For obvious reasons, many Pakistanis are keeping a close eye on the upcoming US presidential election for obvious reasons. As a result of the elections, there has been an increase in the American-Pakistani diaspora as well as within Pakistan about what each candidate would mean for Pakistan, particularly for former prime minister Imran Khan, who is currently in jail.
However, the structural drivers of US policy toward Pakistan and Washington’s limited interest in Pakistan and its political economy have been overlooked in a lot of this discussion.
Pakistan’s relative importance has been diminished, according to Washington, as a result of the United States’ withdrawal from Afghanistan and its growing relationship with India. Many national security actors in Washington, from both parties, have been persuaded that pursuing a strategy to prevent Pakistan from falling into China’s geopolitical orbit is pointless due to Pakistan’s own growing relationship with China.
Although this is not a consensus viewpoint, it is a viewpoint that is shared across party lines. This helps to explain why, for instance, Pakistan’s ballistic missile program was recently sanctioned by Washington.
Strategic distance The change in the relationship between the two countries began during the Obama administration and accelerated under Trump. This shift is evident in the 2017 National Security Strategy, which primarily emphasized the threat posed by “threats from transnational terrorists and militants operating from within Pakistan.” Pakistan also needed to “intensify its counterterrorism efforts” and demonstrate that “it is a responsible steward of its nuclear assets,” according to the strategy.
