The United States should foster long-term ties with Pakistan beyond its current engagement in the region centering around Afghanistan conflict, an American analyst on South Asia emphasizes while advising Washington against coercive approach to ties with the key country.
“The case for a relationship with Pakistan beyond 2014—when most U.S. troops will have left Afghanistan—is compelling. Quite simply, Pakistan is endowed with immense strategic importance— and for reasons having little to do with Afghanistan,” Michael Kugelman, South Asia senior program associate at Woodrow Wilson Center’, notes in a policy brief.
The policy brief underscores Pakistan’s importance in terms of its population with a strong private sector, urban middle class, large army, nuclear power status and close international alliances with China and Saudi Arabia.
“Pakistan’s closest allies—Saudi Arabia and China—are critical players in world politics, and its chief nemesis, India, is the world’s largest democracy. Pakistan is also in the Indian Ocean region, which may become the most geopolitically significant region of the 21st century.”
“A retooled relationship with Pakistan—scaled back yet long term—will be most effective if its designers and implementers are mindful of what has and has not worked in the recent past,” Kugelman proposes.
The new US administration should carefully consider three lessons while devising a way forward in U.S.-Pakistan relations.
“First, each side enjoys only limited influence over the other——the second important lesson is that despite all the hostility, the relationship offers genuine potential for cooperation——- third lesson for U.S.-Pakistan relations is that coercive diplomacy has minimal utility.”
The policy brief notes that for several years, Washington repeatedly and publicly berated Pakistan for not implementing stronger measures against militants, with some U.S. policymakers threatening aid cutoffs if such steps were not taken.
“The tactic had little effect; instead it fueled public hostility in Pakistan that Islamabad has been happy to exploit.”
Kugelman asks the Obama administration to reach out to the broader Pakistani people in an effort to build ties. He also asks the administration to to strengthen links with the Pakistani private sector.
