Intervening in Pakistani elections is a losing proposition, CFR Senior Fellow Daniel Markey argues. If pro-American leaders win, they will be tainted by association; if their opponents win, the United States will have alienated potential partners.
The United States and Pakistan spent most of 2011 and at least half of 2012 lurching from crisis to crisis, their relationship teetering at the edge of an abyss. In recent months, however, moves by Islamabad have raised hopes in Washington that Pakistan might be navigating a "strategic shift" that would restart normal, workmanlike cooperation and, more important, would allow America to escape from its war in Afghanistan.
This Independent Task Force report assesses U.S. objectives, strategy, and policy options in Pakistan and Afghanistan. It supports a long-term partnership with Pakistan, calls for a new approach to Afghan political reform, reconciliation, and regional diplomacy, and says that a more limited U.S. mission in Afghanistan would be warranted if the present strategy does not show signs of progress. This report is also available in Italian.
The United States has effectively issued an ultimatum to Islamabad implying greater unilateral action against Pakistan-based extremist groups, but Washington must be prepared to act on it, says CFR's Daniel Markey.
CFR scholars provide policy options for preventing a major crisis in the territories immediately adjacent to China: North Korea, Myanmar, Pakistan, and Central Asia.
Which policies have worked and which ones need work ten years after the worst terrorist attacks in U.S. history? CFR experts examine ten issues that have preoccupied U.S. planners.
Initial U.S. successes in Afghanistan and Pakistan after 9/11 masked deeper problems that have beset Washington's effort to stabilize the "AfPak" theater, writes CFR's Daniel Markey.
The FBI's arrest of Ghulam Nabi Fai on charges of acting as a Pakistani agent to lobby U.S. policymakers on Kashmir may worsen the countries' already troubledrelationship, says CFR's Daniel Markey.
Cuts in U.S. military aid to Pakistan only have a chance to translate into greater cooperation if they're part of a larger strategy, including a U.S. crackdown on Pakistan-linked militants in Afghanistan, says CFR's Daniel Markey.
CFR Senior Fellow Daniel Markey argues that the United States should move quickly to convert the post–bin Laden crisis in U.S.-Pakistan relations into an opportunity for significant and positive reform of Pakistan's security and intelligence services.
Daniel Markey discusses how much damage the death of Osama bin Laden has done to an already strained U.S.-Pakistan relationship and whether Pakistan is still to be trusted.
Daniel Markey, Senior Fellow for India, Pakistan, and South Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations, explores the implications of Osama bin Laden's death for U.S. tense relations with Pakistan, the country in which the al-Qaeda leader was hiding.
In "Pakistan," a chapter in Beyond bin Laden, Daniel Markey argues that Osama bin Laden's death comes at a time of intense crisis between the United States and Pakistan.
Americans and Pakistanis have good reasons for mutual mistrust, and the killing of bin Laden by U.S. troops on Pakistani soil is likely to exacerbate that rather than lead to increased cooperation, says CFR's Daniel Markey.
Osama bin Laden's death is a real and symbolic blow to al-Qaeda, and its stature in the Middle East is already diminished by the pro-democracy movements in the region, but the group remains lethal. Seven CFR experts discuss.
The crisis in U.S.-Pakistani relations followed mounting mistrust over the U.S. war in Afghanistan, in particular. But Washington should seize the chance to reinvigorate ties rather than look elsewhere for partners, says CFR's Daniel Markey.
Increasing distrust between the CIA and Pakistan's ISI over the Raymond Davis case could threaten efforts to fight militancy along the Afghan border. Experts Daniel Markey and Shuja Nawaz discuss policy options to restore the relationship.
Daniel Markey authored the chapter, "Pakistan," in Climate Change and National Security, in which an international team of scholars explore and estimate the intermediate-term security risks that climate change may pose for the United States, its allies and partners, and for regional and global order through the year 2030.
Daniel Markey, Senior Fellow for India, Pakistan, and South Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations, discusses the strategic importance of normalizing India-Pakistan relations, for the region as well as the United States.
Daniel Markey, Senior Fellow for India, Pakistan, and South Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations discusses the diplomatic spat between the United States and Pakistan over U.S. Embassy employee Raymond Davis's arrest by Pakistani authorities on murder charges.
The Afghan strategy review stresses destroying Taliban havens in Pakistan's tribal areas, but Pakistan isn't likely to take an aggressive stand without certainty that the U.S. is committed to both Afghan stability and eliminating extremists, says CFR's Daniel Markey.
For more information on the David Rockefeller Studies Program, contact:
James M. Lindsay Senior Vice President, Director of Studies, and Maurice R. Greenberg Chair +1.212.434.9626 (NY); +1.202.509.8405 (DC) jlindsay@cfr.org
Janine Hill Director, Fellowship Affairs and Studies Strategic Planning +1.212.434.9753 jhill@cfr.org