The first foreign leader to visit Pakistan following its recent elections was the prime minister of China, signifying the close relations between the two countries. During the visit, Pakistani president Asif Ali Zardari said, "Our top priority is to further strengthen economic linkages."
CFR Senior Fellow Daniel Markey, and former U.S. ambassador to Pakistan, Cameron Munterdiscuss the elections in Pakistan and the future of U.S.-Pakistan relations.
As former prime minister of Pakistan Nawaz Sharif looks poised to win nationwide elections, CFR's Daniel Markey highlights the vote's significance for Pakistan's democracy and foreign relations.
Daniel Markey argues that the newly elected Pakistani prime minister's core agenda, "economic reform and improved ties with India—is one the United States should cheer."
Husain Haqqani, former Pakistan ambassador to the United States, discusses the historic elections in Pakistan and their impact on U.S. foreign policy with Foreign Affairs Editor Gideon Rose.
Gayle Tzemach Lemmon outlines the biggest challenges facing recently appointed State Department Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Ambassador James Dobbins.
Nawaz Sharif appears poised to return as Pakistan's prime minister, which would create new challenges for the country's already fractious politics and add strains to the U.S.-Pakistan relationship, writes CFR's Daniel Markey.
In the run-up to Pakistan's elections, Daniel Markey debates Ambassador Neelam Deo on the relationship between civilian and military power in Pakistan.
Asked by Hassan, from National University Of Sciences and Technology
To date, Chinese officials have asserted that their interest in Gwadar is strictly a commercial effort to provide another energy corridor for Middle East oil, and Pakistani government officials stridently affirm this position. New Delhi, on the other hand, has expressed "concern" about the true motivations in developing Gwadar, suspecting that it is a Sino-Pak effort at encirclement.
According to Daniel Markey, "the Musharraf affair will be an early test of which direction Pakistan's civilian politicians and judiciary intend to take their country and its relations with America."
For many senior Pakistani spies, the man sitting in the jail cell represented solid proof of their suspicions that the C.I.A. had sent a vast secret army to Pakistan, men who sowed chaos and violence as part of the covert American war in the country. For the C.I.A., the eventual disclosure of [Raymond] Davis's role with the agency shed an unflattering light on a post–Sept. 11 reality: that the C.I.A. had farmed out some of its most sensitive jobs to outside contractors — many of them with neither the experience nor the temperament to work in the war zones of the Islamic world.
After former secretary of state Hillary Clinton's speech on April 5, Gayle Tzemach Lemmon observes, "the Clinton megaphone no longer requires a Washington translator."
"While it was not the first country where the United States used drones, [Pakistan] became the laboratory for the targeted killing operations that have come to define a new American way of fighting, blurring the line between soldiers and spies and short-circuiting the normal mechanisms by which the United States as a nation goes to war."
Former U.S. ambassador to Pakistan Ryan Crocker and CFR Senior Fellow Daniel Markey discuss the upcoming elections in Pakistan and the future of U.S.-Pakistan relations.
UN Special Rapporteur on Human rights and Counterterrorism Ben Emmerson released this statement on March 14, 2013, following his meetings in Pakistan with victims of drone strikes.
Frank Klotz explores the role of history in the Pakistani nuclear program and the challenges for the future in his review of Feroz Hassan Khan's recently released Eating Grass: The Making of the Pakistani Bomb.
The Council on Foreign Relations' David Rockefeller Studies Program—CFR's "think tank"—is home to more than seventy full-time, adjunct, and visiting scholars and practitioners (called "fellows"). Their expertise covers the world's major regions as well as the critical issues shaping today's global agenda. Download the printable CFR Experts Guide.
Special operations play a critical role in how the United States confronts irregular threats, but to have long-term strategic impact, the author argues, numerous shortfalls must be addressed.
The author analyzes the potentially serious consequences, both at home and abroad, of a lightly overseen drone program and makes recommendations for improving its governance.
Two experts argue that despite myriad development strategies, only one can succeed in alleviating poverty in India: the overall growth of the country's economy. More
