Pakistan-Afghanistan Relations in the Post-9/11 Era

Paper

Pakistan-Afghanistan Relations in the Post-9/11 Era

Taliban insurgents and their Al Qaeda allies, once thought defeated in Afghanistan, are regaining strength. Frederic Grare examines the evolution of the situation in Afghanistan and takes a look at Afghanistan through Pakistan's eyes. In addition, Grare provides policy recommendations for regional relations in a post-U.S. Afghanistan.

By Frederic Grare

Published on Sep 29, 2006

Source: Carnegie Endowment

Taliban insurgents and their Al Qaeda allies, once thought defeated in Afghanistan, are regaining strength. Regrouped and reorganized, better equipped and financed, and more sophisticated tactically, they are threatening both the reconstruction process and the U.S.-led coalition forces on the ground. Pakistan-Afghanistan relations have been another casualty of the renewed violence. The resurgence of the Taliban movement and the growing insurgency in the provinces bordering the Pakistan-Afghan border have once again generated tensions between Kabul and Islamabad. The two countries are accusing each other of interfering in their respective domestic affairs.

In a new Carnegie Paper, Pakistan-Afghanistan Relations in the Post-9/11 Era, Visiting Scholar Frederic Grare examines the evolution of the situation in Afghanistan and takes a look at Afghanistan through Pakistan's eyes. In addition, Grare provides policy recommendations for regional relations in a post-U.S. Afghanistan. He suggests that only the end of military rule in Pakistan can clear the way for more stabilized relations with Afghanistan. To achieve these ends, democratizing Pakistan is first and foremost a strategic imperative.

Click on icon above for the full text of this Carnegie Paper.

Frederic Grare is a visiting scholar in the South Asia Program at the Carnegie Endowment. He focuses on the tension between stability and democratization in Pakistan.

About the Author

Frederic Grare

Former Nonresident Senior Fellow, South Asia Program

Frédéric Grare was a nonresident senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, where his research focuses on Indo-Pacific dynamics, the search for a security architecture, and South Asia Security issues.

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Carnegie India does not take institutional positions on public policy issues; the views represented herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Carnegie, its staff, or its trustees.

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