Engaging Pakistan Diplomatically

With the hostage taking of a US solider this week in Afghanistan, a fresh wave of attacks in Jalalabad, and President Obama’s nearly double deployment of U.S. troops since he took office, Pakistan is increasingly looked to as a forefront ally in cooperation with the U.S. led War on Terror.

It’s a complex relationship that neither state is unaccustomed to having cooperated heavily since the very inception of Pakistani statehood in 1947: first with Pakistani support of the U.S. throughout the Cold War and now Post 9/11. And while some experts, like Retired General Bacevich might claim the current fight in Afghanistan is “unwinnable” or even unnecessary, in close cooperation with Pakistan the United States has an opportunity both counter such criticism and also create meaningful, lasting and progressive change in the region.

In her address to students in Delhi yesterday, Secretary Clinton quite astutely commented on the crux of the current Pakistani predicament::

“Over the six months that we have been office, I’ve seen a real commitment on the part of the Pakistani government and Pakistani people in taking on the extremists that threaten them. It’s no longer about someone else, it’s their hotels, and police and people who are being blown up and mistreated for simple things that no one would think are in any way an offense”.

This acknowledgement of Pakistani investment, consequences and interests is an effective means to garnering much needed social and political support in Pakistan. The U.S. lending understanding words of diplomacy in a strategic setting as such is a meaningful step forward for a country where masses are economically, educationally and politically deprived at the moment. In turn, this is substantial in ensuring the United States has meaningful Pakistani support in the War on Terror. Secretary Clinton’s speech at Delhi is further valuable as it enables the United States to skillfully tread tepid (at best) India-Pakistan relations. Especially now, at the heels of increasing speculation that a perpetrator in the Mumbai atrocities from last fall had ties to groups in the north of Pakistan as per his confession in court this week.

Another hopeful note this week for U.S. Pakistani relations comes as US special envoy Richard Holbrooke visits Islamabad to

“focus on a range of economic and security issues, in particular, the situation of the internal refugees and reconstruction plans for their return to their home.”

As with Secretary Clinton’s diplomatic efforts, Holbrooke’s attention to the grave refugee issue is very meaningful. Masses of innocent civilians have been displaced from the north of Pakistan and it is in the U.S. interest to ensure those persons are not perpetually destitute in this currently volatile War on Terror where Pakistan and the U.S. are working hard to uproot terrorist groups on the nebulous Afghan-Pakistan border. Strong international concern for this issue is also declared this week by the U.N. Humanitarian affairs chief, John Holmes:

“Pakistan has seen probably the most dramatic and dramatically changing humanitarian situation this year with up to two million people fleeing the military operations in parts of NW Frontier Province. Up two million, as I say. That has meant scaling up, putting up or scaling up a major aid operation with a consequence of large figure of dollars attached to it,”

So despite the refugee problem and our possibly escalating war in Central Asia, progressive steps are being taken toward stability. Hopefully, astute diplomacy, tangible social policies that garner Pakistani support to sustain a meaningful cooperation will continue and lead toward lasting change in the region.