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Af-Pak: Playing the fundamentalists' game

18/05/2009 By Robert Matthews

AFP/Getty Images

This article analyses the deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan. It presents a number of structural paradoxes and circumstantial impediments to finding a viable strategy for containing the spiralling violence and spread of militant Islamic extremism in the two countries.

Against increasingly gloomy reports of the worsening security situation in Afghanistan, President Obama has finally prioritised the war in Afghanistan for the US, and recognised the key role of Pakistan, for good or ill, in stabilising Afghanistan. At the same time Washington has emphasised the need for addressing Pakistan’s own internal political and military crisis.

The dilemma for the US and NATO was illustrated by the events of early May 2009, including the coincidence of the “Af-Pak” diplomatic summit in Washington with the bloody battle between the Pakistani military and Islamic militants in the valley of Swat, and the humanitarian issues emanating both from the massive refugee crisis in Swat to the civilian casualties from US air strikes in Afghanistan.

 

The article is framed by a discussion of three paradoxes: the contradictions inherent in the military surge as cornerstone of the new US strategy in Afghanistan; the pitfalls of US military strategy toward Pakistan; and the strategic incongruence within Pakistan. The article concludes that given the history of US policy errors in the region and the current constellation of factors, both internal and external, it may just be too late in the game to change the rules for both countries.

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Keywords

Afghanistan Al Qaeda Asia Conflict Middle East NATO Pakistan Terrorism United States

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Bio author: Robert Matthews

Robert Matthews, Associate Fellow of FRIDE, holds a Ph.D in Latin American history from New York University, where he was a teacher at the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies. For twenty years was a collaborator with the Peace Research Center - Centro de Investigación para la Paz (CIP) - in Madrid, specializing in United States foreign policy.