Pakistan’s fractured foreign responses

The writer is a former parliamentarian.

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President Barack Obama has won the mandate to rule US and by proxy the world for another four years. We as the key ‘problem child’ of the world need to be clear on what we are faced with in the future. It is not so important how we view the world. It is more important how the world views us. Only then can we make intelligent interventions to protect our sovereignty, and maximise the gains for our peoples. Currently, Pakistan’s foreign policy seems fractured. We seem too obsessed with our worldview. Frankly, we are constantly on the receiving end and have lost all initiative. Perhaps, if the government relied on taking advice on foreign policy positions from the opposition in Parliament, it could do better.
source!nation.com.pk

It is time for a wake up call in the corridors of the Foreign Office and presidency. In the last week, we have had many high level visits from Iran and Russia cancelled. We are being led on the Malala issue by million signature petitions by the world. And we are tolerating Karzai’s insulting comments: “Terrorism is a snake and when you train a snake, you can’t expect it will only go in the neighbour’s house. When the attack on Malala happened, this proved our point.”

What are the major powers thinking? What does Obama have on his foreign policy plate and how will that affect us? He has the Afghanistan withdrawal to plan with Pakistan involvement and not sans clearly. He needs to decide how he will hold Israel back from an attack on Iran, and why the two-state solution is stuck in limbo creating credibility issues for all stakeholders. He needs to decide how much involvement he will have in the Arab Spring/uprisings considering the backlash could be more on the US, since the dictator allies would have vanished leaving the masses to the potential influence of religious forces. He will have to decide on the Asian front how to manage shoring up alliances with Japan, Korea and India in wake of China’s predominance.

great point kwami

What does Europe have on its foreign policy plate? It is clear that after the Lisbon Treaty, the weaker EU institutions failed to create an equality grid for all EU members and the biggest three (namely UK, France and Germany) have an edge. Thus, the big three foreign policy priorities will be the key, which Pakistan needs to be better prepared for. Germany has a geo-economic world vision, which means its big businesses lead the way. France, whilst being keen on sovereignty, wishes to lead due to its penchant for ‘role de la France’. The UK is considered to have the Rolls Royce diplomats which have the Commonwealth forum as platform. Together they are concerned with Libya, Syria, Israel, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan, but they are not just there to echo US positions. They consider their role larger due to their historic connections with all these areas. In the final analysis, they are all committed to the European Parliament’s European Security and Defence policy. Pakistan needs to focus on that because the military interventions against terrorism will be coordinated, to a large extent, through an existentialist threat perception by the combined European force.

In the midst of these international priorities where does Pakistan find itself? Pakistan as a country does not have a foreign policy, which is coherent or coordinated. In a world where we are the focus in a negative way, we need to sort our story. The presidency/Foreign Office, the military and Parliament need to run with one narrative. Whilst we as opposition are clear on our foreign policy direction, the threesome is not coordinated. We don’t mind leading the debate, but then the sharing of information at tactical level has to be seamless. The following positions need consensus for us to face the world in a unified way:

yes for war crimes