US must focus on resolving Indo-Pak tensions, ME dispute: book

The United States should focus on resolving tensions between in India and Pakistan and the festering Middle East dispute for genuine progress towards peace and stability in the broader Islamic region, author of a new book argues.

In the book titled, Beyond War – Reimagining American Influence in a New Middle East, journalist David Rohde analyses implications of the US involvement in the post-9/11 conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan as well as new challenges arising from unfinished Arab Spring revolutions.

A Pulitzer Prize winner, Rohde concludes that Washington must engage with moderates and invest in entrepreneurial ventures for enduring peace and stability in the broader Middle Eastern world.

The way forward for the US in the complex new world – where once strongmen backed by the US are being replaced by a variety of political parties – should see revival of “traditional American diplomacy”, which should be “persistently but quietly pursued”.

“A two-state solution in Israeli-Palestine and the easing of India-Pakistan tensions are vital to stabilising the broader Islamic world.”

The writer, who has worked for Reuters and The New York Times, though, notes that neither goal would be achieved quickly “but the United States should quietly and consistently work to resolve these conflicts”.

“We cannot ignore their (the two conflicts’) core roles in sowing tensions,” he underscores.

Rohde’s statement is in line with the argument that peace and stability hinges on removing the two long-running root-causes of militancy and the unrest in the greater Middle Eastern region.

While working on a book, Rohde along with his two local associates escaped Taliban captivity eight months after the militants kidnapped him in November 2008 from Kabul. In the book, he thanks the Pakistani military officer, who allowed him onto his base in the middle of the night in the border region and helped him contact his family on phone, after Rohde and his Afghan associate escaped from their captors.

The book criticises American policy for excessive reliance on military means and drone strikes as counterterrorism tools.

In the chapter ‘The Rise of the Drone’, the author draws attention to repercussions of the Obama administration’s frequent use of drone operations in pursuit of militant targets in the Tribal Areas and points out how they harm America’s image.

Speaking at Washington’s Politics and Prose Bookstore, Rohde asked the US administration to move away from what he calls its antiquated policies. Drones, he stressed, should be used only as a last resort.

The US, he advocated, should bring transparency to drone programme, acknowledge civilian casualties when they occur and compensate the losses.

“We are shooting ourselves in the foot” with these drone strikes, he told the audience in reference to harm the unilateral actions do to American interests.

Regarding the narrative in the US, he feels, the media should also take adequate note of the work of the majority of moderates in the civil societies make.

Citing examples of moderation and entrepreneurial success in Pakistan and the rest of the Muslim world he says, the US must focus on by engaging with forwarding looking forces.

Across the region, he writes, trade and investment should be wielded as tools of long-term American influence. “Predominantly Muslim countries should no longer be viewed solely through the lens of counterterrorism.”

Instead, US policymakers should adopt Acumen Fund’s concept of “patient capital” and a “third way”, he says, arguing that poverty cannot be eliminated by the market alone and nor can government solely eradicate it.

“The central lesson that emerges from America’s decade in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Pakistan is that sweeping change is not possible without reliable partners in local governments. Even if the United States perfectly executes its policies and programme, they alone will not stabilise countries. Nations must carry out these reforms themselves.”