CHARACTERISED by drift, Pakistan’s foreign policy appears to be rudderless. It has neither clarity nor coherence to meet complex regional and international challenges or respond to fast-moving global developments.

Lacking any vision or strategic direction, the country’s foreign policy consists of sporadic, ad hoc and reactive endeavours. Compounding the incoherence is the tendency to deal with individual issue areas in silos, overlooking their link with other areas, rather than evolve an integrated policy keeping in view the overall external environment.

This is mainly the consequence of the absence of an overarching policy framework with clearly spelt-out and prioritised goals. Rhetoric has often substituted for policy, while goals have outmatched diplomatic resources. The inability for many years to frame long-term policy objectives has often led to muddled goals reflecting tactical, short-term considerations. Policymakers work with outdated paradigms and mental maps of the past. They have not been replaced by a framework that is predicated on the country’s present domestic strength and international relevance, while adapting that to new global realities. True, efforts at policy reorientation have been stymied by domestic political instability and economic difficulties. But they have also been impeded by other factors, including lack of focus and imagination.

A new government is expected to take stock of the country’s foreign relations, offer a foreign policy vision and spell out future priorities. Five months on, Shehbaz Sharif’s government has done none of the above. A broad foreign policy review is essential, given the geopolitical changes sweeping the world. With power shifts and realignments taking place in an unsettled, multipolar world........

© Dawn