Daily Times

Intermittently, there remains a heated debate in Pakistan — arguing who is crafting Pakistan’s foreign policy?Understandably, both in form and substance, a foreign policy of a nation is the total representation of its internal strength organically exploited towards the conduct of its external relations.And yet not surprisingly, as security- cum-democratic state, Pakistan’s foreign policy seeks equal participation or role– of both the civil (Foreign Office) and military establishment (the GHQ) –vis-à-vis crafting and indoctrinating the foreign policy priorities framework.This appraisal suggests that so long as it is the domain of soft power part of our policy, the managers of the policy are none but the custodians of our Foreign Office; and whereas the hard power part of our policy is concerned the strategists of this policy are the none but the managers of our security establishment.

By all reasonable and astute calculations, an overstretched Islamabad has that much-required capacity to reorient the directions of our foreign policy with the mutual resourcefulness of our civil-military planners. Undeniably, the present course of uplift in our foreign policy is positively reflective of the result attainted via strategic thinking, credit of which goes to our security establishment. If we examine the current positive features being reflected in our policy trends that are the security of our borders, promotion of regionalism, fostering the principles of pragmatism towards the US, globalism in terms of economic relations and positive constructivism towards the revisionist powers, the driving exigencies of the geostrategic optics and our uncompromising focus on an epic cause of the Kashmir freedom.

Security of our borders: The first and foremost priority goal of our policy like any other nation is to gauge the security and safety of our borders. In this regard, the overall surveillance of our territorial integrity is the prime responsibility of our armed forces who are vigilantly performing this national task with an unflinching sense of commitment.

Promotion of regionalism: Whatever the expediencies entailed by the exigencies for Pakistan have been in the previous decades, the current regional and global structures seem different and very opportunistic for Pakistan. A former Foreign Minister of Pakistan writes, highlighting foreign policy issues to the country, “The emerging new international economic environment influenced in several different ways by the process of globalization has placed new responsibilities on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.” He also highlights the politico-economic relationship becoming preeminent in the 21st century: “the term political economy now applies both to the internal and external dimensions of politics and economics.” Another major trend that paints the continuously changing global environment is “Regionalism”. States revise their foreign policies according to their domestic needs and external crescendos and diminuendos. Pakistan now, more than ever needs to set fiercely proactive goals and not just be on the receiving end of matters but broaden its foreign policy goals and its execution.

The core principle of our foreign relations is to morally, diplomatically and legally support the cause of the Kashmiri freedom from India. Our relations with India are primarily based on India’s Kashmir policy

Fostering pragmatism: Islamabad has objectively decided to opt for a paradigm shift in its foreign policy. It has also for the first time wisely used its strategic location for deriving long-term economic benefits for the people of this country, particularly in the face of the heightened risk of shrinking foreign capital flows from Western bilateral or multilateral sources. Peace in Afghanistan and improved relations would also open up vistas for trade, energy corridors and economic cooperation with the Central Asian Republics. During my tenure as World Bank director for these countries, we had calculated that Gwadar would be the most cost-effective route for transport of imports and exports for these countries. Islamabad’s policy gestures suggest that it has adopted an “intermestic policy,” which can be defined as a congealing of strategic and economic policies. On the strategic front, Pakistan is in the process of converting to an Act East Policy, by using its geostrategic location to diversify its friends’ club. In relation to this, the growing geostrategic ties with the former Cold War rival Russia suggest Islamabad’s balancing strategy to cope with the rising Indo-US romance.Pakistan has maintained the core of pragmatism regarding its relations with the US. This year’s visit to the US by Prime Minister Imran Khan and the Army Chief Gen QamarJavedBajwa has been a result of the mutual conviction ofboth the US and the Pakistani policy quarters. The degree of US continuous re-engagement with Pakistan rests Islamabad’s civil-military rulers’ motivation to reform the political system, root out corruption, restrain extremists, and pursue a conciliatory policy towards economic reforms.

Evolution of positive constructivism: Bien entendu, realism argues that state behaviour is essentially the pursuit of power and decisions are pragmatic calculations of self-interest, while Constructivism advocates that ideas drive behaviour. Rather than being mutually exclusive, some scholars argue that Constructivism in a state foreign policy could play a complementary role within the realist worldview by focusing on the ideas that fundamentally drive the decisions of actors– pursuing their self-interests, contextualizing foreign policy behaviour. Consequently. Samuel Barkin’s realist and hybrid Constructivism seems to be better suited to explain the role of ideology in state foreign policy. In this backdrop, we cannot ignore the role of Islamic ideology in the formation of our policy.

Geostrategic optics: Today, we are living in an era of unpredictability-characterised by the changing events frequently. Still, South Asia as a region remains at the forefront of Washington’s regional interests and concerns. Trump’s administration has driven a mix of change and continuity in American foreign and security policies, including those in South Asia. It is here that Pakistan needs to review its position with the changing scenario. Needless to say, political and economic stability could play a vital role in bringing Pakistan back to a strong position and to overcome its regional challenges. A good relationship with its neighbouring countries is also very important. Currently, Pakistan is busy on both eastern and western borders. That’s why we need to build a good working relationship, at least, with our western border countries-both Afghanistan and Iran. We should also utilize our geostrategic position vis-à-vis CPEC expanding trajectory.

Focus on Kashmir: The core principle of our foreign relations is to morally, diplomatically and legally support the cause of the Kashmiri freedom from India. Our relations with India are primarily based on India’s Kashmir policy. For Islamabad, New Delhi is our only potential nuclear target. Unfortunately, the costs for Pakistan of its relations with India highly exceed those of its relations with any other country in the world. How to significantly reduce these costs without compromising our principled stand on major outstanding issues– especially the core issue of Jammu and Kashmir, remains an unremitting challenge for our foreign policy.

The writer is an independent ‘IR’ researcher and international law analyst based in Pakistan