The West needs a new Strategy for Pakistan...

[fatman17]

The West Needs a New Strategy for Pakistan

• BY Daniel Twining
• NOVEMBER 25, 2014

A new report by the German Marshall Fund and the Swedish Defense Research Agency argues that the United States and Europe should adopt a fresh approach to Pakistan as the decade-plus conflict in Afghanistan winds down. We now need a policy that focuses squarely on Pakistan rather than one in which that pivotal country is treated as an adjunct of a policy towards Afghanistan. As Western forces depart the region, violent extremism engulfs the Middle East, China and India assert their growing regional influence, and Pakistan's internal instabilities mount, a new situation in the region requires a new approach.

Broadly, the report's co-authors -- Dhruva Jaishankar, Andrew Small, John Rydqvist, and myself -- argue that the Western allies need an economic strategy to invest in Pakistan's potential as an emerging market alongside a security strategy that pays more attention to the country's alarming nuclear weapons buildup. The transatlantic allies, which are Pakistan's major donors and important trading partners, need to more robustly engage with civil society and civilian institutions in Pakistan as part of a long-term strategy to tilt the civil-military balance in a healthier direction. We also need a more coordinated approach to counter-terrorism cooperation that leverages a growing realization within Pakistan -- including within the security services -- that violent extremism is more of a threat to the Pakistani state itself than to its neighbors and the wider world.

The report makes a set of policy recommendations for the transatlantic community in four key areas: economic development, civil-military relations and governance, nuclear proliferation, and counter-terrorism.

Economic Development
The United States and Europe should:

• Support and actively shape the new wave of regional infrastructure initiatives -- and new economic entities such as the Chinese-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank -- to facilitate Pakistan's regional economic integration.
• Utilize economic influence, bilaterally and multilaterally, to bolster the civilian government's efforts to advance the more politically difficult aspects of the connectivity agenda, particularly vis-à-vis India, whose vibrant markets could substantially boost Pakistan's development trajectory.
• Liberalize trade and investment to boost Pakistan's productive sector rather than emphasizing assistance to the government.
• Use the military drawdown from Afghanistan as an opportunity to reposition the West's relationship with Pakistan around realizing its potential as an emerging market

Civil-Military Relations and Governance
The transatlantic allies should:

• Invest narrowly, but systematically, in key areas like energy supply and education, rather than spread Western public investments thinly across a wide range of sectors and actors.
• Expand U.S. and European funding for Pakistan's public education system, but tie this assistance directly to curriculum reform to stem radicalization in the classroom.
• Invest in strengthening the Pakistani parliament's standing committees to enhance government oversight, and expand education and training of the Pakistani judiciary.
• Invest concertedly in media training, including through exchanges for members of the
• Pakistani print and broadcast media, and expand media outreach into Pakistan directly through U.S. and European public broadcasters to counter anti-Western and illiberal propaganda.
• Hold the government accountable for human rights abuses that are within its power to mitigate, including by imposing standards of conditionality on assistance programs, as well as building civilian capacity to mitigate abuses stemming from absence of the rule of law.

Nuclear Proliferation

• We argue that the West should:
• Highlight the dangers posed by Pakistan's nuclear development -- specifically its development of tactical nuclear weapons -- through official public statements, and help define clearer incentives for Pakistan to adopt a more stabilizing nuclear posture.
• Insert and elevate the discussion of Pakistan's nuclear program in bilateral and multilateral dialogues -- both within the transatlantic community and with regional and global partners, particularly China.
• Further strengthen export controls for sensitive and dual-use technologies.

Counterterrorism
The transatlantic partners should:

• Establish a clearer division of labor between the United States, the European Union, and NATO, including by assigning a concrete role to the European Union.
• Engage in a deeper transatlantic dialogue about the strategic implications of Pakistan's support of militancy to develop common responses.
• Facilitate Afghanistan-Pakistan cooperation on counter-terrorism, with the objective of better tracking militancy in the region, and improving law enforcement and customs procedures.
• Make a more focused and cohesive effort to support wider police reform and capacity-building rather than channeling security assistance mainly to the armed forces.

These recommendations are modest rather than revolutionary; most will take years to bear fruit. They provide a basic roadmap for Western engagement with Pakistan, particularly in areas that have been largely neglected by the United States and Europe over the past decade. As great powers like China and Russia increase their focus on Pakistan, it is time for Europe and the United States to do the same -- with an eye not so much on the future of Afghanistan, which has dominated our strategic thinking since 9/11, but on its far larger, more combustible, nuclear-armed neighbor.

Arif Ali/AFP/Getty Images

 

[VCheng]

The recommendations, positive as they are, are not very likely to be implemented as mentioned in the report.

 

[Levina]

Let me first begin by saying Pakistan can not be stabilised till India is not involved or till the Kashmir issue is not solved.Efforts should be made by both the countries to resolve this issue first as Kashmir is the root cause for all the rivalry between the 2 countries and also to an extent the reason for terrorism on both sides.
And any new strategy by US and others has chances to be imperiled by the same old problems of weak governance, political instability, and widespread corruption which would water down the efforts and also undermine the effectiveness of billions of dollars that the US and others 've spent on development in Pak.

The transatlantic allies, which are Pakistan's major donors and important trading partners, need to more robustly engage with civil society and civilian institutions in Pakistan as part of a long-term strategy to tilt the civil-military balance in a healthier direction

For good or bad Pakistan should keep foreign forces at bay.

Expand U.S. and European funding for Pakistan's public education system, but tie this assistance directly to curriculum reform to stem radicalization in the classroom.

For eons now there has been no accounting into where the funds go.They should be allocated properly.

Highlight the dangers posed by Pakistan's nuclear development -- specifically its development of tactical nuclear weapons -- through official public statements, and help define clearer incentives for Pakistan to adopt a more stabilizing nuclear posture.

Right!
Pakistan right now has the fastest growing nuclear programme which is a worrying trend.
The fact Pakistan faces more severe security challenges than those of the other nuclear weapon states due to its history of high intensity and low-intensity conflicts, higher levels of domestic instability and the history of cross border terrorism puts Pakistani nuclear weapons security at risk.
Pakistan’s deployment of tactical nuclear weapons on short-range missiles is another threat in the region.

As great powers like China and Russia increase their focus on Pakistan, it is time for Europe and the United States to do the same

Before Pakistan becomes a topic of tug of war between these countries either PA or Pak govt should take measures to stop their influence in the country.

 

[Capt.Popeye]

The recommendations, positive as they are, are not very likely to be implemented as mentioned in the report.

Precisely. A new Strategy is already in place and it has little similarity to what Daniel Twining proposes.

 

[Thorough Pro]

First part is lunatic, india has no role. period, except stopping terrorism in Pakistan. Kashmir resolution - end of indian occupation and merging with Pakistan would be a great leap in normalizing relations between the two countries, slowing down arms race and economic development of the region.

Let me first begin by saying Pakistan can not be stabilised till India is not involved or till the Kashmir issue is not solved.

 

[Levina]

First part is lunatic, india has no role. period, except stopping terrorism in Pakistan.

That goes both ways.

Kashmir resolution - end of indian occupation and merging with Pakistan would be a great leap in normalizing relations between the two countries,

Nope...LOC should be made IB instead, that is if you really want "peace" in the region.

slowing down arms race and economic development of the region.

Arms race would not slow down because many western countries have been selling us, i.e India and Pakistan, their arms and none of those countries would like to see us in peace.
It is only a kinda a hypocrisy that on one side west displays its sympathies towards Pak and on the other side pumps it with their arms so that peace evades this region.

 

[VCheng]

Precisely. A new Strategy is already in place and it has little similarity to what Daniel Twining proposes.

Articles such as these are usually planted, begging for Pakistan's point of view to be given more credence. They usually fail.

 

[Capt.Popeye]

Articles such as these are usually planted, begging for Pakistan's point of view to be given more credence. They usually fail.

That may well be so; after all what are organisations like the Atlantic Council for?
But now matters have gone beyond all that.

 

[VCheng]

That may well be so; after all what are organisations like the Atlantic Council for?
But now matters have gone beyond all that.

The realization of just how much the environment has changed will eventually sink in, but traditionally late.

 

[Capt.Popeye]

The realization of just how much the environment has changed will eventually sink in, but traditionally late.

True that. 'Much water has flowed beneath the bridge' since the time that Jinnah said to Margaret Bourke-White in an interview 'this country is the center of events in the region. You need us (more than we need you)'. While slowly waving a long bony forefinger in the air (in her words).
The world sees things differently and more importantly......is ready to act differently.

 

[jha]

Looks like another article with Pakistani POV. Not likely to be implemented though. Western nations have already formulated their policy

 

[Zarvan]

The West Needs a New Strategy for Pakistan

• BY Daniel Twining
• NOVEMBER 25, 2014

A new report by the German Marshall Fund and the Swedish Defense Research Agency argues that the United States and Europe should adopt a fresh approach to Pakistan as the decade-plus conflict in Afghanistan winds down. We now need a policy that focuses squarely on Pakistan rather than one in which that pivotal country is treated as an adjunct of a policy towards Afghanistan. As Western forces depart the region, violent extremism engulfs the Middle East, China and India assert their growing regional influence, and Pakistan's internal instabilities mount, a new situation in the region requires a new approach.

Broadly, the report's co-authors -- Dhruva Jaishankar, Andrew Small, John Rydqvist, and myself -- argue that the Western allies need an economic strategy to invest in Pakistan's potential as an emerging market alongside a security strategy that pays more attention to the country's alarming nuclear weapons buildup. The transatlantic allies, which are Pakistan's major donors and important trading partners, need to more robustly engage with civil society and civilian institutions in Pakistan as part of a long-term strategy to tilt the civil-military balance in a healthier direction. We also need a more coordinated approach to counter-terrorism cooperation that leverages a growing realization within Pakistan -- including within the security services -- that violent extremism is more of a threat to the Pakistani state itself than to its neighbors and the wider world.

The report makes a set of policy recommendations for the transatlantic community in four key areas: economic development, civil-military relations and governance, nuclear proliferation, and counter-terrorism.

Economic Development
The United States and Europe should:

• Support and actively shape the new wave of regional infrastructure initiatives -- and new economic entities such as the Chinese-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank -- to facilitate Pakistan's regional economic integration.
• Utilize economic influence, bilaterally and multilaterally, to bolster the civilian government's efforts to advance the more politically difficult aspects of the connectivity agenda, particularly vis-à-vis India, whose vibrant markets could substantially boost Pakistan's development trajectory.
• Liberalize trade and investment to boost Pakistan's productive sector rather than emphasizing assistance to the government.
• Use the military drawdown from Afghanistan as an opportunity to reposition the West's relationship with Pakistan around realizing its potential as an emerging market

Civil-Military Relations and Governance
The transatlantic allies should:

• Invest narrowly, but systematically, in key areas like energy supply and education, rather than spread Western public investments thinly across a wide range of sectors and actors.
• Expand U.S. and European funding for Pakistan's public education system, but tie this assistance directly to curriculum reform to stem radicalization in the classroom.
• Invest in strengthening the Pakistani parliament's standing committees to enhance government oversight, and expand education and training of the Pakistani judiciary.
• Invest concertedly in media training, including through exchanges for members of the
• Pakistani print and broadcast media, and expand media outreach into Pakistan directly through U.S. and European public broadcasters to counter anti-Western and illiberal propaganda.
• Hold the government accountable for human rights abuses that are within its power to mitigate, including by imposing standards of conditionality on assistance programs, as well as building civilian capacity to mitigate abuses stemming from absence of the rule of law.

Nuclear Proliferation

• We argue that the West should:
• Highlight the dangers posed by Pakistan's nuclear development -- specifically its development of tactical nuclear weapons -- through official public statements, and help define clearer incentives for Pakistan to adopt a more stabilizing nuclear posture.
• Insert and elevate the discussion of Pakistan's nuclear program in bilateral and multilateral dialogues -- both within the transatlantic community and with regional and global partners, particularly China.
• Further strengthen export controls for sensitive and dual-use technologies.

Counterterrorism
The transatlantic partners should:

• Establish a clearer division of labor between the United States, the European Union, and NATO, including by assigning a concrete role to the European Union.
• Engage in a deeper transatlantic dialogue about the strategic implications of Pakistan's support of militancy to develop common responses.
• Facilitate Afghanistan-Pakistan cooperation on counter-terrorism, with the objective of better tracking militancy in the region, and improving law enforcement and customs procedures.
• Make a more focused and cohesive effort to support wider police reform and capacity-building rather than channeling security assistance mainly to the armed forces.

These recommendations are modest rather than revolutionary; most will take years to bear fruit. They provide a basic roadmap for Western engagement with Pakistan, particularly in areas that have been largely neglected by the United States and Europe over the past decade. As great powers like China and Russia increase their focus on Pakistan, it is time for Europe and the United States to do the same -- with an eye not so much on the future of Afghanistan, which has dominated our strategic thinking since 9/11, but on its far larger, more combustible, nuclear-armed neighbor.

Arif Ali/AFP/Getty Images

Well another piece of crap and lies written by some slave of west

 

[VCheng]

True that. 'Much water has flowed beneath the bridge' since the time that Jinnah said to Margaret Bourke-White in an interview 'this country is the center of events in the region. You need us (more than we need you)'. While slowly waving a long bony forefinger in the air (in her words).
The world sees things differently and more importantly......is ready to act differently.

Jinnah's Pakistan sank in 1971. What remains now is just flotsam looking for the cliffs on the shore to bash itself into oblivion, and there is a storm brewing to do just that.

 

[Capt.Popeye]

Jinnah's Pakistan sank in 1971. What remains now is just flotsam looking for the cliffs on the shore to bash itself into oblivion, and there is a storm brewing to do just that.

Unfortunately, yes... that prospect seems possible, unless........