The U.S. policy toward Pakistan during the Cold War, after the Cold War, and especially during the post-9/11 years, has experienced many ups and downs, which have affected the Islamabad-Washington relations. Following the declaration of the US’s new strategy in South Asia and Afghanistan by Donald Trump, his explicit verbal attacks against Pakistan over its role in supporting the terrorist groups and also his invitation to the Indian officials to play a more significant role in Afghanistan, pushed the US-Pakistan relations into a new phase. Now, the question is, given the many challenges in relations between the two countries and also Pakistan's geopolitical position in the region, will Washington's policy towards Islamabad see a fundamental change?
Since independence, Pakistan has always been the focus of the U.S. attention. During these years, different topics have been introduced between the two countries, such as cooperation during the Cold War in the form of military alliances, countering communism in Afghanistan, Pakistan’s nuclear bombs and arsenal, Pervez Musharraf’s military coup, the war in Afghanistan in 2001, conflicts in Kashmir, the fight against terrorism, and Pakistan’s relationships with al-Qaeda, the Taliban, and the Haqqani Network. over these years, different American presidents have adopted different policies towards Islamabad- from full cooperation and alliance to sanction and reduction of political relation- based on different circumstances as well as the U.S. national interests.
With the beginning of the presidency of Donald Trump, who had previously taken a hard line stance against Pakistan during his campaign, the relations between the two countries entered a new phase. This study has examined the U.S. policy toward Pakistan during Donald Trump's presidency.
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