“We need to see the Pakistani community in the US as a key resource to mobilising opinion in Pakistan’s favour, and they will be our first line of public diplomacy and outreach here in Washington. Strengthening and broadening the bilateral relationship would remain my key priorities in Washington,” Ambassador Rehman said.

While in India, our team had the opportunity to meet with many groups conducting citizen diplomacy to help improve India-Pakistan relations. These groups varied in their scope of approaches from being deeply involved in conflict transformation, to not directly taking a stance on the issue at all.

During the confrontation, the CIA also conducted revenge attacks in Pakistan; as following differences between American State Department and the CIA, at the occasion of almost every high level meeting between Pakistani and American authorities, the CIA carried out a drone attack. American premier agency effectively undermined public diplomacy of its own government.

The U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs has announced that 100 students from Pakistan are participating in the Global Undergraduate Exchange Program’s (Global UGRAD-Pakistan) arrival orientation in Washington, D.C.

Pakistan and the United States have maintained a critical strategic partnership...Despite the tense political situations throughout the year, educational and cultural programs have continued in an attempt to bridge the differences through more personal interactions.

Talk to Pakistani politicians, scholars... you are beyond the realm of politics and diplomacy and into the realm of hurt feelings. Words like “ditch” and “jilt” and “betray” recur. With Americans, they complain, it’s never a commitment, it’s always a transaction.

Throughout history, many nations have relied on historical phenomena, narratives, and myths to define their identities and their relation to the outside reality. When narratives survive the test of time and space, they become meta-narratives which shape the worldview and the conduct of the societies they encompass. In addition to having profound effects on the socio-cultural process, meta-narratives sometimes influence and explicate the international behavior of a nation.

Vigorous use of India’s soft power resources — films/film stars, music, fashion, cricket, writers, academics — can, over a period, bridge the trust deficit at people-to-people level and goad the decision makers to take the plunge and transform decades of hostility in to neighbourly peace.