Critical Triangle continues....

The US, for its part, has always believed that it is a force for good, and that its aid to Pakistan would alleviate the latter’s deep sense of insecurity vis-à-vis India, and make it a more rational actor focussing on global priorities.

The US point of view then is that it is a dampener of Pakistani revisionism and that US aid alleviates Pakistani insecurities that lead to irrational behaviour while also creating leverage in Islamabad to tone down the excesses when they happen.

Pakistan has always viewed India as a threat but knowing that it stands alone in this threat perception has always sought external balancing.

For example, Pakistan’s joining of SEATO and CENTO in the 1950s had very little to do with anti-communism, rather it was to gain security against India—an India that was not perceived to be either communist or hostile by the US at the time.

Similarly, getting America onto the Afghan bandwagon in the 1980s again had to do with advancing Pakistan’s geo-strategic interests in that region. The Soviet invasion then gave the Pakistanis a suitable cover for claiming anti-communist credentials.

A case can also be made out that Pakistan allied with the US in the 2001 action in Afghanistan mostly to retain options and influence in Afghanistan in addition to US threats rather than a genuine desire for nation building in Afghanistan, though this was what was claimed. This last case, however, is probably the clearest example of conflated interests, and false expectations. As can be seen from the above narrative, the moment it became clear that US and Pakistan’s interests were divergent, Pakistan had carved for itself space for the freedom of action—in this case continuing support to jihadists— during the Twin Peaks crisis with India. This has been best encapsulated by Hussain Haqqani: “Pakistan wanted to act like Hafez Assad’s Syria, but expected the US to treat us like Israel.” Afghanistan has been the most tangential to this bilateral relationship between Pakistan and the US.

To be continued...