Pakistan’s Foreign Policy: Stellar Success or Dismal Failure?
Introduction
Evaluating the foreign policy of a country and assessing its success or failure to safeguard its national interests is an extremely problematic exercise. While carrying out this exercise, one must keep in mind the multiplicity and complexity of challenges being faced by the country and to what extent it has been successful in leveraging its strengths to benefit from the opportunities available in the external environment and ward off the threats posed by this environment.
Since its inception, Pakistan has been facing multiple challenges emanating from a difficult external environment, compounded by several structural as well as managerial weaknesses. Our foreign policy options were very limited and reactionary right from the start. While India did not have any issues with its identity as a successor state of British India, Pakistan had to strive hard to create its identity and establish its brand.
Pakistan’s creation on a religious basis was considered an oddity by the world community without appreciating the historical context in which it came into existence. Few could realise that the Pakistan Movement, though couched in religious terminology, was basically a movement by the downtrodden Muslim community of British India to safeguard their socioeconomic interests and fulfill their dreams of improving the quality of life in a country where they could live according to their cherished dreams.
Our security imperatives forced us to join the Western camp during the heydays of the Cold War, making us a pariah in the Non-aligned bloc. Our policy choices, particularly our siding with the West during the Suez Canal crises, alienated us from the Muslim block. We emerged as the culprit rather than a victim in the 1971 East Pakistan War. The frequent imposition of Martial Laws further tarnished our image as a stable political entity. The last straw on the camel’s back was the so-called Afghan Jihad, which sowed the seeds of terrorism in this part of the world, making Pakistan look like a sponsor of terrorism.
Keeping these handicaps in view, it was a daunting task to formulate a foreign policy that could adequately safeguard our national interests without jeopardising our national sovereignty. Notwithstanding some glaring examples of poorly designed or badly executed foreign policy options, Pakistan can boast of the following very good examples of its foreign policy successes.
1. Survived the traumatic first 25 years despite all odds
One of the reasons the Congress leadership of British India acceded to the request of the Muslim League for a separate homeland for the British Indian Muslims was their firm belief in its non-viability. They were convinced that within one year of its existence as a separate entity, Pakistan would collapse and request its return. They then did their utmost to ensure its demise by holding its legitimate share in the assets of British India, besides creating many other hurdles.
However, it is a credit to the policymaking elite of the newly created country to have ensured its survival during the most tumultuous years of its existence. And one of the reasons for this success could be its successful diplomacy. Pakistan not only got recognition from all the major powers but was also successful in creating the image of an independent country
2. Economic Growth: made possible by Aid and Trade
Pakistan was a typical underdeveloped state when it started its journey as an independent nation-state on August 14, 1947, as a result of the dissolution of the British Indian Empire. It was facing almost the same myriad challenges every post-colonial state was grappling with in those days. Boldly accepting these challenges, ranging from the revolution of rising expectations of the masses on the one hand to becoming an independent, confident, and prosperous state in the community of nations on the other, the new state started its journey literally from scratch.
Despite being one of the least developed countries in the world and suffering from an acute shortage of critically educated and trained human resources, Pakistan initiated a formal planning process with whatever talent it had and managed to grow at a fairly impressive rate of 4 per cent per year through the first decade of the nation’s existence. Prudent economic management coupled with some fortuitous events helped it to outpace its rate of population growth, which never fell below 3% per annum.
3. Maintaining Practical Bilateralism
This is an area of which Pakistan can really be proud. It is an extremely difficult tightrope walk, but so far Pakistan has been fairly successful in its relationship with all three superpowers of the day. Barring a few exceptional years of not maintaining cordial relations with one or another world power, Pakistan has been successful in pursuing its foreign policy objectives by maintaining the policy of Bilateralism. Even during the heydays of the Cold War, Pakistan, despite being a formal ally of the Western camp, was able to maintain cordial relations with the People’s Republic of China. Sino-Pak friendship has no parallels in the annals of history. The launch and quick progress on the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, the flagship project of President Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road Initiative, have been landmark achievements.
Even its relations with the former USSR, though not cordial, were also not acrimonious. That’s why the USSR played an extremely important role as an honest broker during our war with India in 1965. Recently, Pakistan has been successful in establishing a historically unprecedented opening in relations with the Russian Federation that has the potential to blossom into a multifaceted partnership.
At the same time, Pakistan has been able to mend fences with the USA by facilitating peace talks between the Taliban and the USA during the final stages of the American Afghan War. Even now, Pakistan and the USA are cooperating to maintain regional security.
4. Avoiding Diplomatic Isolation/Friendship with All
Despite all the allegations levelled against Pakistan regarding its diplomatic isolation, it is a fact that Pakistan has been successful in maintaining cordial relations with the majority of countries in the world. This has been the cornerstone of our foreign policy, which we have been successfully pursuing since our independence.
A concerted outreach to Central Asia resulted in a marked and visible upswing in our relations with this important region.
Pakistan’s formal accession to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization as a full member marks our entry into the largest club of nations in terms of size, geographic expanse, and quantum of resources. This was a breakthrough we managed to achieve 12 years after assuming observer status in the SCO, and some 18 years after its founding.
Despite rising tensions and insecurities in the Middle East, Pakistan has continued engagement and strengthened its relations with our traditional partners and allies in the region by undertaking delicate balancing measures. It was a difficult test, but Pakistan has been able to maintain cordial relations with all the major powers in the Middle East. Today, our relations with Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Iran, among others, remain robust and continue to evolve. Our partnerships with the Gulf States have remained vibrant and mutually rewarding.
It was a measure of the success of our economic diplomacy, that Pakistan was able to attain GSP Plus Status in 2014 for ten years, the widest and longest trade facilitation in Pakistan’s history. We have sustained it successfully ever since, delivering a 38% increase in Pakistan’s exports to the European Union.
5. Playing an Active Leadership Role
Pakistan continued to maintain a high profile and leadership role in international forums, including the UN. We remained a leading contributor to the UN’s global peacekeeping and peacebuilding missions. It was a measure of our recognition and acknowledgement of our efforts that Pakistan had been winning elections to all important UN bodies: Out of 30 elections that we contested between 2013 and 2018, we won 27.
6. CPEC, the Game-changer
One of the stellar successes of Pakistan’s foreign policy has been its success in roping in the rising global power of China as a stakeholder in Pakistan’s economic prosperity and external security. Consisting of more than US$ 60 B worth of infrastructural projects, the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is not only the flagship of China’s multi-billion dollar Belt and Road Initiative but has opened a vista of great opportunities for Pakistan. The CPEC connects the whole region and gives Pakistan focal importance for world trade, it holds the promise to make Pakistan an economic power.
The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is not a network of roads and rail lines connecting the Chinese hinterland to the Middle East and Europe. The CPEC is a holistic, comprehensive package of competitive economic initiatives from China, just the energy projects, once initiated, will kick-start an industrial boom in Pakistan. It will greatly help in overcoming poverty, unemployment, and inequities in smaller provinces and help Pakistan overcome its resource constraints and thus get rid of its economic stagnation.
Making China a real stakeholder in Pakistan’s stability and security, CPEC will not only expand the scope for sustainable and stable economic cooperation between the two countries but also be a cornerstone of their geostrategic framework. It will radically alter the regional dynamics of trade, development, and politics. Being an integral part of China’s ambitious Silk Road and Economic Belt initiative, it is endorsed by the SCO and will highlight Pakistan’s role as a vital regional hub in the economic development of Central Asian states, which have a strong presence in the SCO.
7. The Soviet Union’s defeat in Afghanistan
Though it would be too much to say that Pakistan was mainly responsible for the defeat of the USSR in its Afghan fiasco, we must give credit where credit is due. Needless to say, without Pakistan’s active support, it is well nigh impossible for the USA and its allies to force the Soviet exit from Afghanistan. It is another story of how the American exit from Afghanistan had severe negative consequences for Pakistan.
8. Becoming Nuclear Power
Since its independence, Pakistan’s strategic culture has been dominated by the fear of an existential threat from India, made acute due to a lack of geographical depth and resource deficiency. After its humiliating defeat in 1971, Pakistan realised that it could not win against India in a conventional war, so it must pursue the nuclear option. Pakistan, therefore, started its quest for nuclear deterrence, and with some deft foreign policy manoeuvres coupled with classic espionage, Pakistan was able to acquire this nuclear capability despite all the opposition it had to face from the USA and its allies.
8. American defeat in Afghanistan
While there are so many reasons for the defeat of the USA in Afghanistan, we cannot ignore the role played by Pakistan in America’s ignominious exit from this graveyard of Empires. While Pakistan was providing all the moral and material support and sanctuaries to the Taliban fighting the USA and its allies, it was also providing land and air facilities to the NATO forces to carry on this endless war.
9. Leveraging its geostrategic location
If nothing else, one must give credit to its policymakers for optimally leveraging its geostrategic location. Pakistan’s location makes it continually relevant for the US in the latter’s attempts to stabilise Afghanistan. It remains a mainstay for US operations in Afghanistan on account of its ports and air and land routes used for transporting supplies. Its importance on this account can be gauged from the situation that arose after the NATO attack on the Salala check post on November 26, 2011, after which vital supply routes for NATO trucks crossing Pakistan’s border into Afghanistan were closed for a prolonged period and was only opened after an apology from the US.
It is a measure of the success of our foreign policy that we are now poised to translate our geostrategic location into a geoeconomic asset. CPEC was forging ahead with full steam, had attracted investments of $46.6 billion, and had put Pakistan squarely at the centre of a blueprint for a more hopeful, prosperous, and connected future for the region and the world.
Dismal Failures of Our Foreign Policy
While commending the foreign policy-making elite of the country for achieving the above-mentioned, we should not be oblivious to the dismal failures of our foreign policy.
1. Bifurcated in two parts just after 25 years
While it is too much to blame any one institution for the bifurcation of the country within 25 years of its independence, we cannot absolve the foreign office of its failure to explain our part of the story to the world. India was successful in creating an image of Pakistan as an oppressor in East Pakistan, while we could not convince the global public about India’s nefarious role in fomenting the insurgency and perpetuating crimes by their proxies in East Pakistan.
2. Dismal human development record.
It is an irony of fate that the person who developed the Human Index belonged to a country that ranks 127 out of the 162 countries on the Human Development Index. All of its indicators in literacy, infant mortality, fertility rates, access to water supply, and primary enrollment ratios, are lower than those of the countries with similar per capita income. The successive regimes have invested little in socioeconomic development, hindering the growth potential of Pakistan’s economy and depriving people of opportunities to live satisfying lives.
3. Extremely unsatisfactory global image
Saying that Pakistan does not carry a good image in the eyes of global opinion-makers, the media, and the public is an understatement. Read any news item published in any foreign newspaper about Pakistan, and you can get first-hand information about the way the world perceives Pakistan. Pakistan's passport remains the fifth-worst passport globally, better than only four other countries: Somalia, Syria, Afghanistan, and Iraq.
While reports about Pakistanis involved in honour killings, child labour, domestic violence, financial scandals, drug trafficking, etc. have exacerbated the situation, our expatriates have also not been able to build a positive image of the country.
Conclusion
The litmus test of the efficacy of a country’s foreign policy is the extent to which it has been successful in safeguarding its national interests. If we make an objective assessment, we can safely conclude that Pakistan has not done badly in handling its foreign relations to safeguard its national interest, as alleged by many scholars writing on the foreign policy of Pakistan. In fact, Pakistan has navigated successfully through turbulent waters and has achieved measurable success by forging closer and better relations with countries in the region, and the world at large.
From the book “ Foreign Policy of Pakistan(Part 1): History of Pakistan’s Foreign Relations”, published by Amazon and available at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BW236CKM
