Pakistan's Grand Strategy: The Poverty of Imagination

In: Aslam , W & Thayer , B A 2020 , ' Pakistan's Grand Strategy: The Poverty of Imagination ' , Contemporary South Asia , vol. 28 , no. 3 , pp. 351-358 . https://doi.org/10.1080/09584935.2020.1723493

Abstract

This article is concerned with a significant grand strategic choice that Pakistan faces concerning its relations with China. The relationship between Pakistan and the United States has deteriorated since the US Special Forces found and killed Osama Bin Laden in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad in May 2011. Instead, Pakistan has been recalibrating its grand strategy enabling it to get closer to China. The country has received large Chinese investment to start several infrastructural projects in Pakistan as part of the Belt and Road Initiative. We argue that Pakistan is making a grave strategic mistake. Its partnership with China is unnatural and it will count against its core interests in the future. We suggest that Pakistan should reorient its grand strategy in order to bring it closer to Western democracies. Doing so will ensure greater security, economic development and sovereign independence for Pakistan.