Pakistan's Foreign Policy in a Multipolar World: Strategic Diversification, Managed Interdependence, and the Limits of Strategic Autonomy

Abstract

The current international system is shifting from unipolarity to multipolarity, as
multiple centers of economic, political and strategic power emerge. This systemic
transition has reshaped developing countries' foreign policy options, opening new
avenues for multi-vector cooperation and highlighting severe structural issues of
economic dependence and strategic autonomy. In this context, Pakistan is crucial,
as the country is located at the intersection of three core regions of the world,
namely South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East, and maintains warm
bilateral relationships with four major poles of the world: China, the USA, Russia
and Saudi Arabia. This paper examines Pakistan's operational approach to strategic
diversification, which is based on diplomatic interaction, trade relations, and
investment cooperation. We use an integrated International Relations (IR)
approach of hedging, balancing, and complex interdependence to examine how
Pakistan uses economic diplomacy to cope with great-power competition. The
analysis shows that strategic diversification has led to greater flexibility in
Pakistan's contemporary diplomacy and created important avenues for
cooperation. However, it has structurally failed to bring any substantive change in
the country's efforts to attain strategic autonomy, due to continued economic
deficits, external debt obligations, and the vulnerabilities of managed
interdependence.