relations, which focuses on coup propensity at one extreme and harmonious democratic configurations at the other. Using first-hand interviews with PTM activists, security officials, commentators and politicians, this study argues that the PTM’s unique appeal to societal and constitutional legitimacy constrained military responses, creating an opportunity to contest military behaviour publicly in a fashion impossible for conventional political elites. Although the military eventually resorted to force, this was itself facilitated by attacks on the underlying parameters of the PTM’s societal legitimacy, underscoring the importance of societal-military relations in the space between civilian control and coup d’état.

Reaching out, inviting in: Pakistan’s approach to diaspora engagement

ABSTRACT This paper analyzes the multi-dimensional approach through which the Pakistani state envisages, cultivates and practices state–diaspora relations. It examines the bureaucratic initiatives and official narratives to understand how the state extends its reach across its borders to bring the overseas population into its domain to fulfil the national agendas. The paper further argues that the state-diaspora relations in Pakistan are being developed through two main shifts: a) the way the state moulds its own identity in relation to the diaspora, and b) the way the state attempts to shape or create a diasporic identity for the overseas population. The paper adopts the analytical lens of why, who and how, to describe the motivations behind diaspora engagement, the discrepancies created between different diaspora groups and modes of engagement with these groups. From a neoliberal governmentality optic, these processes explain how the Pakistani state involves the diaspora members as partners in development, politics and governance and also treats them as subjects of governance and surveillance through identification and categorisation. It concludes that the Pakistani state’s enhanced interest in diaspora engagement is to articulate nationhood in a transnational setting to reconfigure state hegemony in a globalised context.

The Novel Changes in Pakistan’s Party Politics: Analysis of Causes and Impacts

Transformation in a political system regarding number of parties is a significant phenomenon which creates ample grounds for scholarly discourse. The Pakistani political system witnessed a change in the party politics where it transformed from a two-party system to a three-party system in a relatively short time period. Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf emerged on the political scene and after just two elections was able to form a government. Challenging the status quo political forces through organizational mobilization, ideology, counter narrative, and redeeming civil military balance, PTI successfully achieved the systemic transformation in political structure of Pakistan. The change in a complex political fabric was attempted across various spectrums of party dynamics and electoral mechanics both at the federal and provincial legislatures employing diverse strategies. The challenge at hand is the translation of those mechanics of change into political realities and policy orientations while dealing with structural intricacies, domestic compulsions of economy, and external relations. China has less experience dealing with this change in the political system and this new important player in Pakistan’s politics. PTI also lacks experience managing external relations which has implications for both the important stakeholders. Undergoing political transition dealing with resistance to change from political actors and managing external relations will define the future of political stability and its impact over China–Pakistan relations.

Geopolitics of landlocked states in South Asia: a comparative analysis of Afghanistan and Nepal

ABSTRACT Foreign policies of landlocked states have been a topic of interest for scholarship on international relations but the landlocked states in South Asia have received negligible attention. Due to their geographical realities, South Asian landlocked states that include Afghanistan, Bhutan and Nepal, depend on their neighbours for trade with the outside world. A range of factors place landlocked states in an unequal relationship with their coastal neighbours. While these factors include the superiority of coastal neighbours in terms of economy, population size, and military strength, we argue that their landlockedness plays a crucial role. To further investigate the role of landlockedness, this study compares the foreign policy decisions that guide India-Nepal and Afghanistan–Pakistan relations. Based on the assessment of historical, economic and geopolitical factors, we argue that India and Pakistan exploit their landlocked neighbours to achieve their national interests. Frustrated by the treatment of their coastal neighbours and the presence of new trade opportunities have compelled Afghanistan to use its closeness with India to counter over-dependence on Pakistan and Nepal has enhanced cooperation with China to overcome its reliance on India, thereby creating a new geopolitical dynamic within South Asia.

NEGATIVE IMPACTS OF FORCED MARRIAGE IN AISHA SAEED’S NOVEL WRITTEN IN THE STARS

Written in the Stars is a novel, written by Aisha Saeed. Written in the Stars was originally published in 2000 but republished again March 24th 2015. The story is about a Pakistani-American high school senior girl, torn between love for her culturally conservative immigrant parents and the boyfriend she keeps secret from them. When her outraged parents discover the romance, they take her and her brother on a vacation to visit relatives in rural Pakistan, with plans to force her into an arranged marriage to a local man. The objectives of this study are to find out the negative impacts of forced marriage in Aisha Saeed’s novel Written in the Stars and to describe the negative impacts of forced marriage. Qualitative Descriptive Research is appropriately applied in this study because this research shows the nature of the situation as it exists at the time of the study. The results of this study show that the implementation of Forced marriage only brings negative impacts to one or both parties. There are two forms of negative impacts found: violence and loss of social relationship. Violence is again divided into two forms: physical violence and verbal abuse.

India’s Pakistan policy: from 2016 ‘surgical strike’ to 2019 Balakot ‘airstrike’

ABSTRACT Pakistan has always been an important factor in India’s domestic politics and foreign policy – a position that flows as much from historical disputes as from Pakistan’s continued support for terror activities against India. This importance has increased further under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership. This article argues that the September 2016 ‘surgical strikes’ by Indian special forces inside Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and the February 2019 ‘airstrikes’ by Indian Air Force against terrorist training camps at Balakot inside Pakistan’s Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province were defining moments in India’s Pakistan policy. India’s actions stemmed from its desire to change the status-quo in India–Pakistan relations by punishing Pakistan for its continued use of terrorism. But this is ‘work in progress’ since there are certain limitations to India’s ability to compel Pakistan to alter its revisionist behaviour.

Theoretical Underpinnings of India–Pakistan Relations

The India–Pakistan relations have historically been marked by mistrust, broken promises, unresolved issues and unending conflicts. A number of divisive factors shaped and influenced the nature of this relationship which inter alia includes large-scale violence at the time of partition, perceptual enmity and numerous unresolved issues including Kashmir. Due to all these reasons, the two countries have found themselves locked in a complex situation that could best be described using zero-sum two-person game. The author argues that perceptions play an important role in shaping the nature of bilateral relations. He goes on to identify six different prisms—three each in India and Pakistan—through which one can understand the nature and direction of this otherwise difficult relationship.

Role of Harmonization and Unification in Perspective of China–Pakistan Economic Corridor Physical Infrastructure and Applicable Laws

This research paper centers on logistics investment policies both in legal and social manners for current and future China Pakistan trade with reference to CPEC. With further improvement, many other regional economic players in prospective time may join the CPEC projects, where Afghanistan, Central Asian and SAARC states are prominent to enter for the said purpose. There are different practices around the world to achieve socio economic progress. Hence a unified and harmonized system of applicable rules and regulation is required forthwith in order to get benefits from CPEC. This research paper primarily deals with the history of China Pakistan relations in the context of CPEC and Belt and Road Initiative and their benefits to Pakistan. Furthermore, the role of harmonization and unification among legal rules and physical infrastructure is discussed to find benefits and better solutions. This study applies legal research process where historical method is conducted to observe the history of Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) which further includes China Pakistan trade relations and their situation regarding logistics investment in CPEC. Furthermore, comparative legal research is applied to find out the differences among Pakistan legal system and international laws to make foreign investment more beneficial. This research concludes that domestic legislation in Pakistan in the areas of logistics and transportation is very limited in scope. Furthermore, such legislation does not cover the broad area of international trade. In current situation it is pertinent for Pakistan to introduce and revise such legislations and codes and not doing so China may again ask Pakistan to enact law as per his own benefits which he did while Pakistan amend Competition and special economic zone laws. Furthermore, CPEC in future will invite many other trade partners for their investment contribution in the region. This necessitates Pakistan to build strong physical infrastructure and negotiate further trade agreements and relevant legislation with other partners in the region and not only rely upon bilateral agreements with China.

The Changing Dynamics and New Developments of China–Pakistan Relations

The China–Pakistan relation has historical underpinning. By establishing diplomatic relations in 1951, each passing decade has witnessed that China–Pakistan relations coalesce into a dependable friendship. This relationship has gone beyond the usual diplomatic and political comfortability transcending to a broad-based framework incorporating economics, trade and defence dimensions. In the given context, this paper is an empirical study aiming to examine the historical process in the gradual culmination of China–Pakistan relations into a broad-based partnership. It further evaluates the present nature of relationship between the two countries and the prospects it holds in the wake of changing world scenario. By primarily focusing on the secondary sources of data and interviewing key people from the decision-making circles, this paper argues that the China–Pakistan relation is deep-rooted in the history and the on-going collaboration between China and Pakistan in defence and economy is the natural evolution of their mutual ties.