Lessons on Influencing Nationalism to Align National Interests: Stemming the Tide of Pakistan's Chaos

Abstract

Pakistan’s rapidly deteriorating situation requires the United States to use strategic foreign policy to prevent a spiral into chaos. The U.S. may be able to influence Pakistani behavior by appealing to Pakistani nationalism and national interests to achieve stability, drawing on lessons from past successes with Spain and Poland. Inherent within this process, the U.S. needs to come to understand its own nationalism and how that positively and negatively affects cooperation with other states. This understanding can further U.S. national interests while a lack of understanding could undermine U.S. interests. Moreover, U.S. foreign policy needs to remain adaptable to satisfy current U.S. national interests while staying flexible enough to tackle future challenges should those interests change. And though different administrations set their own priorities and thus pursue different foreign policies, these case studies form a foundation for future applications.