A refreshing look at Pakistan's dysfunction and its future

In a brilliant article,  George Perkovich of the Carnegie Endowment for Peace examines the relationship between Pakistan and the US and outlines a strategy moving forward.

He begins by saying that  " the United States .. needs to confront the more important question of Pakistan’s future. The United States has been a major player there for sixty years; if Pakistan is dangerously dysfunctional, Washington helped enable it to get this way. .The United States has frequently cited its interests in Pakistan: securing Pakistan’s growing nuclear arsenal; preventing war between it and India; counterterrorism; inducing Pakistan’s cooperation in stabilizing Afghanistan; and fostering development and democratization in what will soon be the world’s most populous Muslim-majority state. "

"For decades that posture has had the unintended but undeniable effect of empowering Pakistan’s grossly oversized and hyperactive military and intelligence services at the expense of the country’s civil society and progress toward effective governance. Washington’s collusion with the Pakistani security establishment has amounted to enablement—the indulgence and augmentation of a friend’s self-destructive outlook and actions. To stop doing harm, the United States would first have to give up the illusion that it can change the Pakistani military’s mindset, and stop offering money to do so. It would have to pause and then redesign a large aid program so hamstrung by anti-corruption and security measures that it antagonizes recipients and seems designed to fail. "


His conclusion: "there are two strategic shifts the United States could make to help Pakistanis. The most important and easiest is to stop making things worse—stop enabling Pakistan’s dysfunctional actors. The second is to diminish the U.S. footprint in Pakistan and its fingerprints on the civilian assistance that it offers, and instead pool efforts with Pakistanis and other state and multinational actors who share the goal of building a peaceful democracy..With good intentions, successive administrations and Congresses have colluded with the Pakistani army and intelligence services to maintain their oversized, dysfunctional roles in Pakistan and South Asia. There is no evidence that U.S. blandishments or threats will motivate this security establishment to change its mindset and provide space and resources for Pakistani civilians to create a national identity around internal reconciliation, justice, development, and democratization."


Ultimately it is for Pakistanis to save themselves.