ABSTRACT
Pakistan's relations with the USA are often described in colorful terms, a roller coaster or a joining of estranged partners, for example. This chapter presents brief discussions of the first two major periods of US-Pakistan strategic partnership and the breakups that ended them. It looks in greater depth at the third of bilateral engagements, the one that followed 9/11. The partition of the subcontinent on the British departure in 1947 left behind not just two newly independent states but also the seeds of long-term hostility which Pakistan soon saw as an existential threat. US-Pakistan relations became even more distant when in July 1977 General Zia-ul-Haq, the army chief of staff, overthrew Bhutto's elected civilian government and established a martial law regime that would last for eleven years. The attacks on New York and Washington of September 11, 2001, dramatically reordered US strategic priorities. US-Pakistan strategic engagement was focused on Afghanistan.
