Pakistan

Trump’s speech undermines Trump’s new strategy

By Donald Trump, White House

In Afghanistan, our troops are no longer undermined by artificial timelines, and we no longer tell our enemies of our plans.

Addressing the Terrorist Threat Emanating from Pakistan

By Bharath Gopalaswamy

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was right when he recently told an audience at the Atlantic Council that Pakistan’s leadership must eliminate terrorist safe havens, warning that a failure to do so could cause them to “lose control of their own country.” Tillerson said that the US-Pakistan relationship has “really deteriorated” over the past […]

Trump’s Afghanistan Strategy Turns Up the Heat on Pakistan

US President Donald J. Trump’s new strategy for Afghanistan effectively puts the onus on Pakistan to end its support for terrorists. If this strategy is to succeed, the United States must “adopt a very serious policy toward Pakistan,” said C. Christine Fair, the provost’s distinguished associate professor in the Security Studies Program at Georgetown University. […]

Trump Misses an Opportunity in Afghanistan

By Shuja Nawaz

US President Donald J. Trump should have stuck to his original line of questioning of his national security team before sharing his new “strategy” on Afghanistan and South Asia: what outcome are we seeking, and how will we get there? Trump’s August 21 speech, in which he outlined his policy on Afghanistan, exemplified the truth […]

Trump’s Commitment to Afghanistan

By Ashish Kumar Sen

US president’s policy will send a clear message to the region, said Atlantic Council’s James B. Cunningham US President Donald J. Trump’s approach to Afghanistan—marked by an indefinite US troop presence—sends a clear signal of the United States’ commitment to ending the war in that country, said James B. Cunningham, a nonresident senior fellow at […]

Pakistan’s Reform Moment

By Nadeem Ul Haque

Pakistan is once again in the news with the dismissal of its prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, by the supreme court over a corruption case. This development is not unusual in a country with a history of democratically-elected governments being hobbled by incompetence and corruption. Pakistan has also seen three military coups and has been under […]

The Disqualification of Nawaz Sharif: Will Pakistan’s Courts Drain the Swamp?

By Shuja Nawaz

Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s ouster by the supreme court is a rare example of a country’s leader being held accountable for corruption, but it has also created the possibility of instability in this South Asian nation that is a vital partner in the United States’ counterterrorism efforts. On July 28, Pakistan’s supreme court disqualified […]