Role of democracy play any role in Pakistan's foreign policy towards India? Navigating 2008 onwards era.
Keywords:
Pakistan foreign policy, Democracy, Pakistan foreign policy towards India, Pakistan India relationsAbstract
There is general conception that democratic values are reflected in the behavior of democracies' foreign policies, such as the fact that democracies strive to spread democracy to other parts of the world in order to make the world a better place to live, that democracies strive to keep peaceful relations with other democracies, and that democratic citizens and democratic institutions are always given a voice in the process of making decisions regarding foreign policy. However, there is considerable controversy as to whether democratic countries' foreign policy is actually conducted democratically or merely camouflaged in the name of democracy. Especially democracies like Pakistan's are unusual since they have never been liberal democracies. It vacillates between being a flawed democracy and an autocrat. This essay primarily seeks to explore whether 2008 onwards democratic transitions had any impact in Pakistan’s foreign policy in particular towards India. By reviewing existing literature extensively, this essay concludes that liberal peace theory fails to describe Pakistan policy toward India that even throughout the democratic period after 2008, Pakistan's policy with India seemed to be purely guided by realist logic, with ideological affinities with democracy playing a minimal role only to the extent that it helped the state's interests. Moreover, paper concludes that it is because of the lack of consensus between military and civilian leaderships, the fact that foreign policy has not been an election issue in Pakistan, and the fact that Pakistan defense policy is almost inseparable from its foreign policy are the three main reasons why civilian governments has been unable to assert any significant control over countries foreign policy.
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