The last two decades have witnessed a number of extremely important events takin g place across the globe.

Starting from the fall of Sovient Union and emergence of United State of America as the sole superpower down to 9/11 and the more rec ent acts of terrorism all around the world, global economic melt-down and europe an recession are a few examples of the scale and diversity of events that have h elped shaping up the current geopolitical landscape as we see it today. This has led for a global need for countries to look inward, review and re-evaluate thei r relationships with the outside world and to seek new tools and ideas to better protect their existence and mutual interests. Old concepts of freedom, absolute sovereignity and national superemacy are no longer meaningful in the traditiona l sense in this emerging world order. In the light of above situation, the role of the foreign office has thus become pivotal for every country that seeks to play a positive and dynamic role in the international stage. Pakistan is no exception. In fact, both historically and ge opolitically, Pakistan is positioned such that it can not afford to disengage wi th its neighbours, in particular, and the rest of the world, in general. Looking back at Pakistan up until early 90s, one is tempted to say that Pakistan mainta ined an aggressive foreign policy that was just about meeting its core objective s. It was partly due to the success of Pakistan's foreign policy that enabled it to pursue Nuclear technology, host OIC summit and contain Soveit Union during t he Afghan invasion, to name a few. Unfortunately, ever since Pakistan has gone t hrough a lot of turmoil internally which has had a detrimental effect on its for eign policy, like it had on nearly all other organs of the state. Foreign polici es do not exist in isolation and gain strength and effectiveness from internal p olitical and economic stability. This makes the role of the Pakistan's foreign o ffice all the more demanding as it does not enjoy the right level of support and backing from the state. With the above background, it is now possible to delve into specific details of some of the more important contemporary foreign policy issues. Pakistan has to redefine and limit her role in the so-called, global war-against -terrorism. This is a broad and hugely controvercial issue both nationally and i nternationally. What started as a targetted hunt for a few Al-Qaeda terrorists i n the mountains of tora-bora has now stretched all over Aghanistan with troops f rom as many as ??? european countries under the banner of NATO. This has led to extremely volatile situation in Pakistan's tribal agencies where escaping fighte rs from bordering Afghanistan often seek refuge. Frequent unauthorised and illeg al drone strikes by American forces within Pakistani territory in pursuit of sus pected Talibans has killed hundred of innocent Pakistani nationals including wom en and children. The irony is the Pakistan is supposedly an ally of the United S tates of America in this war and yet its own territorial integrity is being viol ated on almost daily basis. This situation is pushing more conservative sections of the society towards extremism with the outcome that every few days suicide t errorist attacks take place in major cities of Pakistan. Apart from security age ncies, this is a complete failure of Pakistan's foreign policy apparatus. Pakist an needs to work with American and Aghan authorities to assist an exit strategy for American and NATO troops as well as ensuringa stable Afghanistan in the post -NATO. In parallel, Pakistan has to draw the attention of the international comm nunity towards the notorious drone strikes which are aviolation of the internati onal law and are completely counter-productive from Pakistan's point of view.

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