Is it likely that the government of Pakistan is trying to delay the onset of proceedings against Raymond A. Davis, the man accused of allegedly killing two motorists on the streets of Lahore? This in order to buy time as back-channel negotiations run up against public sentiment, the natural political deadline in these circumstances? Yes. […]
Tehrik-e-Taliban, Pakistan’s contagion across the Kush, is bent on taking down the government in Islamabad by destroying the foundational liberal and multicultural bases that it had long promised to cherish. Militants have shot and killed the minorities minister, Shahbaz Bhatti, a man who had for some time challenged the fundamentally intolerant and morally insecure and […]
Zainab Jeewanjee discusses CNN coverage of Libya’s Gaddafi and recent uprisings. She weaves that story into a larger discussion of enemy, but rational world figures operating against American interests and how understanding their political objectives is key to an effective counterterrorism strategy post 9/11, specifically in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The New York Times published an op-ed this past Sunday on Pakistan’s insistence on a nuclear arsenal that assures it a minimally credible deterrence at a time when tens of millions of her people are going uneducated and ill-fed. Now, of course, there are many in Pakistan who think otherwise– for instance the hardline military […]
Politics in Pakistan has been roiling and bubbling over the pot. First, there was the recent emergency cabinet reshuffle, a move to appease a strong and ever stronger opposition– an opposition that despite its strength little desires to take control of a weak civilian government; better beggar its enemies. Then, two major opposition parties, the […]
The Obama administration has long sought to change the Muslim world’s opinions on American foreign policy in Pakistan and Afghanistan. From President Obama’s much hailed speech and somewhat prescient speech on democracy in the Middle East that he offered at the University of Cairo, to his under-appreciated attempts to correctly pronunciation the name of Muslim […]
President Barack Obama delivered his second State of the Union Address on Tuesday. Foreign policy did not top the agenda. Instead, as expected, the speech was heavy on domestic policy–even as an important election has swung past American politics, there’s one just around the corner. Indeed, foreign policy seemed to have sprung up in President […]
As the United States is trying to fight terrorism in different parts of the world, including Afghanistan, Pakistan, Lebanon and Egypt, evidence suggests that agencies tasked with domestic security have overlooked key aspects of home-grown threats and their root causes. Recent examples of failed attempts to attack Americans were linked to international hot spots. In […]
The recent tragic assassination of Salmaan Taseer, the Governor of Punjab, must give pause to anyone concerned about the security and stability of the liberal and equalizing views of the government and state of Pakistan. What actually happened here? And why does what happened matter to anyone outside of political Pakistan? The New York Times […]
The Islamabad station chief of the Central Intelligence Agency hastily departed from Pakistan last week after his cover was blown due to a suspected deliberate leak by Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence. This act is the latest evidence of the tense relationship between the two spy agencies. It is believed that his cover was blown in retaliation […]
A female suicide bomber has killed at least 41 Pakistanis at an aid distribution center near the Afghanistan border in North West Pakistan. This is the first time that a woman has been employed to detonate an explosive vest in a crowded area and marks an uptick in strategy in what has always a brutal […]
It hasn’t passed notice in the news cycle, but Pakistan and China are working together on a cooperative agreement worth at least $20 billion. The deal, which also establishes plans for at least $15 billion in private investment, was worked out during Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao’s visit to Pakistan, part of his tour of South […]
Today’s PBS Newshour coverage of President Obama’s Af/Pak review canvassed everything you need to know about how Pakistan and politics there feeds into the administration’s strategy to pull together a feasible exit from Afghanistan beginning July 2011. Here’s the video of the Newshour’s segment on the policy review released earlier today, December 16, 2010: Please […]
The news of Richard Holbrooke’s sudden death engulfed diplomatic circles in Washington with an ineffable sorrow. His condition was reported critical but stabilizing a day earlier, as his doctors hoped for a slow recovery after a lengthy surgery to repair a tear in his aorta. But 69 year old Richard Holbrooke could not survive. Holbrooke, whose forceful style […]
I can’t help but think that this is fairly obvious news: The U.S. intervention in Afghanistan won’t work unless the Pakistani government and military rounds up its Taliban allies and, in a manner of speaking, breaks the back of the various groups that constitute the Taliban–both the Afghanistan and Pakistan contingents. Elisabeth Bumiller, writing for […]