The United States and Pakistan 1947–2000: Disenchanted Allies

“This is the most comprehensive and balanced survey of U.S.- Pakistan relations yet written and is unlikely soon to be surpassed. . . . Kux’s honest rendering of the past will serve Americans and Pakistanis well as they grope for a new and more stable relationship.”

STEPHEN P. COHEN, Brookings Institution

From the moment Pakistan gained its independence in 1947, its relations with the United States have careened between intimate partnership and enormous friction — reflecting the ups and downs of global and regional geopolitics and disparate national interests. Although the Cold War is over, Pakistan retains strategic importance for Washington, not least because of its nuclear standoff with India, its festering enmity with India over Kashmir, its chronic political and economic instability, the worrying rise of fundamentalism, and Islamabad’s problematic links with the Taliban. This book, drawing heavily on primary documentary sources and interviews, is the first comprehensive account of this roller-coaster relationship.

Dennis Kux is a retired State Department South Asia specialist who dealt with India and Pakistan for more than two decades, serving in Pakistan from 1957 to 1959 and 1969 to 1971. He was the U.S. ambassador to Côte d’Ivoire from 1986 to 1989. Ambassador Kux worked on this book as a scholar-in-residence at ADST and the Middle East Institute and as a Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.