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Allies on a roller coaster
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U.S. - Pakistan relations in the last five decades have been tumultous. A new book on the disenchanted allies' offers an insight into the ups and downs of their ties, says C. RAJA MOHAN.
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Allies on a roller coaster
CONSIDER the recent wild fluctuations in the fortunes of Pakistan in the United States. Two years ago, when
former U.S. President Bill Clinton came to the subcontinent he spent five days in India and just five hours
on the soil of the most allied of the allies, Pakistan. In those five hours, Mr. Clinton got on to TV and
wag his finger as he said the U.S. will abandon Pakistan, if it does not mend its ways. The Bush
Administration seemed set to continue the wooing of India at the expense of its neighbour.
But come September 2001 and the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, and Pakistan was back in the
centre of the American affections.
Responding to the American demarche to choose sides between the U.S. and the Taliban, Pervez Musharraf made the right choice by sacrificing
more than two decades of Pakistan's strategic investment in Afghanistan. In making that fateful decision,
Gen. Musharraf hoped for a renewal of strategic partnership with the U.S., to have a say in the future
political arrangements in Afghanistan and insulate Pakistan's policy in Kashmir from the American war
against terrorism.
But the Taliban collapsed too fast to give Gen. Musharraf too much leverage on American policy in Kabul.
Worse still, the Bush Administration has applied relentless pressure on Islamabad to discard the instrument
of cross-border terrorism in Kashmir and forced Musharraf to fundamentally alter the national course. All
in a matter of four months!
The roller-coaster nature, Dennis Kux's meticulous work tells us, has been the essence of U.S.-Pakistan
relations in the last five decades. Kux {mdash} who had earlier written a hugely successful book on the
relations between the {ldquo}estranged democracies{rdquo}, India and the U.S. {mdash} now offers us an
insight into the ups and downs of the ties between the {ldquo}disenchanted allies{rdquo}, Washington and
Islamabad.
Together the two volumes by Kux, who had served in the South Asian Bureau of the State Department and in
many cities of the subcontinent including Chennai, are likely to remain for long, standard reference
material for those interested in American policy towards the region.
In many ways, his study of U.S.-Pakistan relations has a surer touch than the one on India. For, clearly,
he has got a lot more from past decision makers in Pakistan than from those in India. Typically, American
scholars have had better access in Pakistan than in the more reticent and reluctant mandarins of the Indian
foreign policy establishment. And as the U.S., prepares for a more sustained engagement of the subcontinent
in the future, Kux's work will be a valuable guide to America's past on-again, off-again involvement in the
region.
Kux adopts a straightforward chronological narrative on U.S.-Pakistan relations beginning with the less
than sympathetic attitude in Washington towards the Pakistan movement in the undivided India. He then
crafts his way through the relationship as it evolved from the Truman Administration to the Clinton
Presidency. All the key benchmarks of the relationship, Kashmir, Indo-Pakistan relations, American Cold War
alliances, the 1965 and 1971 wars, the China factor, Pakistan's development of nuclear weapons and the
Afghan war against the Soviet Union are dealt in great detail by Kux. Access to newly declassified
documents in the U.S., the British Foreign Office records and interviews with key players in both America
and Pakistan give the volume an authenticity that previous accounts of U.S.-Pakistan relations did not
possess.
Kux's book is a must-read for all Indians interested in the triangular relationship between New Delhi,
Islamabad and Washington. Within India the foreign policy debate has simplified the many complexities in
U.S.-Pakistan relationship over the years, by just pointing to the long-standing {ldquo}alliance{rdquo}
between the two states. But as India seeks to transform its ties with the U.S. and end the protracted
conflict with Pakistan, it needs a more sophisticated appreciation of American engagement in the region.
That is precisely where Kux's examination of the volatility of U.S.-Pakistan relations comes in.
Kux details the frustrations of the Pakistanis who make no secret of their resentment with American
fickleness and tendency to use them and dump them. The Americans, in turn, have had little patience for
Pakistan's magnificent obsession with India.
Looking beyond these popular perceptions in both countries, Kux's account sums up that {ldquo}over the
years, U.S. and Pakistani interests and related security policies have been at odds almost as often as they
have been in phase{rdquo}. He adds, {ldquo}for its part, the United States never shared Pakistan's
perception of India as an enemy, even though Washington and New Delhi were often estranged{rdquo}.
As he looks at the U.S.-Pakistan relations in the 21st Century, Kux reflects the enduring American good
will for Pakistan and hope for an Indo-Pakistan reconciliation. {ldquo}Should Islamabad temper its
obsession with India,{rdquo} Kux concludes, {ldquo}the country could reverse its downward slide and make
progress towards realising its potential as a regional power{rdquo}.
The United States and Pakistan, 1947-2000: Disenchanted Allies, Dennis Kux, Oxford University Press, Karachi, 2001.
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