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Schaffer: Pakistan Facing Question on How to Handle Extremists

Council on Foreign Relations

Interviewee: Teresita C. Schaffer, Director, South Asia Program, Center for Strategic and International Studies
Interviewer: Bernard Gwertzman, Consulting Editor

August 8, 2007

Teresita C. Schaffer, a former State Department official with extensive experience in South Asia, says the violence in Pakistan since President Pervez Musharraf's crackdown on the Red Mosque in Islamabad may lead to rethinking among army leaders on the value of maintaining extremists in Pakistan as a political force. She says: “We need to watch and see if they have really decided they need to put these people out of business. If they have, that would be an important policy turn for the United States . To be fair, it’s a high-risk policy, but there are no risk-free policies in today’s Pakistan."

Pakistan has been in the news lately in part because of the continuing problems on the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan, and also by the indications that some in the administration might even countenance an American attack on terrorist sanctuaries inside of Pakistan. This has raised hackles in Pakistan where President Pervez Musharraf has considerable political problems of his own. What should concern Americans about Pakistan these days?

First, and I’m taking this in the order of the way the administration looks at priorities, is the connection between Pakistan and Afghanistan. This is complicated in part because the two countries have always gotten along badly. The issue of greatest concern to the United States is the terrorism issue and the extremely difficult time the United States and its NATO [North Atlantic Treaty Organization] allies have had getting Afghanistan to stabilize and develop like a more normal country following the end of the Taliban regime in 2001 and through the turbulent fight that followed.

Second, I would say, is the internal situation in Pakistan. Musharraf has been the centerpiece of U.S. policymaking in the region.

Read the rest of this article on the cfr.org website.

Copyright 2007 by the Council on Foreign Relations. This material is republished on GlobalSecurity.org with specific permission from the cfr.org. Reprint and republication queries for this article should be directed to cfr.org.