The military and Pakistan's foreign policy : an examination of Pakistan's policy approaches towards Afghanistan, 1995-2006

• Main Author: Munshi, Muhammad Bilal
• Published: University of Bristol 2008
• Subjects: 327.1
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.654113

This thesis has undertaken a critical examination of how and why the Military has come to dominate Pakistan's policy process and how that dominance has affected Pakistan's foreign policy. This thesis is arguing that the military has a highly securitized understanding of Pakistan's external environment which is then translated into the adoption of a militarized approach towards foreign policy. The first half of the thesis aims at furthering an understanding of Pakistan's approach towards foreign policy as well the nature and extent of the military's institutional dominance over the policy process. Chapter 2 provides a historical overview of the military and Pakistan's approach towards foreign policy in the 1947-2006 period. Chapter 3 provides a critical analysis of the nature and extent of the military's institutional dominance over the Pakistani state and hence over the policy process itself. Pakistan's policy approaches towards Afghanistan (1995-2006) have been examined in order to provide an empirical illustration of a.) the military's dominance over the policy process and b.) the consequent impact of pursuing a militarized approach towards foreign policy. This thesis is arguing that Pakistan employed a militarized set of prescriptive policy options which then resulted in Afghanistan becoming the "centre of gravity" of its approach towards regional security_ The loss of Afghanistan as a "centre of gravity" following the onset of the war on ten-or forced Pakistan to adopt a tactically flexible but strategically inflexible approach towards regional security. Pakistan's policy responses throughout remained oriented towards the use of various militarized policy options_ Consequently, while these militarized options attained certain external security objectives, they did so at the cost of internal stability_ Thus, It is being argued that Pakistan's militarized approach was beset with inefficiencies which exacerbated rather than alleviated its overall security environment.