Home pagePress CenterIn the Media 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."
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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
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