Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
President-elect Barack Obama has assembled a bipartisan, centrist national security team, with an emphasis on pragmatic competence. Already faced with a daunting foreign policy inbox, the incoming administration must formulate a response to the Mumbai terrorist attacks without undermining either the current administration’s credibility or the already-weak Pakistani government.
The Mumbai attacks bear the hallmarks of Lashkar-e-Taiba, a group which operated in Kashmir in the 1990s, but has global reach today. It was founded and supported by the ISI, Pakistan’s intelligence agency. If Lashkar-e-Taiba responsible for the attacks, Pakistan will face new scrutiny from the U.S. as an ally in the war on terror.
The Mumbai terrorists attacked previously untargeted groups in India, including wealthy Indians and foreigners, in a likely attempt to discredit India as a safe place to conduct business and articulate a wide range of grievances with the government.
The Mumbai terrorists appear to have targeted wealthy Indians and foreigners in a series of coordinated attacks that have left over 100 dead and hundreds injured.
Behind the scenes at the G-8 summit, U.S. and Indian officials appear to be moving forward on an agreement that would lift the U.S. ban on nuclear trade with India and allow it to assist India’s civilian nuclear program. Ashley Tellis discusses the details of the deal on NPR’s Morning Edition and notes that it is unlikely to make India a closer U.S. ally.
Carnegie’s Ashley J. Tellis appeared on BBC World to discuss Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf’s speech to the Royal United Services Institute in London.
