Pakistan’s Cold War clienthood aligned it against Third World anti-imperial sentiment

Evidence

The Taliban is also not a principled anti-imperialist force. In addition to its willingness to negotiate with the United States in the 1990s, the Taliban has close ties to Pakistan and at times acts as a conduit of Pakistani influence in Afghanistan. As discussed earlier, Pakistan nurtured and cultivated the Taliban and, even today Pakistan’s military intelligence agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), maintains strong ties with the Afghan Taliban. In a region destroyed by three decades of war, with an economy dominated by opium production and sales and lacking in industry, the political forces that come into being must inevitably enact the agendas of greater powers. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 368 (#expands, via linked claim)

In the context of the Cold War, the United States had two objectives in the Middle East: to control the flow of oil and to keep the Soviet Union out. After an initial period when it tried to bring radical secular nationalists into the fold, it turned against them. This meant cultivating all forces that could counter radical secular nationalism and communism. At the top of this list were the Islamists. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 219 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

The Truman and Eisenhower administrations therefore claimed to support anticolonial national liberation movements; concretely, they announced their intention to aid developing nations by supporting projects that would build infrastructure and foster economic growth. But this economic aid came at a price—they demanded political allegiance. For instance, the United States first sought to bring Gamal Abdel Nasser’s Egypt under its wing through promises of financial aid. Nasser flirted with the Soviet Union, though, and the Eisenhower administration punished him by reneging on its promise to provide funding for the construction of a dam in Aswan. Nasser promptly nationalized the Suez Canal, which led Britain, France, and Israel to launch a war on Egypt. The United States (and the USSR) then intervened on Nasser’s side, allowing Egypt to finally get rid of its former colonial master—Britain. This example reveals the carrot-and-stick approach that the American elite employed again and again during the Cold War: using monetary incentives to win allies, punishing them when they strayed, but also acting to weaken the hold of former colonizer nations when possible. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 143 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• corroborated: 3 independent passages support this claim
• XREF: connects to: Wright aimed to interpret Third World transformation beyond Western ideological bounds.; US facilitated Muslim violence when it served Cold War interests — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 288; The Taliban functioned as Pakistan’s proxy, not a genuine anti-imperialist movement — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 368 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• The Taliban functioned as Pakistan’s proxy, not a genuine anti-imperialist movement #expands (0.70) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 368
• American Cold War strategy cultivated Islamists against secular nationalism #corroborates (0.60) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 219
• US Cold War aid coerced political allegiance through carrot-and-stick incentives. #expands (0.60) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 143
• Pakistan’s writers were suppressed through CIA-backed cultural countermeasures #expands (0.55)