Z H Softs

Outline

1. Introduction
2. Historical Perspective
   • The First Engagement
   • The Second Engagement
   • The Problem of Sanctions
3. Pakistan and War on Terrorism
   • Challenges for Musharraf’s Pakistan
   • Regional Security Environment
   • Domestic Order
   • Challenges for United States
   • Anti-Americanism
4. Policy Recommendation for Pakistan
5. Policy Recommendation for U.S.
   • India and Pakistan
   • Institution Building
   • Educational Reforms
   • Political Islam
   • Economic and Security Assistance and Sanction Policy
6. Conclusion

Introduction

Why is it that Pakistan has rarely disappeared for any length of time from the United States’ strategic radar screen? For more than five decades, it has loomed large in one form or another, as either a staunch ally, a troublesome friend, or even a threat. Now, for the first time, it is all of these things.

The war on terrorism may have provided the rationale for the current U.S. reengagement with Pakistan, but this war neither limits the relationship’s scope nor exhausts the challenges it faces. The reengagement has merged with Pakistan’s own reform effort, America’s evolving strategic relationship with South Asia, and the broader issue of democracy in the Muslim world. And in Pakistan and beyond, this new relationship collides with the crosscurrents of religious extremism.

But U.S. policy choices toward Pakistan are complex and imperfect. Though Pakistan is not a failed state nor a failing or a rogue state, it has had, to varying degrees, tendencies of all three. On top of that, it is a nuclear power. So how should the U.S. relate to Pakistan? Pakistan is now not only a challenge but also a crucial partner in the war on terrorism. How does the United States keep Pakistan on its side when it may also target Pakistan? And if Pakistan is to be an object of reforms, how does the United States help the country, especially its democratization process?

The United States faces a great balancing act in its relations with Pakistan. It must work with President Pervez Musharraf but not identify with his personal ambitions, nudge him to democratize but not discourage his strong hand, and advance U.S. nonproliferation objectives but not lose Pakistan’s support in the war on terrorism. Critical U.S. policy choices toward Pakistan must also be integrated with broader regional policies. South Asia has changed and so has the basis of U.S. relations with it. The currents of change, spawned by the post–Cold War world and globalization and gestated by the war on terrorism, have been flowing in varying directions. This presents new threats and opportunities for U.S. foreign policy. For example, India offers the United States great economic and strategic opportunities, but it is Pakistan’s internal dynamics and relationship with India that have been at the root of challenges to U.S. foreign policy in South Asia.

This will examine these and other questions by looking at the U.S.-Pakistan
relationship in multiple contexts and will conclude with policy recommendations for both Pakistan and the United States, suggesting ways of broadening the relationship to make it long-term, stable, and mutually beneficial, as envisioned in the 9/11 Commission Report.