US National Security Policy Towards Pakistan During the Last Three Administrations - Research Paper Example

US National Security Policy Towards Pakistan During the Last Three Administrations Introduction Pakistan has emerged out to be the most important Islamic country in the world in the post 9/11 scenario of the world and that is not because of the good reasons as the various terrorist groups, Islamic militants and nuclear proliferation networks are based in this country and thus a good watch on the country’s domestic and international affairs is imperative for the global peace and security. A democratically and politically stable Pakistan with a strong economy and stable society is very important because this is the only way the Pakistani government and the people of Pakistan can combat the religious militancy in the country, an issue which is of vital interest to the United States. The various issues which the United States has to take into account while dealing with Pakistan include the role of Pakistan in the Afghanistan war, the nuclear weapons proliferation, the Kashmir issue and India-Pakistan relations, economic development of Pakistan and ensuring human rights protection and stability of the democratic process in Pakistan. Since the very beginning of the relationships between United States and Pakistan, immediately after Pakistan’s independence from British colonial rule, the United States has managed to exercise a great influence over Pakistan because the United States realizes very well the geostrategic importance of Pakistan. Whether it was the issue of the Soviet expansion in the world during the Cold War era, or the Soviet War in Afghanistan or the recent War against terrorism, Pakistan’s importance in the global scenario has always been at the crests. Moreover due to the Soviet influence on India and the increasing power of China the United States want to have a good influence in the region and that is best served by influencing the Pakistani administration. History The whole story of relationship between the United States and Pakistan has been very complicated one. Though Pakistan’s first Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan’s eagerness to visit the United States despite an invitation from the Soviet Union is widely seen as Pakistan’s inclination towards the United States from its very inception, however this is not true because of the fact that Pakistan’s foreign policy during the very beginning was of non-alignment. And this was not actually planned by the Pakistani administration of that time, rather they were forced to have a policy of non-alignment because of the inclination of both the British and the US governments towards the Indian administration under the Indian National Congress which was seen as a party which shared similar policies with the Labor Party in Britain and the Democrats in the United States. On the other hand the Pakistan Muslim League, the party which was in power in Pakistan during the beginning was seen as a party which was more inclined towards communism. The US also saw a better and bigger market in the form of India and had little interests in cooperation with the feeble and weak economy of nascent Pakistan. Thus despite its willingness to join the United States, Pakistan had to remain non-aligned. So the initial shaping of the foreign policy of the United States towards Pakistan took place as per the wishes of the United States which had very little interest in developing strong relationships with Pakistan at that time. Pakistan has emerged on the map of the world as a result of the partition of British India into two states and the various resources which were present in the united India under the British were divided among the two countries on the basis of population with the partition and distribution plans highly biased towards India. The areas which later became Pakistan were the most under developed areas of the British India and thus there was very little industrial and military development in those areas. As a result most of the resources and the military equipments given to Pakistan were stationed in India no clear mechanism was defined by the British authorities to take these things to Pakistan, which ultimately led to Pakistan leaving most of the military equipments and resources allocated to it in India. Pakistan had to buy military equipments because of an impending threat of attack from India. Europe was still recovering from the Second World War, thus the only option left to Pakistan for military and economic cooperation was to look towards the United States, and that is why Pakistan repeatedly pressed on the United States for economic aid and military assistance right from the beginning. But the United States has traditional interests in the Far East and the Middle East and as far as South Asia was concerned, the Indian market has much more to offer to the United States capital than Pakistan. It was in 1949 when Pakistan was on a verge of sealing a military deal with Czechoslovakia and thus was about to join the Soviet bloc, the United States saw interests in Pakistan for the first time and lifted its arm embargos and signed a military cooperation agreement with Pakistan. The Pentagon also wanted to secure some airbases in the Pakistani territory for striking targets in the Soviet Union which expanded as far as the northern parts of Afghanistan at that time. However this is not deemed as a breakthrough in the foreign and national security policy of the United States with Pakistan because the following years saw greater developments (US Council on Foreign Relations). In 1951, Iranians managed to nationalize its oil and thus the oil supplies from the world largest oil refinery of that time to Europe was about to get blocked. Previously such issues in the Middle East were checked by the British by carrying out military operations from India through the British Indian Army, however after the independence and subsequent partition of British India, the British could exercise very little control in the Middle East from India. United States did not have any direct impact of these developments; however it made clear to the United States that for safeguarding the Western interests in the Middle East, a strong alliance with a Middle Eastern country was imperative. Due to United States’ unflinching support to Israel in the Palestine-Israel conflict, United States could not expect a strong alliance with any Arab country at that time which left the United States with Pakistan, the only option from where the United States could directly exercise an influence in the Middle East as well as South Asia. The United States saw Turkey and Pakistan as two key actors for safeguarding its interests in the Middle East and thus ensured that a military alliance with the Pakistani government is secured. Nazimuddin government in Pakistan was not in the favor of a military cooperation because it did not support large spending on military with a weak economy however the draught that hit Pakistan in 1952 mainly because of the water outages caused by Indian occupation of the various rivers which irrigated the agricultural lands of Pakistan put pressure on the Nazimuddin government which sought help from the United States in the form of food, which was declined by the United States and resulted in the change of administration in Pakistan. The US saw the new administration under Prime Minister Ghulam Muhammad, Governor General Sikander Mirza and Army Chief Ayub Khan to be US friendly and supported them both in the form of economic and military assistance. In the meantime the Pakistani government has also realized that it needs to have a very strong military in order to stop India from exploiting the resources vital for the survival of Pakistan and in order to avoid a military attack from India. Thus these circumstances led to the creation of mutual interest of the two countries in a strong military alliance and marked the beginning of a new era of military cooperation between the United States and Pakistan (Gillani 2006). The next breakthrough in relationships between the two countries which still has influence on the relationships between the two countries was the role Pakistan played in the revival of diplomatic relationships between China and the United States and it was Pakistan whose relationships with China were utilized to arrange a clandestine visit of Henry Kissinger in 1971 to China and later Pakistani administration also helped the United States in planning the visit of president Nixon to China. The milestone was the soviet war in Afghanistan which was effectively a proxy war fought between the United States and the Soviet Union. The Democratic Republic of Afghanistan which consisted of the Northern provinces of Afghanistan, supported by Soviet Union sought to bring the whole of Afghanistan under a communist government in Afghanistan in order to protect the Soviet Union’s interests in the region and the ultimate objective was to secure access to the warm water ports of the Indian Ocean through Pakistan. This aggression was seen as a threat by Pakistan which was inherently against the Soviet Union now because of the Soviet support of India in the two wars fought between India and Pakistan, the latter of which resulted in the separation of the Eastern wing of Pakistan. The Unites States on the other hand wanted to stop the Soviet Union’s expansionist plans, therefore the two countries found a very strong common interest in a military effort against the Soviet operation in Afghanistan. The United States supported the Pakistani military by supplying it with war equipments and also gave a large amount of money and technical assistance to Pakistan Army’s intelligence agency ISI for arming mujahideen and jihadis for fighting the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. This strategy is still criticized by many of the international leaders and scholars because they believe that the current risk to the global security posed by the Taliban and Al Qaeda actually originated from the military support US granted to these mujahideen. Moreover the role of ISI is also very controversial in the current scenario of international security and the strength ISI currently has was also granted by the United States in the form of huge amounts of economic assistance and technical training. Taliban emerged as a militant group in the region for the first time during this era and was highly supported by the United States and the CIA. Moreover after the war in Afghanistan ended, these Islamic militants groups turned them into extremists and terrorist groups. Al Qaeda under Osama bin Laden was also formed by the CIA backed jihadis and mujahideen (Hilali 2005). Thus the military alliance between Pakistan and the United States started as early as 1952 but the real cooperation started during the war in Afghanistan which really shaped the US national security policy towards Pakistan during the subsequent administrations of Bill Clinton, George Walker Bush and the current leadership of Barrack Obama. The instability of the political and democratic system in Pakistan, the role of Islamic extremist and militant groups and the stronger relationships with India resulted in continuous changes in the national security policy of the United States towards Pakistan. Relationships Under Bill Clinton’s Administration Initially Clinton Administration had little interests in South Asia and did not focus on the region for nearly two years. Later it President Clinton in his address to the United Nations General Assembly in 1993 pointed out the gross human rights violations carried out by the Indian Army in the Kashmir region and called the Indian administrated part of Kashmir as Indian occupied Kashmir. This gave a clear notion that the Clinton administration was inclined towards Pakistan rather than India and Pakistan will be the strategic partner of the United States in South Asia during Clinton’s administration. However the later events were totally antagonistic to these theories as the nuclear program pursued by Pakistani government and the activities of the Islamic militants in Pakistan aggrieved the Clinton administration which extending its hand of cooperation towards India. A private visit of Pakistani President Farooq Leghari was deliberately ignored by the United States authorities and significant figures of the US administration visited India during that time and extended support in military by establishing a regional defense forum which was meant to improve the cooperation between the US and Indian military, this was not seen as a good step by Pakistan and resulted in the straining of relationships between Pakistan and the US. Moreover economic cooperation with India was also enhanced greatly. The United States stopped its cooperation with Pakistan on grounds that Pakistan was supporting the Islamic extremist government in Afghanistan led by the Taliban. The Taliban had given refuge to Osama bin Laden and other leaders of a terrorist organization Al Qaeda which had attacked various American embassies in different regions of the world and demanded the ouster of the American forces from Saudi Arabia. Another important reason of the straining of relationships between the two countries was Pakistan’s reluctance to abandon its nuclear program which was aimed at acquiring nuclear weapons. The Pressler Amendment barred the United States administration from granting any military or economic assistance to Pakistan unless Pakistan agreed to abandon its nuclear program. During Clinton’s term, it was officially confirmed and declared by the United States government that Pakistan was pursuing a nuclear program and thus the different military and civilian agreements with Pakistan were suspended which also included the 463 million dollar deal for the purchase of F 16 fighter jets for which Pakistan had already paid. Neither were the fighter-jets delivered to Pakistan nor was the money returned. The relations between United States and Pakistan subsequently improved with the visit of Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto to the United States in 1995. The visit was largely deemed as successful because it revived the relationships with Pakistan and the United States. Clinton managed to generate funds for returning the payment made by Pakistan for the jets. Moreover the Clinton administration also stated its stance on Kashmir that the issue must be resolved through negotiations between the India and Pakistan and the United States offered to be an arbitrator in the talks aimed at solving the Kashmir issue. The relationships further improved with the development of US-Pakistani joint commerce forum. Similarly in 1997, the congress adopted the Henkin-Werner amendment which allowed the government to engage itself in military and economic agreements with Pakistan. The change in relationships between the two countries can be attributed to the fact that Washington very soon realized that repeated sanctions on Pakistan and continued non-cooperation in various fields has resulted in the loss of influence in Pakistan which was now tending to inclined towards the Soviet Union and China, more than the US. The continuous attacks against the United States conducted by the Islamic extremists in various regions of the world also forced United States to consider Pakistan a modern and friendly Muslim state. Moreover most of the terrorist organizations were stationed in Afghanistan and due to the open borders between Pakistan and Afghanistan; these militants frequently visited the tribal areas of Pakistan where there training camps were once established by Pakistan military and the CIA. Thus US realized that the best country from which these militants can be checked and their activities can be controlled. The Clinton administration always advocated nuclear non proliferation and thus maintained the same policy in the South Asia as well and asked Pakistan and India to abandon their nuclear programs. The Bharati Janata Party, an Indian political party with extremist Hindu ideology game to power in the country in 1998 and repeatedly maintained that India will conduct nuclear tests very soon. The tests were conducted in May 1998, and India maintained a stance that they have conducted nuclear weapons tests in order to neutralize the threat of nuclear attack from China. This also encouraged Pakistan to conduct nuclear tests of its own and thus in the same month the nuclear tests were conducted which resulted in large economic and military sanctions on Pakistan and India. The United States administration took the case to the UN Security Council which enhanced the sanctions on the two countries. During this time the relationships between the two countries hit an all-time low. The general sentiment of the American public was also very negative towards Pakistan because of its insistence on acquiring nuclear arms, its reluctance to accept Israel as an independent state even after 50 years of its independence and also because of the presence of extremist Islamic militants in Pakistan. The sanctions were eventually lifted up but during the Clinton’s administration, the relationships with Pakistan saw many ups and downs, starting from a low, the relationships gradually improved with visits from both sides but the nuclear weapons tests conducted by Pakistan resulted in straining the relationships and economic sanctions were imposed on Pakistan from which it never recovered (Momand 2012). George W. Bush Administration and the New Heights of Alliance with Pakistan The relationships with Pakistan also started on a low during the administration of George W. Bush because of the pro-India policy. The United States was not willing to support Pakistan anymore because of Pakistan’s government backing of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan which has given refuge to Al Qaeda leadership. Al Qaeda had targeted various US citizens in different parts of the world after the end of Soviet War in Afghanistan and had openly stated for several times that it aims to target the American forces in Saudi Arabia and other Arab and Muslim countries. The Pakistani government under Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had very close relationships with the Taliban leadership of Afghanistan and it was believed that the leaders of the two countries were planning to make a confederation of the two countries. Under these circumstances, Pakistan was seen as a hostile country towards the United States because of its continuous support to the Taliban government of Afghanistan. China, on the other hand, was growing economically as well as militarily and was emerging as the new super power of the region and the United States saw it as a threat to its dominance in the region and also in the World. Pakistan had a very strong alliance with China as well, whereas India had fought a war with China in 1962, and its border dispute with China has not been resolved till this date. So India was the best choice as an ally for the United States in South Asia for safeguarding its strategic interests. Thus the Bush administration gave preference to India over Pakistan and invited Indian leadership for visits. Record number of military exercises were planned and conducted between the two countries in a span of just two years. The sanctions which were imposed on India immediately after the nuclear arms tests in 1998 were lifted up and United States sold latest technology helicopter parts to India in the end of 1999 and a Radar System agreement was achieved in 2000 through which latest technology radars were sold to India by the United States and the intelligence generated from these radars was to be shared between the two countries, in this way United States developed a mechanism to monitor the situation in South Asia and the Middle East (Mahapatra 2008). All these developments aggrieved the Pakistani government and the diplomatic relationships between the two countries were on the verge of closure. Nawaz Sharif, the Pakistani Prime Minister at that time whose party won two-third majority in the parliament of Pakistan and thus he had all the liberty to carryout legislation with negligible opposition, defined his priorities very clearly. Since the majority of population in Pakistan is Muslim who consider United States an enemy because of its unflinching support to Israel, Nawaz Sharif followed the common sentiment of people and thus pursued an anti-American policy by siding with the Taliban. The elected government of Nawaz Sharif was overthrown by the Chief of Pakistan Army in a coup d’état and martial law was imposed in the country with the Army Chief General Pervaiz Musharaf assuming the position of the Chief Executive and later the President of the country. The change of administration in Pakistan resulted in a change of Pakistan’s foreign policy towards the United States and the Taliban. The Musharaf administration did not support the Taliban as strongly as the previous administration did and thus won a positive sentiment from United States for the future of relationships between the two countries. The September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon changed the whole scenario of the United States national security policy which shifted its focus from the ‘Chinese threat’ towards the War against Terrorism, an international effort led by the United States to overpower the terrorist groups of the world. Since Al Qaeda, the group which was responsible for terrorists’ attacks on United States was based in Afghanistan, the strategic importance of Pakistan to the US once again increased significantly. Though India offered an unconditional support to the United States, it could not offer the geostrategic advantage Pakistan had to offer with a 2500 km border with Afghanistan (Malik 2008). The United States leadership quickly sought to gather support from Pakistan, and Pervaiz Musharaf readily agreed for providing logistic support to the United States in the form of supply routes and air bases. Musharaf also addressed his nation and asked them to support the government’s decision to side with US in the war. Musharaf’s decision was motivated by two main reasons; majority of countries in the world including the Islamic world has sided with the US and Pakistan feared isolation if it refused to support the international forces in the war against terrorism. Secondly India and China had already declared to side with the US in the war, Pakistan was in no position to defend Afghanistan against the regional powers. Another important reason for Pakistan’s agreement to support the United States and international armies in the war was the deteriorating economy of the country because of the sanctions imposed on it after the nuclear tests, and Pakistani government judged it as a unique opportunity to get the sanctions lifted up and to improve its image in the international community. Pakistan’s assistance in the war against terrorism helped US to defeat the Taliban in Afghanistan and in return Pakistan received large amounts of military and economic aid from US which amounted to $10 billion during a period of seven years from 2001 to 2008. Pakistan’s assistance has been vital in the war against terrorism because many notable leaders of Al Qaeda were arrested from or were killed in Pakistan which includes Khalid Shaikh Muhammad, the mastermind of the September 11 attacks. In 2003, President Pervaiz Musharaf was invited to Camp David by President Bush and the talks resulted in unprecedented economic aid for Pakistan and pledges of continued support for the US in the war against terrorism. Pakistan was given the status of a non-NATO ally of the US in 2004, making it eligible for buying the most advanced military equipments from the United States. The relationships were threatened during the later part of the Bush regime, when the United States acquired evidences of the involvement of Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan, the pioneer nuclear scientist of Pakistan who is also seen as a hero and ‘savior of Pakistan’ by the nation, in nuclear proliferation activities. Abdul Qadeer Khan was reported to have established a network of black market through which it planned to transfer nuclear technology to Iran, North Korea, Libya, Sudan, Iraq and various other Muslim countries. Libya, in 2003, provided evidences of centrifuges acquired through the AQ Khan network as it gave up its nuclear program. The relationships were saved from going into another deadlock by the Pakistani President, who accepted the crimes of AQ Khan and put him under house arrest in Pakistan after taking all the administrative positions he enjoyed in the governmental and nuclear set up of the country. Musharaf also allowed international agencies to question AQ Khan about the operations of the proliferation network. Khan was not handed over to the United States because Musharaf believed that it could spark intense reaction from the people of Pakistan as he was deemed as a hero in the country, having supplied the country with nuclear technology. United States did not imposed sanctions on Pakistan, however sanctions were imposed on the AQ Khan laboratories, a government patronized setup in Pakistan for atomic research. The Bush administration did not allowed the relationships to be strained because the war in Afghanistan was not over at that time and thus Pakistan’s alliance was imperative at that time (Hussain 2009). The relationships during the Bush regime started off from a low but improved significantly after the 9/11 incident and achieved historical highs, with the declaration of Pakistan as a non-NATO ally. Another important factor in the consistency of relationships between the two countries was the stability of the Musharaf government in Pakistan, and it was later seen that as soon as Musharaf was forced to resign from office, the relationships between the two countries again started to fluctuate as they did in the past. President Obama’s Administration and the Crisis in Pakistan As the administration in both countries changed, the new US administration under Barrack Obama and the Pakistani government under Asif Ali Zardari continued a policy of strong alliance between the two countries. Pakistan has a very important role to play in the Obama administration’s plan to leave Afghanistan by 2014 because of the strategic importance of Pakistan in the region. US increased its economic assistance to Pakistan in the form of the Enhanced Partnership with Pakistan Act of 2009, also known as the Kerry-Lugar bill, named after the two sponsors of the bill in the United States Congress. The bill which was passed into law in October 2010 authorizes the release of $1.5 billion per year to the government of Pakistan in the form of civil and military aid for four years, from 2010 to 2014. The bill was passed at a time when Pakistan was suffering from the worst flood in its history and asked for aid from the whole world for the rehabilitation of the flood victims. The bill drew a lot of criticism initially mainly because of the Pakistan’s government inability to properly channelize the aid given to the government to the people of Pakistan. One of the objectives of the aid given to Pakistan was to improve the opinion of Pakistani public about the United States, and thus many international relations experts and senators in United States argued that handing over this money to the Pakistani government will not do any good to the image of United States in Pakistan because the corrupt Pakistani government will not use the aid money for the intended purpose. The later incidents in the end of 2010 and during 2011 invited much more criticism from the Americans. The Kerry-Lugar bill got support of the senators because of the efforts Pakistani army and government put in to fight against the terrorist groups of the country in the form of two military operations in the northern and north western areas of the country; in the Swat valley and in South Waziristan. These areas are reported as the sanctuaries of most of the terrorist groups in Pakistan. The successful military operations in these areas created a positive image of Pakistan before the US; however this was proved wrong by the events that occurred in the following year. In January 2011, Raymond Davis, a CIA contractor killed to Pakistanis on account of self-defense and was arrested by the Pakistani police, however the US demanded the immediate release of its citizen because of the diplomatic immunity enjoyed by him as per the international laws. The Pakistani people, media and one of the lower courts in Pakistan also declared that Raymond Davis was not a diplomat and therefore does not have the right to enjoy diplomatic immunity. Raymond Davis was later released with Saudi intervention in the issue, however the incident greatly affected the US efforts to restore its image in Pakistan and the Pakistani government under pressure from the Pakistani public launched protests before the United States (Crilly 2011). Later in the year, the US authorities accused the Pakistani military intelligence agency ISI, the counterpart of the US CIA, of supporting the Haqqani network of extremist Taliban responsible for the attack on the NATO headquarters and US embassy in Afghanistan. Admiral Mike Mullen called Haqqani network a veritable arm of ISI. The Pakistani intelligence agency was accused of using supporting Taliban because they were used by the Pakistani military in their clandestine operations in India and Indian administrated Kashmir. Moreover ISI believed that it can exercise its authority in Afghanistan through the Haqqani network due to the increasing inclination of the Afghani government towards India. The killing of Osama bin Laden in an operation conducted in the mountain city of Abbotabad in Pakistan, home to the top military academy in Pakistan and just 60 kms away from Islamabad resulted in the increase in concerns about the role of Pakistani military in the war against terrorism (Lusted 2011). The Pakistani military was accused of hiding Osama bin Laden on its land by the international community and the United States. The Pakistani government protested for not being informed about the operation. The diffidence between the military leadership of the two countries increased to new highs and the military aid to Pakistan was blocked. During the end of 2011, the United States forces in Afghanistan attacked a Pakistani military post on Pak-Afghan border resulting in the killing of 28 Pakistanis plunged the relationships between the two countries into deep crisis as Pakistan stopped the supplies to NATO forces and also asked United States to leave the Shamsi airbase which was used as the prime base to conduct air strikes in Afghanistan (Child 2009). The general sentiment also deteriorated significantly as the Pakistani public was already furious about the drone strikes in the North Western parts of Pakistan resulting in the killings of large number of Pakistani civilians. Despite efforts from both sides, the new crisis has taken the shape of a deadlock and is a matter of great concern for United States who wants to leave Afghanistan by 2014 (Porter 2012). Conclusion The change in the United States national security policy towards Pakistan can be attributed to the prevalent instability in the political and military setup in Pakistan because the most consistent period of the relationships was the one in which the Pakistani government was consistent under the leadership of President Pervaiz Musharaf. The future of the US national security policy towards Pakistan will largely depend on Pakistan’s willingness to support US as it leaves Afghanistan and also the general elections in both countries as the policy is expected to change with the change of administration, if it occurs. The current status of relationships is not very encouraging, however the governments of the two countries are determined to maintain good relationships, which is certainly a very good sign for global peace and the security of United States. Bibliography Childs, Nick. "Pakistan outrage after 'Nato attack kills soldiers.'" 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