Diplomatic Traffic

Diplomatic Traffic
According to diverse media reports, South Asian experts associated with incoming U.S. President Barack Obama are advocating that the next administration adopt a comprehensive, integrated, and fundamentally “new” approach towards Pakistan. The policies reportedly under consideration include increasing U.S. economic assistance, augmenting the transparency and accountability of U.S. aid flows, and working with a wider range of foreign countries and institutions seeking to promote Pakistan’s peace and security. Pakistani leaders have endorsed many of these policies in principle, but challenges remain.

BACKGROUND: An influential Obama adviser on South Asia, former CIA officer Bruce Riedel, has characterized Pakistan as “the most dangerous country in today's world.” Obama’s team worry that continued chaos in Pakistan could threaten a range of U.S. goals, including resolving the conflicts in Afghanistan and Kashmir, curbing nuclear nonproliferation, and promoting liberal, secular democracy in a Muslim country that has experienced long periods of military rule. Most seriously, it could allow al-Qaeda to develop further its incipient safe haven in northwest Pakistan, from which it could threaten new terrorist strikes against the United States and its allies.