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Setting the Record Straight

Keeping Focus on Long-Term Objectives

“[W]hile we do need to have a cooperative approach that involves many of our friends and allies in meeting with the Pakistanis, … as we work out with them a rough division of labor, the U.S., I believe, ought to be taking the lead in addressing the issues in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas. And given the difficulty of doing so, I suspect that we will not have a great deal of difficulty in convincing them to allow us to take the lead there. But as we all know, there is a real tension between our short-term tactical aims in trying to capture or kill terrorists across the border and militants in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas and our longer- term counterinsurgency pacification goals. We very much need to be focusing on the end state. What is it that we want this area to look like? ... In that context we need to have a common agenda with the Pakistani government and very much to include the military on counterinsurgency in that area. There needs to be, therefore, a focus on combining military efforts with economic, development and political development in those areas.”
—Robert L. Grenier, managing director and chairman for Global Security Consulting, Kroll, event, “Partnership for Progress: Advancing a New Strategy for Prosperity and Stability in Pakistan and the Region,” Center for American Progress, November 17, 2008

Advancing a Strategy for Stability in Pakistan

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Pakistani tribesmen prepare for operation against militants (AP)

Pakistan: Learning the Right Lessons from Iraq

Senator Robert P. Casey, Jr. (D-PA), Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Original Commentary for Middle East Bulletin.
Certainly, we cannot deny that Iraq’s Sunni Awakening offers some useful lessons for Pakistan. … Ultimately, Pakistan’s tribal leaders need to be integrated into any successful plan to defeat extremists.

To do so effectively, the United States must understand and exploit the cleavages among the different tribes and the various extremist groups. In essence, the United States should take the right lessons from Iraq and apply them to Pakistan, recognizing the serious differences between the two countries. …

One key principle … is the recognition that the United States needs to have an integrated strategy that uses all components of power. A short-term and long-term political and economic strategy must accompany any military approach in the tribal belt as it has in Iraq. Access the full article>>

Analysis

Partnership for Progress

Caroline Wadhams, Brian Katulis, Lawrence J. Korb & Colin Cookman, Center for American Progress

The United States needs to make a shift in its approach to Pakistan, recognizing both the importance of Pakistan to regional and international security, as well as the limitations of U.S. power. U.S. policy must recognize that the military component alone is insufficient to build stability and security in Pakistan. Military operations alone will not defeat Pakistan’s militant groups; addressing some of these groups will require a diverse approach, including strengthening governance and rule of law, creating economic opportunities, and

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Dealing With Pakistan Is Risky Business

Lee H. Hamilton, president, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, former chairman, House Foreign Affairs Committee

The United States needs a comprehensive plan to promote stability in the region with integrated security, political and economic components. Even then, the United States cannot achieve success and eliminate terrorist sanctuaries in the tribal areas without Pakistani help.

In recent months, tribal militias, or lashkars, have fought back against the Taliban. But the Taliban has killed hundreds of tribal elders in the last four years. The United States needs to discreetly help Pakistan defend traditional forms of tribal governance

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How Not to Lose Afghanistan (and Pakistan)

Peter Bergen, senior fellow, New America Foundation

As much as Pakistan suffers at the hands of Islamist insurgents, the country’s powerful military intelligence agency, Inter- Services Intelligence (ISI), has tolerated the Taliban, which it views as a backup force for asserting control of Afghanistan if the United States suddenly decides to cut and run. … [O]nly a long-term U.S. commitment will convince Pakistan’s government to end its tolerance for the militant groups headquartered on the country’s western border. …

To help tamp down the insurgency in FATA

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News

Heard on the Street

Transformational Approach Needed

Steve Coll, president & CEO, New America Foundation, and a staff writer at The New Yorker, event, “Partnership for Progress: Advancing a New Strategy for Prosperity and Stability in Pakistan and the Region,” Center for American Progress, November 17, 2008:

"I know this administration is going to have an enormous draw on its capacity at home and abroad. But I do think that one challenge that this subject raises is that incremental leadership is not going to be good enough. This is a time for a transformational approach in U.S. relations with Pakistan because the crisis in Pakistan is that grave. I wish it weren’t, but I think it is. I do think that on subjects like trade and the structure of the international engagement with Pakistan, and even on subjects like Kashmir, it is a time for big thinking because otherwise this problem may slip away from the international community."

Background Basics

Enhanced Partnership with Pakistan Act of 2008 (S. 3263)

The United States has provided Pakistan with at least $11 million in aid since 2001. As a result of continued problems in the region, U.S. officials have begun to examine ways to provide aid to Pakistan more effectively. One bipartisan effort, the Enhanced Partnership with Pakistan Act of 2008, introduced in the Senate this past summer aims to set a framework for revamping not only development assistance but also the nature of the U.S.-Pakistan relationship.

Introduced

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