home > by publication type > daily analysis > Pakistan's Other Border
Email
| Author: |
|---|
An Indian soldier near the Line of Control in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. (AP/Channi Anand)
South Asia's nuclear-armed neighbors India and Pakistan resumed peace talks May 20 amid reminders of how vulnerable the two nations are to terrorism. Bombings in Jaipur (IANS) allegedly by Bangladeshi extremists and heightened tension (CSM) with Pakistan across the long-disputed border in Kashmir has New Delhi on edge. The U.S. State Department's 2007 report on terrorism ranked India among the world’s most terror-afflicted countries. Since peace talks began in 2004, India acknowledges that the level of infiltration by Islamist militants from Pakistan into India's part of Kashmir across the Line of Control (LOC) has decreased. Still, the question of Kashmir, a Muslim-majority territory which both India and Pakistan claim, remains devilishly difficult to resolve.
The May 20 talks produced only limited results. While India and Pakistan did not make much progress on Kashmir, they made efforts toward increasing cross-LOC movement of people and granting greater access to prisoners (BBC) in each other's jails. Pakistan also promised to work with India to combat terrorism (NDTV). In an interview to the Hindustan Times, however, Pakistan's former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who is now a partner in the ruling parliamentary coalition, dismissed India's concerns regarding militant operations in Pakistan. Pakistan, meanwhile, accuses India of fueling insurgency in its Balochistan province and is wary of India's increasing influence in Afghanistan. But experts say instability in Pakistan's government has narrowed the prospects (Bloomberg) for reaching any major agreements on Kashmir. The stability of the newly formed coalition in Islamabad is already threatened by disputes over the reinstatement of the judges sacked by President Pervez Musharraf in November 2007.
The United States would like to see a resolution to the Kashmir problem, given Pakistan's status as a crucible for militant extremism in the region. Foiled terrorist plots in Europe and ongoing attacks in neighboring Afghanistan have been linked back to militants holed up in Pakistan's tribal areas. As this Backgrounder points out, Pakistan has increasingly emerged as a safe haven for terrorists from all over the world. The United States has encouraged dialogue between India and Pakistan, maintaining the position that the countries should resolve the issue of Kashmir bilaterally, taking the wishes of the Kashmiri people into account. Meeting with the Pakistani Prime Minister at the World Economic Forum in Egypt, President Bush called the dispute "ripe for solution" (Dawn).
Yet experts warn there may still be elements within Pakistan's army and intelligence services that provide support to Taliban and Kashmir-focused militant groups. The Rand Corporation's Seth G. Jones made just this case testifying (PDF) before the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee in April. A new peace deal with militants (BBC) and ongoing talks for more such agreements have also added to the concern in the United States. In a new interview, CFR's Daniel Markey says the deals in themselves are not a problem, but adds that they should be made more enforceable. Indiana University's Sumit Ganguly writes in Newsweek that the United States "should recognize that the jihadi threat emanating from within Pakistan's borders is seamless: the Islamist groups attacking American forces along the Afghan border have organic links with the jihadis seeking to provoke yet another Indo-Pakistani conflict with potentially catastrophic consequences."
Weigh in on this issue by emailing CFR.org.
To order Task Force reports, Council Special Reports, and Critical Policy Choices, please call, fax, or order online from our distributor, the Brookings Institution Press: phone +1.800.537.5487, fax +1.410.516.6998.
For information on other reports that are not for sale, or for general publications information, please call +1.212.434.9516 or email publications@cfr.org.
Start-Up Nation addresses the trillion-dollar question: How is it that Israel—a country of 7.1 million, only sixty years old, surrounded by enemies— produces more start-up companies than large, peaceful, and stable nations like Japan, China, India, Korea, Canada, and the UK? With the insights of geopolitical experts and investors, the authors examine this nation’s adversity-driven culture to answer this question and offer prescriptions for a global economy on the rebound.
In Forces of Fortune, Vali Nasr presents a paradigm-changing revelation that will transform the understanding of the Muslim world at large. He reveals that there is a vital but unseen rising force in the Islamic world—a new business-minded middle class—that is building a vibrant new Muslim world economy and that holds the key to winning the cold war against Iran and extremists.
In Cuba: What Everyone Needs to Know, Julia E. Sweig presents a remarkably accessible portrait of Cuba's unique place on the world stage over the past fifty years, including its internal politics, its often fraught relationship with the United States, and its shifting relationship with the global community.
Complete list of CFR Books
The report of this bipartisan Task Force of distinguished leaders and experts represents a strong consensus on the importance of repairing America's immigration policy. It makes the case that maintaining America's political and economic leadership depends on attracting talented and hard-working immigrants, and on securing the country's borders in a smart, effective, and humane way.
This report finds that nuclear weapons will remain a fundamental element of U.S. national security in the near term, and makes recommendations on how to ensure the safety, security, and reliability of the U.S. deterrent nuclear force, prevent nuclear terrorism, and strengthen the nuclear nonproliferation regime.
About Independent Task Forces at CFR
Complete list of Task Force reports
Identifying international threats and acting on them may be the most difficult job for U.S. policymakers. This report
provides an actionable road map for managing international threats before they erupt into crises and makes a strong case that preventive action is not a luxury but a necessity.
For more than a decade, the United States has mostly watched from the sidelines as Asian countries organize themselves into an alphabet soup of new multilateral groups. In this report, the authors review the relationship between pan-Asian and trans-Pacific institutions and suggest policy guidelines for a new U.S. approach to this new Asian landscape.
Complete list of Council Special Reports
To request permission to reprint or reuse CFR material, please fill out this permissions request form (PDF), referring to the instructions on page 1.
Copyright 2009 by the Council on Foreign Relations. All Rights Reserved.