ABSTRACT The intensifying competition between the United States and China has been significantly reshaping the global order, presenting considerable challenges for states in the Asia‐Pacific region. As an emerging geopolitical construct, the region has posed formidable challenges and strategic constraints for Pakistan, compelling it to manage its historical alliances, redefine priorities, and formulate viable policy responses in the evolving global landscape. To unfold Pakistan's positioning, this paper asks how Pakistan navigates its foreign policy priorities and strategic calculations while dealing with the US–China competition? Based on the hedging framework, the paper argues that Pakistan's foreign policy positioning revolves around pragmatic hedging with either power in the US–China rivalry. Pakistan's geostrategic engagement with the United States and its geo‐economic and geo‐security partnership with China aim to cultivate a zero‐enemy stance/narrative, balancing competitive coexistence and maximizing returns from both powers. The evaluation demonstrates that Pakistan's national security strategic doctrine/policy prioritizes geo‐economics considerations over geopolitics to navigate its economic challenges, address its status dilemma in South Asian geopolitics, and manage complex geo‐security issues.
Jamali et al. (Tue,) studied this question.