Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2014
Since Pakistan's founding in 1947, its relationship with the United States has gone through extreme highs and lows. Pakistanis often talk of American swings from alliance to abandonment. If the post-9/11 period of cooperation runs its course and ends in estrangement or conflict, it would only reinforce that long-standing pattern and lend credence to the idea that Washington and Islamabad are incapable of building a lasting foundation for any sort of mutually beneficial relationship.
Part of the problem between the United States and Pakistan throughout the first five decades of their interaction was that both sides failed to value the relationship on its own terms. In its cooperation with many other states, the United States often sees inherent value in trade, cultural affinities, or a shared worldview. In cooperation with Pakistan, on the other hand, Washington tended to focus on external goals, such as containing communism, opening secret talks with Beijing, or arming the Afghan mujahedeen. American leaders saw Pakistan as but a pawn in the broader geopolitical chess match.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.