Pakistan and Afghanistan’s straining relationship is not surprising given their history. However, things seem to have reached a new low recently. The recent Taliban government has made themselves out to be very difficult neighbours and has proven to become a challenge of engagement for Pakistan due to their extreme stances and uncooperative nature. However the blame cannot be fully put on either Pakistan or Afghanistan for this current relationship. I believe that the United States has considerably contributed to souring the relations between these two Muslim countries. After the September 11 attacks, the United States designed, mobilised, and implemented a grand narrative with the war against terrorism at its core, which had the consequence of dragging countries such as Pakistan into the midst of it. 



The US’s aggressive approach did not leave nations many options for neutrality. Refusing to actively participate and support the new American policies runs the risk of incurring the wrath of the hegemonic United States in the form of sanctions, halting a nation’s economic development and international standing. A clear example of this draconic stand is the Iranian case, which was one of the states that opposed the United States and was therefore severely punished and buried in sanctions that still face repercussions to this day. During these times Pakistan found itself in a situation where, due not only to the aforementioned factor, maintaining neutrality could not be an option.

The second reason, apart from the American intransigence, was India’s strong vocal support of the US which meant a possible Pakistani neutrality might threaten their standing internationally and from a militaristic viewpoint as well since the country heavily relies on the Americans for aid. Thus Pakistan cooperated by allowing the United States to have military bases on Pakistani soil as the US invaded Afghanistan and provided extra military support in specific instances. This support was given in exchange for short-term monetary relief and economic aid which at the time seemed satisfactory but due to a lack of accountability, has not yielded any long-term benefits. The most glaring side-effect of this decision was the immediate antagonization of a neighbouring country i.e. Afghanistan. These strained relations have resulted in a national security threat that has plagued the country for over a decade. The most vivid example was the Peshawar School Attack in 2014 in which 124 children of Army Public School were killed in Peshawar. Pakistan has made several attempts at diplomatically engaging with Afghanistan, such as Pakistan’s recent pledge of $28 million in humanitarian aid to Afghanistan, as well as their attempts to diplomatically resolve their border disputes despite Afghanistan’s aggressive stance.

Another factor in the failures of public diplomacy by Pakistan is an inconsistency with their foreign policy. While Pakistan wishes to engage with Afghanistan as seen through the aid mentioned before, the Afghan refugee crisis and Pakistan’s handling of that issue has unintentionally become a source of ire in the ties between the two countries with the Pakistani government ordering the return of 1.7 million Afghan refugees. This situation obviously deserves to be analysed from a nuanced perspective and is not as black and white as it seems however it did negatively affect the Afghan state’s perception of Pakistan. Although a major contributor to the current sour relations, I believe the biggest catalyst that led up to this point was the United States dragging Pakistan into their grand designs.

Although, through US support, Pakistan was able to obtain billions of dollars, ultimately they were unable to funnel that successfully in the development of the country and only deepened their debt crisis, rendering the aid moot. In addition to that, the nation managed to antagonise one of their neighbouring countries which increased the threat to Pakistan’s national security. So, in the long-term, Pakistan’s involvement in the war on terror has not been beneficial, especially from a geopolitical perspective, and only benefited the United States.

Pakistan’s approach of patience and preferring peaceful engagement is, in my opinion, the correct one. Pakistan must employ more efficient strategies of public diplomacy and engagement to improve relations with Afghanistan. To achieve that goal Pakistan must have its foreign policy in line with their public diplomacy objectives. These two aspects cannot be in conflict if public diplomacy is to be made successful. In this growing world of globalisation Pakistan must learn to effectively manoeuvre itself so that it can become a nation that is able to carry out its foreign policy successfully instead of being swept up by the foreign policy of superpowers like the United States. Currently, Pakistan has to worry about defence concerns from both India as well as Afghanistan. By improving diplomatic relations with Afghanistan through public diplomacy methods, Pakistan will be able to greatly ease its border concerns and allow itself to gain a geostrategic foothold in the region once more.