Challenges Of Pakistan Foreign Policy.

Electronic media has virtually overtaken print media. Social media has overhauled reality and facts. Technology has made propaganda much easier and effective. Fake websites are delivering goods to the satisfaction of clients. Perception has assumed ultimate responsibility of providing inputs for decision-making processes. The impact of constant flow of information on human mind is immeasurable. Even the most unrelated and irrelevant viewpoint is being vehemently contested. Everything is happening on cellphones and laptops. Willingly or unwillingly, indeed, we all are vicariously involved in almost every debate. Every aspect of life has been affected either for the good or bad. Verily, it's a whole new world.

Foreign Policy decision-making process is no exception either. The standard determinants of Foreign Policy such as size of a country, geography, national interest, political stability and economic development remain the same. However, another factor has emerged as an important determinant of Foreign Policy i.e. creating perceptions or misperceptions by using technology. The electronic media is thus playing a vital role in shaping decisions. Technologically advanced countries prepare justifiable grounds before implementing pre-planned actions. Coverage on tv or social media brig forth the requisite rationale before, during and after any venture.

As if there weren't enough misunderstandings and misperceptions that unknowingly we are adding into the list some new ones. In Pakistan, lately one heard about an unprecedented way of projecting Foreign Policy. Besides drumming about having an 'independent' Foreign Policy, a strange determinant was introduced. Ghairat or honour. Any student of international relations would tell you that there is no such thing as an independent Foreign Policy as interests of States are intriguingly intertwined. If the United Kingdom or France tow the American line on the Ukraine war, does it mean London and Paris have no policy of their own? Secondly, honour perhaps used to be a driving force in making decisions in the medieval age. These days, even a superpower that might claim to have some kind of an independent Foreign Policy, has no hesitation in admitting its follies. It is strange that a country such as Pakistan having seriously weak economic indicators could defy a superpower and that too so openly.

If Foreign Policy is the depiction of a country's internal eco-political situation, just imagine the enormous...