Mitt Romney's foreign policy naïveté and world view is reflected in his views on Pakistan. Romney in a CBS debate with Barack Obama asserted that, 'its not time to divorce Pakistan'. The reasons, according to Romney, lay in Pakistan's nuclear capability. Romney's assertions could be read as that its all right to dump Pakistan at some point in time and that Pakistan's value to the international community lay in its nukes. This is unlikely to go down well in Pakistan. Romney also supported the continuation of drone strikes in Pakistan.
While the Pakistani power structure has relied on nuclear weapons to pursue its foreign policy agendas- low intensity conflict in Kashmir and strategic depth in Pakistan and play double games with the United States- and the falling of its nukes is a clear and present danger, it cannot and should not be asserted or even implied that Pakistan's utility lies in its nukes. Pakistan is a security problem. The challenge lies not in humoring Pakistan or keeping it in good books, so to speak but to remedy the problem. This can be done by diagnosing the problem properly and then addressing the root causes of the problem.
Be it Pakistan's unremitting hostility towards India or its nurturing Jihadist groups for use against India , or in Afghanistan and as trump cards in its dealings with the United States, the reasons are conceptual in nature. It is the ideational premise and the nature of the Pakistan that is at the root of problems. Conceived as a bastion for Muslims of South Asia and as an Islamic state, the country has lurched from one crisis to another. This has affected and impacted the nature of its political system, polity and society. State society relations are misaligned and the political system perhaps best characterized as semi-authoritarianism has been unresponsive to the needs of society and the polity. There is, concomitantly, no consensus on the nature of Pakistan and various groups vie and contend for both supremacy and ideological space.
The ideational premse of Pakistan forged as it was in an anti India formulation and stance concieves Pakistan as India's, ' Other'. And because of the late president Zia ul haq's attempts at Islamification of both the state and society, other layers were added to the ideational premises and rationales of Pakistan. The country began to gradually concieve itself as the bastion of the ummah and its corollary , global Jihad.
Pakistan's meddling in Kashmir, its instrumentalization of the Taliban and by association, Al Qaeda, can be explained by this. And , it is this that needs to be addressed and reviewed. The impetus for this, should and must come from within Pakistan. Both the Pakistani state and society should come to a realization, that its conceptual dynamic has not served the country well and review this. However, there is a role for the international community especially the United States. The sole superpower should adopt a carrot and stick policy toward Pakistan. This policy should be long term and not ad hoc. Persuasion should be complemented or backed up by a hard power approach wherein the merits of a review of Pakistan's conceptual dynamic should be demonstrated.
Deeming and viewing Pakistan purely from a security prism is but a recipe for disaster. The country will use or more accurately misuse this to eke out geopolitical space for itself in a best case scenario or morph into a rogue state in a worst case one. The prudent course of action would be to goad Pakistan towards salutary directions. This will take time and energy but for global as well as regional security is a small price to pay. A vision and a long term grand plan for Pakistan needs to be devised. It is to this that the American strategists and elite must devote themselves to. Pakistan should not be pandered to nor should it be ignored. A balanced approach needs to be devised and implemented. Global peace and security may be contingent on finding this balance.
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