A Strange and Bittersweet Relationship
| Date | 01 April 2014 |
| Author | Sanjoy Banerjee,Gitika Commuri |
| DOI | 10.1177/2347797013518404 |
| Published date | 01 April 2014 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
A Strange and
Bittersweet Relationship:
Pakistan–United States
Relations in the
Musharraf Era
Sanjoy Banerjee1
Gitika Commuri2
Abstract
The United States (US) and Pakistan developed a relationship during the
Musharraf era of simultaneous cooperation and coercion against each other.
Pakistan helped both the US and the Taliban in their war in Afghanistan. The US
aided and reimbursed Pakistan, but also violated its sovereignty on a sustained
basis. Realism, Liberalism and prominent varieties of Constructivism do not
explain this interaction. The explanation offered here is that each state had cer-
tain persistent concepts it applied repeatedly as new situations arose. The con-
cepts are drawn empirically from the policy discourses of the two states after the
Musharraf coup, the 9/11 attacks, and during the middle 2000s when Pakistan’s
focus on Kashmir diminished but Taliban attacks in Afghanistan intensified. These
concepts highlighted some aspects of these situations and occluded others.
These descriptions of situations using these concepts formed episodes in situ-
ational narratives. The situational narratives do explain the observed interaction.
Keywords
United States, Pakistan, cooperation, coercion, concepts, narratives
Introduction
The United States (US) and Pakistan have had a history of engagement and dis-
engagement since Pakistan’s independence in 1947. The US and Pakistan stum-
bled as it were into each other’s arms. Pakistan’s emergence on the international
Article
Journal of Asian Security
and International Affairs
1(1) 41–61
2014 SAGE Publications India
Private Limited
SAGE Publications
Los Angeles, London,
New Delhi, Singapore,
Washington DC
DOI: 10.1177/2347797013518404
http://aia.sagepub.com
Sanjoy Banerjee, Professor of International Relations, San Francisco State University,
United States. E-mail: banerjee@sfsu.edu
Gitika Commuri, Associate Professor of International Relations, Department of Political
Science, California State University, Bakersfi eld, United States. E-mail: gcommuri@csub.edu
Journal of Asian Security and International Affairs, 1, 1 (2014): 41–61
42 Sanjoy Banerjee and Gitika Commuri
stage was not deemed of any particular significance by the US. However, begin-
ning in the 1950s the two states came into each other’s orbit as a result of Cold
war tensions and the politics of South Asia, and Pakistan became America’s
‘most allied ally in Asia’ (Kux, 2001, p. 1). While initially reluctant, the US went
on to provide economic and military aid to Pakistan. By mid 1950s Pakistan was
also a member of military alliances such as the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization
(SEATO) and the Central Treaty Organization (CENTO). During the 1965 India–
Pakistan war the US cut off military aid to Pakistan. An unsuccessful coordina-
tion developed during the 1971 crisis in East Pakistan. In the 1980s the Soviet
intervention in Afghanistan provided an opportunity for intensive engagement.
Pakistan became the conduit for the US war effort against the Soviet Union.
However after the Soviets left Afghanistan in 1989, the relations between the two
states began to sour. In the 1990s the Bush Administration invoked the Pressler
Amendment, cutting aid and spare parts for weaponry. The Clinton Administration
did show some initial sympathy for the Pakistani stand on Kashmir, but over the
course of the 1990s Pakistan’s support of the Taliban, links with terrorist groups
and increasingly radicalized Islamic society strained relations between the two
countries. However the 9/11 attacks appear to have changed the US–Pakistan
relations to the point that by 2004 Pakistan was dubbed a ‘major non-NATO ally’
(Kronstadt, 2007, p. 11). But by this point the contradictions in the US–Pakistan
relationship had gained a new intensity. Hussein Haqqani’s (2005, p. 85) observes
that ‘Pakistan cannot easily be characterized as either friend or foe’.
Relations between these two states have been characterized by dependence,
indifference, disagreements, disengagement, tensions and friendship. It is a rela-
tionship that seems to have frayed and yet has persisted. Clearly, much ink has
been split in attempts to understand why and how these states hang together. This
literature is exhaustive, thorough and humbling, and yet as we bury ourselves in
the historical entrails of this relationship, we are puzzled by anomalies that
became noticeable enough to demand an explanation.
The period of General Musharraf’s rule, 1999–2008, witnessed some of the
sharpest anomalies. We will show the following Pakistani and American practices
occurred in the Musharraf era:
1. The US gave payments and aid, and transferred to Pakistan weapons suited
to counter-insurgency.
2. Pakistan permitted the US to transport goods to Afghanistan through its
territory, and to conduct within Pakistani territory drone strikes and other
security operations.
3. Pakistani military organizations aided the Afghan Taliban as they fought
the US forces in Afghanistan.
4. Pakistan provided nuclear weapons technology to North Korea in exchange
for missile technology.
5. After 2003, Pakistan greatly reduced its Kashmir-oriented diplomatic
efforts towards the US.
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