ABSTRACT
No nation-state can survive without a foreign policy. Pakistan, hence, has its foreign policy too. Nonetheless, since its inception in 1947, it has oscillated between having a defective democracy and an autocracy. The (foreign) policy making institution, namely, the parliament, has been cornered by non-elective institutions such as civil bureaucracy and the military in the last 75 years. The civil bureaucracy controlled politics and foreign policy with the military as a junior partner during the 1950s. While invoking its agency, however, the Ayub-Khan-led military became the principal actor in October 1958. Thus, the military agency prevailed over politics, administration, and foreign policy during much of the 1960s, 1980s, and 2000s. In the intermittent periods, Pakistan theoretically had civilian dispensations. Practically, however, a civil government either fumbled at or failed to mark its agency to counterbalance the military vis-à-vis foreign policy. Consequently, the military prevailed over foreign policy making and operationalisation. In the contemporary context, too, the military has, while marking its agency, controlled the contours of foreign policy. The foregoing has been concluded in the light of agency theory of Foreign Policy Analysis (FPA), which the author has applied to analyse complex empirical facts.
