The U.S.–Pakistani Relations 2013–2018

Abstract

Some of the highly controversial 2011 incidents – the bin Laden raid at Abbotabad or the Salala attack at the Afghan–Pakistani border – broke the promising future of the U.S.–Pakistan Strategic Dialogue established in 2010. During the months leading up to the American presidential elections in 2012, U.S.–Pakistani bilateral relations had reached their lowest. In Pakistan, it was the newly elected, basically anti-American PM Nawaz Sharif, in office since May 2013, who had to stabilize the weakened U.S.–Pakistani partnership. In the summer of 2014, the Pakistani leadership launched the military operation ‘Zard-e-Azb’ against terrorist groups active along the Afghan–Pakistani border in North Waziristan. Nevertheless, this move could not change the negative opinion on Sharif’s foreign policy, since the country itself was becoming globally isolated.