A Trajectory of Pak-US Relations: Lessons for Pakistan
Authors
AHTASHAM JAN BUTT, ARFAN LATIF, SHOUKAT ALI and SALMAN FAZAL
Abstract
Pakistan is an important South Asian state which came into being on 14th August, 1947 in the result of partition of British India. At the time of emergence, Pakistan was in dire need a reliable ally who might help her to succeed in different i.e. economy, defense and diplomacy etc. it was the time when the world was basically divided into two major power block i.e. USA and USSR. Hence Pakistan received the invitations from both major power blocs but opted USA which initiated bilateral relations between both of them. In the early stages, Pakistan participated in different military alliances of other regions in the sake to win the applauses of US. In short from 1947 to 1965, Pakistan adopted purely pro-US foreign policy. But Pak-Indian wars of 1956 and 1971, the circumstanced changed this bilateral relationship started to wither. Similarly, the trajectory of Pak-US relations continued to change with the passage of time. In the meantime, both of them come so closer like during soviet invasion in Afghanistan and war on terror in Afghanistan. On the other hand, sometimes the circumstances changed dramatically that Pakistan had to face the bitter sanctions by US on many times. This article is an attempt to disclose the history of the Pak-US bilateral relationships from 1947 to current governments. The article is purely based of secondary data in which the researchers collected data from different articles, books, research reports and the prominent interviews of the historians.
Keywords: Pakistan, United States, Soviet Union, sanctions, Donald Trump, Imran Khan.