As Bangladesh approaches yet another defining political transition, the country has become the centre of an unusual and consequential diplomatic experiment. Over the past year, Washington has intensified its engagement with Bangladesh’s Islamist parties, most prominently Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI) and Islami Andolan Bangladesh (IAB). What began as a series of low-profile interactions has now evolved into an unmistakable policy shift—one that signals a strategic recalibration with the potential to reshape South Asia’s political and security landscape in deeply unsettling ways.

The Biden and Trump administrations may disagree sharply on domestic politics and global priorities, but on Bangladesh, they appear to have converged on a shared assumption: Islamist parties will command a larger share of power in Dhaka’s future, and the United States must therefore engage them directly. This outreach, however, is unfolding at precisely the moment when Bangladesh is at its most politically fragile, and when Islamist revivalism is at its most assertive since the early 1990s.

The risk is stark. Washington may be placing a calculated bet on forces whose rise could intensify regional instability, embolden extremist networks, and erode the secular foundations of the Bangladeshi state—foundations laid through immense sacrifice during the Liberation War of 1971.

A Sudden Pivot In Washington’s Bangladesh Policy

The shift did not arrive with a formal announcement; it crept in quietly. Earlier this year in Sylhet, officials from the US embassy held a meeting with leaders of Jamaat-e-Islami’s regional unit—an organisation historically linked to collaboration with the Pakistani army during the genocide of 1971. That meeting was followed by a string of increasingly public engagements: a US diplomat meeting a Jamaat leader at the American Club; former US ambassadors visiting Jamaat’s headquarters; an embassy-hosted Jamaat “delegation" discussing internal democracy and minority rights; and, most strikingly, a high-profile July visit by US chargé d’affaires Tracey Ann Jacobson to Jamaat’s central........

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