Abstract:
This thesis explains Pakistan‘s post 9/11 foreign policy trends during the President
Musharraf administration. Drawing upon analytical review of a diverse range of available
literature on the subject, the thesis interprets various factors‘ contribution to Pakistani policy
objectives and actions adopted during 2001-2008. It addresses a gap in the relevant literature and
moves beyond the available different causal explanations often contested by different intellectual
complications and political rhetoric. By drawing upon the concept of the security dilemma in the
post 9/11 international politics as a lens to understand the nature of Pakistan‘s regional and
domestic specific security and strategic compulsions, this research investigates and explains the
dynamics which drove Gen. Musharraf‘s pursuit of specific policy action in spite of being nuclear
power, its U-Turn on support for the Taliban. In doing this, it highlights the extent to which
changed post 9/11 Pakistan's foreign policy reinforced the immediate catalysts for Pakistan's
global and regional relations in the aftermath of the incident of 9/11. The primary argument of the
thesis is that Musharraf's post 9/11 foreign policy trends contributed to the hardening of Pakistan's
strategic, economic, socio-ethno-political perspectives, creating more complexities for Pakistan to
pursue its regional and national policy interests; which were mainly at variance with the US global
objectives in the post 9/11 scenario. Secondly, it argues that Pakistan-US relations during this
period were driven by a ‗Security Dilemma (Complex)' mindset, causing a shift between US
global and Pakistan's regional and domestic policy trends and objectives entailing different
transformations. Post Musharraf civilian leadership is still struggling to imbibe post 9/11 Pakistan's
foreign policy divergent trends to protect Pakistan's policy objectives.
