Geopolitical Modernity and Pakistan Foreign Relations: How relevant?

Abstract

This article aims to explore the way modernity has been impacting Pakistan’s foreign relations and policy, and whether it is relevant to use modernity as a political concept in order to understand them. The article is also an attempt to contextualize International Relations beyond the norms of Western Enlightenment by highlighting the real possibility for adoption of an interdisciplinary ground in order to approach foreign relations. To be sure, most of International Relations theoretical basis used to study Pakistan foreign relations is situated within the realist paradigm. This fact comes with no surprise give the historicity of this young nation, and the context on which its foreign relations were built over the past sixty years, with particular attention to the Cold War scenarios, which left a significant mark in South Asia region in general and in Pakistan in particular.