The Foreign Policy of Pakistan: Ethnic Impacts on Diplomacy 1971-1994

Synopsis

Arguing that Pakistan's foreign policy is formulated and driven largely by domestic policies, and especially by ethnicity, this work looks at the multi-ethnic and multilingual structure of Pakistan and at the four main provinces - Sindh, Baluchistan, Punjab and the North-West Frontier Province. The author sets out to show how powerful cross-border relationships and distinct historical, linguistic, cultural and family links determine the way in the which the country's ethnic groups see their region and the world at large. He believes that it is the ethnicity of the various policy-making elites which affects the principal issues in Pakistani foreign policy - the relationship with India, nuclear policy, and Kashmir as a flashpoint in Indo-Pakistan relationships, as well as relationships with Islamic states and with the USA, Russia, China and other powers.