Below, please find the latest articles to have appeared in print and electronic media about CSIS and its experts. For your reference, there is also a link to archived media coverage of CSIS.
Teresita Schaffer, director of the CSIS South Asia Program, was interviewed on CFR.org Gwertzman Asks the Experts, "Pakistan and United States: Two Different Priorities."
Teresita C. Schaffer, a former senior State Department official with expertise in South Asia, says that while the United States and Afghanistan are particularly concerned about the Taliban crossing back and forth across the Pakistan border, Pakistan is more concerned with stopping internal terrorism caused by suicide bombings and the seizure of territory within the country by insurgents. Although the United States has been critical recently of Pakistan’s efforts to stop the Taliban from crossing back and forth into Afghanistan, Schaffer says that it was not much better when the army reported directly to President Pervez Musharraf. Ever since the Pakistan parliamentary elections last February, there’s been a disconnect between the United States and Pakistan. The United States is very concerned about the Taliban going back and forth across the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. The Pakistan government seems to be allowing the local people to make deals with the militants in the outlying areas and doesn’t seem to be very sensitive to U.S. concerns. Do the two countries have different priorities right now?In a sense the overall objectives match, but the priorities don’t. You’re right that the top priority for the United States is essentially border control: preventing the Taliban in Afghanistan, where of course we have troops, from taking sanctuary in Pakistan; preventing their movement back and forth across that border. For the Pakistan government, the top priority along the Afghan border and in that area is closing down suicide bombing within Pakistan. They are dealing with an internal insurgency. And they would like to see the broad pacification of the tribal areas that the United States has talked about. They would like to see better border control. But what they most want to see is an end to suicide bombing, and an end to the phenomenon of insurgents taking control of pieces of territory inside Pakistan.Read More
Teresita Schaffer, director of the CSIS South Asia Program, was quoted by the Washington Post, "Haqqani Back in D.C., Where Everybody Knows His Name."
Most ambassadors gain real influence only after years of working Washington's corridors of power — and often only with the help of expensive lobbying firms. But Husain Haqqani, the ambassador-designate from Pakistan, already knows almost everyone who counts. "He's one of the guys," said Rep. Howard Berman (D-Calif.), chairman of the House Foreign Relations Committee, who has known Haqqani for more than five years. "I'll always take a call from him." He was one of a half-dozen senior members of Congress who saw Haqqani on short notice during a recent two-day trip to Washington. [...] "The new coalition has to show it has an effective approach to the domestic insurgency that is different from Musharraf and not made in Washington. It is inclined to deal with the problem politically, not militarily," said Schaffer, now with the Center for Strategic and International Studies. The new government of Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani favors negotiating with Pakistan's militant groups, "and that has given Washington a bad case of the jitters," Schaffer said. Read the article
April 30
Rick Barton, Teresita Schaffer, Gerald Hyman, and Karin Von Hippel, were quoted by the Associated Press of Pakistan, "Pakistani Leadership Can Bring Far-Reaching Reforms Through Political Will."
The Pakistani leadership can enact far-reaching democratic reforms through demonstration of political will as February 18 polls have produced a unique opportunity for such a transformation, US experts returning from a just-concluded visit to the country said. The experts, who belong to various Washington think tanks, interacted with a cross-section of the Pakistani society and found a widespread desire for democratic progress and reforms at this defining moment for the nation. [...] Ambassador Teresita Schaffer, who had several diplomatic assignments in South Asia in her career, sparked the discussion with observation that Pakistan is in a “moment of transition” and that by virtue of staying power of the new government, there may be “greater potential for remedying institutional problems.” [...] Rick Barton, who specializes in International Security Programme at the CSIS, said he found the Pakistanis oozing confidence about the fact that they see a real turning point in the current moment. “The Pakistani leaders want to do things, they feel since the public is backing them, they can deliver—the public leaders are now having a higher degree of responsibility, some are even performing beyond expectations,” he said, citing the new government leaders getting down to business in various fields. [...] Gerald Hyman, president of the CSIS’s Hills Programme on Governance concluded from his wide-ranging interactions that “support for democracy is quite deep among Pakistanis and there is a broad support for going back to 1973 Constitution.” [...] Karin Von Hippel, a senior fellow at the CSIS, said as stated by Pakistanis, the objective behind the pacts approach is to isolate foreign terrorist elements. She noted there is skepticism about the outcome of peace deals with militants in the United States because of the past experiences. However, she said, Washington should work cooperatively with Pakistan and help develop greater expertise of the South Asian country in curbing terrorism. Read the article
Teresita Schaffer, director of the CSIS South Asia Program, was quoted by Time, "Washington's New Pakistan Problem."
In diplomacy, perception is everything. The day that Pakistan's new prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani was sworn in this week, two top American diplomats were there from Washington to congratulate him. The State Department says that deputy secretary of state John Negroponte and assistant secretary of state for South Asia Richard Boucher's trip had been "planned for weeks." But in Pakistan itself, the move was widely seen as a heavy-handed attempt to make sure the newly elected coalition government would continue to cooperate with the U.S. in battling militants along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. And so the U.S. is off to a rocky start in a Pakistan where its old ally, Pervez Musharraf, is a waning power. Condoleezza Rice told the Washington Times on Thursday that she hoped Pakistanis would see Negroponte and Boucher's visit, so early on in the formation of the new government, "as a sign of respect." They did not. Pakistani newspaper editorials called the early visit "meddling." The photo op was widely seen for what it was, a move by the U.S. to make sure the new government doesn't back down from Musharraf's level of cooperation in the Bush Administration's declared war on terror. Other diplomats advise a civil distance, for now. The U.S. should "give Pakistan space to publicly proclaim its own policy," says former Ambassador Teresita Schaffer, who spent 30 years in the foreign service, most of it devoted to South Asia, "without having the visual of the U.S. government breathing down its neck."Read the article
January 29
A CSIS Event with Imran Kahn was quoted by the Washington Times, "Alarm in Pakistan."
The United States must stop placing all of its hopes on President Pervez Musharraf to restore order in Pakistan and demand that he reinstate an independent judiciary and ensure free elections next month, according to a popular opposition leader. The political chaos in Pakistan threatens to increase instability and encourage terrorism, Imran Khan, leader of the Movement for Justice Party told the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. Read More
January 28
A CSIS event with Imran Kahn was quoted in a column in the Washington Post, "No More Coups."
It is less than a month until Pakistan is due to hold a parliamentary election that could stabilize the country after months of political turmoil and terrorist violence, or plunge it deeper into chaos. So naturally some of the country's leading civilian politicians were busy campaigning last week -- in Washington. . . Said Imran Khan, at an appearance at the Center for Strategic and International Studies: "The chances are that we will have a Kenya-type situation where people are not going to accept the election result." Read More
January 28
Teresita Schaffer, director of the CSIS South Asia Program, was interviewed for National Public Radio's All Things Considered, "Pakistan's Inaction Frustrates U.S. Terror Officials."
Until recently, Bush Administration officials were highlighting Iraq as the "central front" in the war on terrorism, but concern has recently shifted toward the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. Earlier this month, the top two U.S. intelligence officials visited Pakistan in an effort to get the government there to allow a stronger role for the CIA in carrying out secret operations against al-Qaida in the border area. But the Pakistanis resisted the request, and administration officials say they're growing "frustrated" that U.S. forces aren't allowed to do more. Listen to the Story
January 27
Teresita Schaffer, director of the CSIS South Asia Program, was quoted by the Associated Press, "Pakistan and Afghanistan are emerging as bigger focus in U.S. terrorism fight."
In a shift with profound implications, the Bush administration is attempting to re-energize its terrorism-fighting war efforts in Afghanistan, the original target of a post-Sept. 11 offensive. The U.S. also is refocusing on Pakistan, where a regenerating al-Qaeda is posing fresh threats. . . Teresita C. Schaffer, director for South Asia at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said Friday that an important indicator of that approach was the recent visit to Pakistan by Adm. William J. Fallon, the commander of American forces in that region. Fallon met with senior officials, including the new chief of the Pakistani army, Gen. Ashfaq Kayani. Read More
January 25
A CSIS South Asia Program event with Imran Kahn was quoted on National Public Radio's Morning Edition, "Imran Khan Brings Anti-Musharraf Effort to U.S."
A former cricket star who leads one of Pakistan's minority parties spent time in Washington this week meeting with lawmakers and speaking out against U.S. support of Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf. . . In an effort to change that image of Musharraf, Khan met this week with U.S. congressional leaders and spoke before audiences at a Washington think tank, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and at the National Press Club. Listen to the Story
January 24
A CSIS South Asia Program event with Imran Kahn was quoted by the Associated Press, "U.S. Urged to Push for Reforms in Pakistan."
Cricket legend and Pakistani opposition politician Imran Khan urged the United States Thursday to insist that Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf reinstate an independent judiciary. Khan predicted "massive rigging" in Feb. 18 parliamentary elections that his political party, Tehrik-e-Insaaf, plans to boycott. An independent judiciary able to supervise elections, Khan said, "is the only way out of the quagmire" Pakistan has been in since Musharraf's declaration of emergency rule late last year and his purging of the Supreme Court. "Any other way, the situation is going to get worse," Khan said in a speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank.Read the article
January 24
A CSIS South Asia Program event with Imran Kahn was quoted by Agence France Press, "Pakistan May Plunge in Kenya-Style Violence: Khan."
Pakistan's cricket hero-turned-politician Imran Khan called on the United States Thursday to pressure President Pervez Musharraf to reinstate sacked top judges or face the prospect of Kenya-type post-election violence. Khan, speaking in Washington, said that if Musharraf, a key US "war on terror" ally, rigged February 18 parliamentary elections as speculated, "it is, in fact, going to exacerbate everything. "The chances are that we would have a Kenya-type situation, where people are not going to accept their election results" and "the country will sink into a deeper crisis," warned Khan, leader of the marginal Tehrik-e-Insaaf (Movement for Justice) party, which is boycotting the polls. Read the article
January 19
Teresita Schaffer, director of the CSIS South Asia Program, was quoted by the Associated Press, "Diplomat's Departure Muddles Nuke Deal."
The departure of the State Department's No. 3 official adds uncertainty to a U.S. nuclear deal with India that is already in deep trouble. . . . "I think he is willing to see this baby through, and I think he will pull it off," said Teresita Schaffer, a former U.S. ambassador to Sri Lanka and current director of the South Asia program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, who supports the deal. "I don't see this as any administration signal that they are giving up." Read More
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