Daily Times

Different phenomena are taking over the world one after the other; climate change, population growth, inequality, technological multiplications, progress in health sciences, territorial re-orientations and the emergence of a new (disorderly) world order.

Henry Kissinger, the lead strategist for all times must have been perplexed to see, what is now shaping as the US foreign policy though tweets, messages, insinuations and barbs. The hydra-headed demagogues have become the transformers, courtesy the advancement in technological bases of human knowledge which is surely dehumanizing the homosapiens.

POTUS-45 is known for his right angle approach to every problem being faced by the world and the US. The obtuse values of his political trigonometric calculations is inducing a hot air balloon effect for the world order, either it will expand further or the rising thermals will result into over corrections. Recent statements of Trump can be termed calculated assertions. During his election campaign, he got the support from Indian Americans, the complete strategy of ensuring his winning over in Arizona was commandeered by an Indian, Arinash. Trump had repeatedly praised Modi many a times and calls himself a great fan of India and its ways.

India has given three things to the American society which has an impact, Yoga, Bollywood Movies and the Tandoori Chicken. For a common American, India is all about health, wealth and happiness, despite teeming millions in sheer poverty and destitute. Trump trumpeted against Pakistan particularly the day Pakistan opposed the shifting of US Embassy to Jerusalem and its recognition as Israeli capital. Even before this, the emerging battle lines were visible on the pretext of not doing more in Afghanistan.

Pakistan remained a frontline ally against an enemy – who neither had a front nor a line – and was a hovering shadow somewhere between the nap of earth and the thin air. No army in the world could have fought such an adversary, the way Pakistan Army fought this war. Afghanistan is the umbilical twin of Pakistan being part of the same womb. No one is understanding that there is no political or military issue, which is the cause of perennial unrest and strive in the country, it is the anthropological, social and historical faultiness, which are erupting there in the form of Jirga politic, warlordism, tribalism and political anarchy. Since centuries the Afghan territory was ruled by the code of conduct, which was less evolutionary and more expeditionary, manifesting quick Justice and urgent disposal. This has resulted into a mindset where no authority is accepted in terms of territorial environs. A bzizare form of egalitarianism, therefore, emerged and was sustained even under empirical or autocratic rule. American friends with a battery and battalion of Anthropologist, public affair officers and an elaborate campaign of winning heart and minds could not achieve the desired results. The kinetic approach fed beast further. Blaming Pakistan for this is the most unfair assumption. Noam Chomsky calls such behaviour as trumps buffoonery, but in real terms it is a calculated diversion. Trump is at centre stage. The attention is focused on him so that the attention is diverted from what is happening in the background. Republicans are believed to be the right wingers and their true constituency is the constituency of private power and wealth. The Mastering of Mankind, borrowing the phrase from Adam Smith.

Right wingers on one country surely provide the political fuel to the right wingers of the country being subjected to confrontational hysteria. Steve Brannon, the chief strategist of Trump resigned due to this ‘Mastering the Mankind’ agenda of Republicans. He even criticised the iconic trump tower of Newyork for its Russian connections.

Here arises a million dollar question. Is there an absolute change of heart by US towards Pakistan or is it only the Indian factor, which is playing at its best and inducing Trump to give his locker room talks all around? US State Department, intelligentsia and academia along an array of think tanks always practiced conscious diplomacy towards Pakistan. Never the bar was raised up to a level where it becomes unassailable. This time, it smacks of some Mechanisation technique adopted by our big brother. Indian caucus in US and the South Block in Dehli are probably the movers and shakers in taking a Pakistan-USA situation this far. The latest demand list of US vindicates the same. What to do then, simple, bridge the gap between strategy and tactics.

Official statement concerning the US should only come from Pakistan Foreign Office and foreign minister. The confrontational hysteria should be warded off at all cost. Every country alternately plays to its domestic political gallery even while making statements on international politics, here comes the art of diplomacy. Morgenthau once said that “diplomacy must look at political scene from the point of view of other nations in terms of their national security”. In short, real diplomacy is based on values that can be consistently articulated.

It is in fact based on perceptiveness, circumspection, national interest and the clarity of situations. Pakistan and US should not ride the Kahn’s ladder of escalation. The famous tweet of Trump has actually did an intrinsic good to Pakistan, that is, uniting the complete country, the political leadership and all pillars of state on the issue of national security and integrity. US cannot take Pakistan to United Nations General Assembly (due to likely veto by China & Russia), nor it can undertake punitive strikes. They also know that nuclear pakistan is too important to fail, therefore, the stopping of military aid or other sectorial assistance are being used as diplomatic tools along with the oratory of Trump. Pakistan is firstly a friend of US and then an ally. Friends can have difference of opinions, alright, but it is the art and articulation that how this difference is being given a vent. Best course is through diplomacy. War is too serious a business to be dealt with by social media tools or the exchange of barbs. The US Republican party should read Morgenthau’s book (if not read already) “Politic Among Nations”, which clearly states that “Government is the leader of public opinion, not its slave”.

The enemies of Pakistan wish and dream that the relation between US and Pakistan worsen up to a level where both become captives of their rising dissonance. Richard Hass has already defined in “a world in disarray” that there is a geo-political vacuum and the world is moving in a wrong direction. Trump’s economic nationalism and leaving the trans-altantic partnership are the sure signs of unilateralism by a country which claims to have allies. It has to be remembered that US versus Pakistan are two different trajectories with a mean point lying somewhere in the saner sinews of diplomacy.

The writer is a freelance journalist who contributes to security related issues. He can be reached at sindhulatif@gmail.com

Published in Daily Times, January 7^th 2018.