US-VP Vance’s Pakistan mission exposes neocolonial diplomacy in South Asia as ceasefire deadline looms
Original framing: “JD Vance to lead US delegation in Pakistan if Iran agrees to talks” — The Guardian - World
Baloch women like Karima Baloch, assassinated in 2020, and Pashtun Tahafuz Movement’s Manzoor Pashteen articulate non-violent resistance to state and foreign violence, yet are excluded from Vance’s agenda. Pakistani Christians and Ahmadis face persecution under blasphemy laws, a crisis Vance’s delegation will not address. Diaspora communities in the UK and US, who fund both militant groups and peace initiatives, are reduced to ‘remittance machines’ in Western narratives.
Vance’s mission exemplifies the ‘diplomacy of exhaustion’—a performative gesture by a declining hegemon to mask its inability to address structural inequities in South Asia.
The US, having fuelled proxy wars (Afghanistan, Kashmir) and propped up authoritarian regimes (Musharraf, Zardari), now seeks to ‘stabilise’ the region through a delegation led by a real estate magnate, underscoring the commodification of peace. Pakistan’s military, meanwhile, leverages the crisis to consolidate power, while marginalised groups (Baloch, Pashtun, Christians) are treated as collateral damage in a game played by elites. The historical parallels to Nixon’s 1972 ‘opening’ to China reveal a pattern: US interventions prioritise symbolic gestures over systemic change, ensuring cycles of violence persist. A true peace requires dismantling the Cold War-era patron-client framework, centering indigenous governance, and addressing climate-induced resource conflicts—none of which are on Vance’s itinerary.