THE rapid transformations in international geopolitics negatively influence Pakistan and the United States’ multidimensional decades-old relationship. Instead of applying a reactionary or dismissal attitude, Islamabad must pursue a conciliatory approach to avert the diminishing trend in its rapport with Washington. Indeed, it’s a diplomatic debacle that an ally is expressing its serious apprehension over the long-range ballistic missile program of the country, which is vital to deter the military aggression of India.

Pakistan’s relevance in Washington’s foreign and strategic calculations has significantly lessened since the American troops withdrew from Afghanistan in August 2021. Besides, the US’s increasing competition for great power with China and expanding threshold alliance with India have created a divergence in Islamabad and Washington’s geopolitical outlook. Despite the deviation in their strategic interests and the outgoing Biden administration’s numerous sanctions aimed to undermine Pakistan’s missile capability, the Pakistani ruling elite is struggling to improve relations with the United States.

Pakistan’s military doctrine, especially its nuclear weapons posture, the principal goal is deterrence of any aggression by India. Therefore, its nuclear doctrine and posture were planned to offset India’s disparity in conventional forces and prevent it from nuclear blackmail. Consequently, they were influenced by the quantitative and qualitative reforms in India’s conventional and nuclear forces,........

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