Attention Economy


Monday, November 7, 2016

America and South Asia – Time for a Strategic Rethink

A brilliant piece from C. Christine Fair (an associate professor in the Security Studies Program at Georgetown University’s Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service):
“The only way to motivate change is by developing a coercive campaign that diminishes the advantages of Pakistan’s use of militant proxies under its nuclear umbrella while also increasing the costs of doing so. Washington DC has resisted adopting punitive measures because it believes American assistance and presence in the country can position itself to stave off state collapse and/or prevent further nuclear proliferation. Unfortunately, Pakistan has used American assistance to further develop the very assets—nuclear weapons and terrorists—that disquiet Americans the most.
Washington must cease incentivizing Pakistan to continue producing “good jihadi assets” while fighting “bad terrorists who target the Pakistani state”. As long as Pakistan has terrorists to kill, Washington will pay exorbitant amounts to Pakistan to do so. Instead of continuing to incentivize Pakistan’s security establishment to groom more terrorists, the US should incentivize them to abandon Islamist terrorists as tools of foreign policy.”

Related:
Pakistan - The World’s Most Dangerous State
https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/pakistan-state-sponsored-terrorism-by-brahma-chellaney-2016-10