Foreign policy as a distinct area of inquiry connects international relations with the study of domestic politics. Currently Pakistan’s foreign policy is facing grave challenges both internally and externally given its geographic location, internal dynamics and growing international influences. In contemporary politics, the lines between domestic and foreign policy are blurred and complicated. Foreign policy is defined as the totality of the country’s policies toward and interactions with the environment beyond its borders.
Internal instability and violence has escalated in the recent years due to the on-going Taliban insurgency, increasing militancy and extremism, economic decay in the country and failure to develop democratic institutions. It has weakened the democratic process and questioned the ability of elected political leadership to achieve its objectives of a secure and stable Pakistan. Moreover, it has failed to deliver on the economic front, starting with basic needs to improved international economic cooperation. Regionally, the tensions between Pakistan, India, Afghanistan and Iran continue to destabilize the security environment. Pakistan’s alliance with the US in its global war on terror has generated a serious and hot debate between analysts and leaders of public opinion, as both countries are cooperating without trust, using military options and conventional methods to achieve their objectives without much success. Globally, Pakistan’s image has deteriorated as its critics term it a home of global jihadis and extremists. Their operations and targets are not restricted to Pakistan or the region, thereby posing a global threat.
Most debates, conferences, seminars address the issues confronting Pakistan’s Foreign Policy from the traditional realist perspective, either consciously or unconsciously, taking Pakistan as unitary entity acting rationally. The debate in Pakistan has mostly been revolving around the rationality of different policy options or sincerity of individuals. The Conference will look at Pakistan foreign policy from the different levels of analysis Domestic, Regional and International. It will bring together the differing foreign policy positions of Centrists / Establishment / Pakistani Nationalists, Islamists who have been traditionally allied with the Centrists (with differences emerging after 9/11), Liberal, Center Left, and ethno linguistic nationalist perspectives to look at Pakistan. It will also look at the impact of regional as well as international environment on Pakistan foreign policy. The Conference will also bring together regional and international scholars to enrich the debate by sharing how Pakistan’s foreign policy is perceived from outside.
A scholarly debate on these internal and external challenges is important not only for the students of international relations and academia but policy makers as such discourses become important inputs for decision makers. Policy oriented papers by practitioners and academicians will be of great significance as they will lead to reevaluation of foreign policy and formulation of new or modified strategies reflecting the national interest of Pakistan without posing threat to its neighbors and major players in international politics.
The broad theme of the conference may be divided into sub-themes focusing on varying domestic, regional and international perspectives of foreign policy around which the various sessions would be organized.
1. Domestic perspectives/factors determining foreign policy, – dominance of security policy, governance, democracy, religious/secular/ethno linguistic nationalism, NGOs etc,
2. The Impact of neighborhood on Pakistan’s Foreign options – India, Afghanistan, Iran, China
3. Extremism, sectarianism and terrorism- regional and international dimensions
4. Taliban insurgency in Pakistan and Afghanistan: a nexus?
5. Pakistan foreign policy and relationship with extra regional powers – USA, Europe, Russia, Middle East
6. Political Economy of Pakistan’s Foreign Policy
7. Regional perceptions of Pakistan’s Foreign Policy – Especially India, Afghanistan, Iran, Bangladesh
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