A Critical Analysis of US Official Discourse on Pakistan vis-a-vis Afghanistan under the Biden Presidency

Language is important in the formulation and construction of perceptions regarding allies and foes. In the case of US-Pakistan relations, conflicting themes based on oxymorons have been routinely used to depict the inherent complexities and contradictions in the relations. Using the theoretical framework of discourse analysis, this paper critically analyzes the corpus of US official discourse on Pakistan on the issue of Afghanistan under the Biden Presidency. The corpus of official statements is analyzed with reference to the wider US political culture as well as previous ‘texts’ / older discourse, thereby creating a degree of intertextuality. In this regard, the US official discourse shows four major themes, some of which are in tension with others, which inform overall US-Pakistan relations. They are also, in part, reflective of the tensions within US policies in the region and the War on Terror.