War on Terror and Challenges to the National Sovereignty of Pakistan
Abstract
In response to the terrorists attack on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, the US-led forces launched a global counterterrorism campaign. This war on terror has had pernicious impact on the state sovereignty in numerous cases. Pakistan – a front line state in this war – has been impacted by the war on terror in many ways. Above all, the Pakistan’s national sovereignty has been compromised several times in this war. This paper spotlights the cases of US drone strikes in Pakistani tribal areas, Salala check post attack and the killing of Osama in Abbottabad by the US forces without any prior approval or information sharing with Pakistan. The paper concludes that the US-led forces have undermined the national sovereignty of Pakistan. It prescribes that cooperation in intelligence, trust between allies, as well as respecting national sovereignty of states are very important factors for the winning war against terrorism.