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Planet Pakistan
In Pakistan, people see Al Qaeda as an imagined threat, and shadowy U.S. agents as the secret power behind major events. How can the United States forge a better partnership with this country that has become the epicenter of global terrorism?
An American visitor in Pakistan can’t help thinking at times that he has arrived in a parallel universe. Asked about the presence of Al Qaeda on their country’s soil, Pakistanis deny that there is any evidence of it. They lionize A. Q. Khan, who created the country’s nuclear weapons program and sold essential nuclear technology and knowledge to Iran, North Korea, and Libya, and they are incensed by American worries about the security of their country’s nuclear assets. Suicide bombings and political assassinations are near-daily occurrences, yet many Pakistanis are astonishingly complacent about the murderous groups behind them. They rail instead against the government that is powerless to prevent these attacks and an America that would like nothing better than to see an end to them.
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Robert M. Hathaway is the director of the Woodrow Wilson Center’s Asia Program. His most recent book is Powering Pakistan: Meeting Pakistan’s Energy Needs in the 21st Century (2009).
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The opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and in no way represent the views or opinions of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. This section is moderated by Wilson Quarterly staff.
Looking ahead
This is a very thoughtful article but we need to look ahead. Our current strategy with Pakistan is not working at any level. We have been getting played by them for over three decades at a very significant cost to us. Unless we find ways to lessen our dependency, we will continue feeding the hand that bites. Pakistan has to decide its own future since Pakistanis are the ones who will bear the brunt of the consequences.
Posted by: Spencer | 1/30/10
The author is not being honest. Everything he says about pakistan is largely correct, but he seems motivated to deny on america's behalf the the faults that pakistanis accuse americans of. such as this statement: "It was powerless to persuade, coerce, bribe, or otherwise prevent Islamabad from going down the nuclear path in the 1980s" How hard did the US try? the efforts that we have seen from america on preventing iran and north korea from turning nuclear, did we see those with Pakistan as well? No, we did not. pakistanis live in an echo chamber and Mr. Hathaway is trying to build an equivalent one for americans, in which pakistani accusations about america are all bogus. If Mr. Hathaway is calling for truthfulness, he should start by being just as truthful about american folly in the region as he is about pakistan's madnesses. without that, he just looks like a shill.
Posted by: Shotimer | 2/1/10
better than average but misses the point
This is a better analysis than most, but its practical and empirical tone (rooted in american culture) misses the elephant in the living room. From its very inception, pakistan has been an ideological state defined in opposition to indian "hindu" values. Everything is to be put to service in defence of this hostility - its frankly irrelevant to the pakistani elite if 10,000 pakistanis die a year in jihadi attacks, as long as the indians are defeated or at least injured. From elementary school, pakistanis are taught hatred against the other. Primary school instruction in all schools includes discussion of the merit of jihad, supremacy of islam, ugliness of hinduism, perfidy of israel and so on. Regular conversations on pakistani TV include references to vileness of hindus, cunning of jews, conspiracies against muslims and so on. All of this will take a generation or two to clean up. Historically, the paki elite has made a good living out of this - absorbing billions from US/Saudi/China and sending their children abroad (Musharraf's son lives in Boston and has a beautiful mansion in Canton MA). It took 50 years to defeat the soviets, it took a world war to destroy the Japanese and Nazi world-view. That is the framework within which to view change in pakistan.
Posted by: Al beruni | 2/9/10
Knitting the bounds of neobilteralism: US-Pak relations
It is positive to note that Mr Hathaway has correctly advocated the need of building faith-worthy ties between Washington and Islamabad.And yet having the belief that in international relations expediencies play a pivotal role, I would like to add that the degree of expediencies that the United States has used regarding its relations with Pakistan during the Cold war and the post Cold war eras have been more stern, callous and utilitarian that that of the expediencies used by the Pakistani governments-both in past and present.The tragedy is that Pakistan has been unable to reorient its relations with the United States in the post Cold war era.The government in Islamabad has been applying the old methods of depending on the United States;while US has re-elevated/restructured its relations with India, thereby giving Pakistan as a second priority in the region.The problem is that with the inception of the war on terrorism,Pakistan has faced more terrific challenges regarding its security, economy and sovereignty. The pressing need of the time is that the US -side must realise the cost-benefit position that the Pakistani government has so negatively compromised in terms of its supporting for the US-waged war on terrorism.Presently, Islamabad can no longer afford to adopt the strategy that the former Pakistani President General Musharraf seems to have applied with the United States.
Posted by: Syed Qamar Afzal Rizvi | 3/2/10
pakistan
Paranoid, delusional, irresponsible, selfish and not deserving of statehood.
Posted by: robert | 3/2/10
Similarly
The same thing could be said of the United States.
Posted by: Oz | 3/15/10
extremely biased,only if you could leave them alone they will be fine but bear it you cant do anything without them..and keep screwing their nation time and time selfishly and admit it the seeds of terrorism were planted by US during afghan russian war.
Posted by: Bear it | 10/14/10