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India-Pakistan

US think tank urges India to tailor Afghan policy to Pak situation

2008-04-12

A leading Washington, DC think tank, which is a repository for erstwhile senior administration officials and policymakers, has called on India to ''tailor its Afghan policy to the new situation in Pakistan' in order to alleviate the decades-long competing strategic agendas between New Delhi and Islamabad vis-?-vis Afghanistan.

Anybody understand that sentence?

The Center for Strategic and International Studies, in a report titled India and Pakistan in Afghanistan: Hostile Sports, said that if New Delhi 'can find even modest ways of working in harmony with the Pakistani government, it could reap substantial benefits in its relations with both countries', even as it acknowledged that the new 'great game' may continue, 'but it will be more of chess, less of tug-of-war'.

Sure, the Hindoo and the Pak will work together. The lion will lie down with the lamb .. and eat it ...

The report said that besides the deep cultural and historic ties with Afghanistan that both India and Pakistan have had for decades, there had been competing strategic agendas.

'For India, Afghanistan was an important albeit passive geopolitical on Pakistan, as well the gateway to Central Asia. Pakistan saw Afghanistan as part of a threatening Indian pincer movement, a source of fuel for Pushtun separatism inside Pakistan, and during the Taliban years, a source of 'strategic depth' against the Indian threat,' the report stated.

All of which is true and demonstrates that someone in New Delhi has a clue ...

The report said that the Indian presence in Afghanistan has 'stoked Pakistan's fears', and Islamabad believes that 'the Indian consulates provide cover for Indian intelligence agencies to run covert operations against Pakistan'.

It said that in recent years, 'Pakistan has accused India of intriguing in collusion with the Afghan ministry of tribal affairs and the Afghan intelligence agencies to fund and arm rebels of the Baloch Liberation Army, who are carrying out a separatist insurgency in Pakistan'.

US intelligence agencies, please take note; India is showing you how to destabilize a nasty thugocracy without getting overtly caught. I can think of a place where I'd demonstrate how well I learned the lesson; it's called, 'Iran' ...

The report recalled that when Afghan President Hamid Karzai visited Pakistan in 2007, President Musharraf had 'presented him maps of locations with suspected Indian activity and urged him to rein in the Indians'.

'Pakistan's fears of encirclement by India,' it added, 'have been compounded by the Indian Air Force's new facility in Farkhor, Tajikistan, which may house MI-17 helicopter gunships. The air base follows up on hospital and logistics depot constructed by the Indians in the region some years ago'.

Posted by:john frum

#4 Founded in 1962 by Arleigh Burke and historian David Abshire.

Usual suspects here:

Chairman
Sam Nunn* ** -- Cochairman & CEO, Nuclear Threat Initiative

Vice Chairman & Co-Founder
David M. Abshire -- President, Center for the Study of the Presidency

Chairman of the Executive Committee
William A. Schreyer* -- Chairman Emeritus, Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc.

Vice Chairman of the Executive Committee
Anne Armstrong* -- Former U.S. Ambassador to Great Britain

President & CEO
John J. Hamre* -- President & CEO, CSIS

Trustees

* George L. Argyros -- Chairman & CEO, Arnel & Affiliates
* Richard Armitage -- President, Armitage International
* Betty Beene -- Former President & CEO, United Way of America
* Reginald K. Brack -- Former Chairman & CEO, Time, Incorporated
* William E. Brock** -- Counselor and Trustee, CSIS
* Harold Brown** -- Counselor and Trustee, CSIS
* Zbigniew Brzezinski** -- Counselor and Trustee, CSIS
* William S. Cohen -- Chairman & CEO, The Cohen Group
* Ralph Cossa -- President, Pacific Forum/CSIS
* Richard Fairbanks -- Counselor and Trustee, CSIS
* William H. Frist -- Trustee, CSIS
* Michael P. Galvin* -- President, Harrison Street Capital, LLC
* Helene D. Gayle -- President & CEO, CARE USA
* Linda W. Hart -- Vice Chairman & CEO, The Hart Group, Inc.
* Ben W. Heineman, Jr. -- CSIS Trustee and Senior Adviser
* Thomas O. Hicks -- Chairman, Hicks Holdings LLC
* Carla A. Hills** -- Chairman & CEO, Hills & Company
* Ray L. Hunt -- Chairman of the Board, President and CEO, Hunt Consolidated, Inc.
* E. Neville Isdell -- Chairman & CEO, The Coca-Cola Company
* James L. Jones -- Trustee, CSIS
* Henry A. Kissinger** -- Chairman & CEO, Kissinger Associates, Inc.
* Kenneth G. Langone -- President & CEO, Invemed Associates, LLC
* Donald B. Marron -- Chairman & CEO, Lightyear Capital
* Joseph Nye -- Distinguished Service Professor, Harvard University, Kennedy School of Government
* E. Stanley ONeal -- Former Chairman and CEO, Merrill Lynch & Company, Inc.
* Thomas Pritzker -- Chairman & CEO, The Pritzker Organization, LLC
* Joseph E. Robert -- Chairman and CEO, The J.E. Robert Companies (JER)
* Felix G. Rohatyn -- Vice Chairman, Lehman Brothers
* David M. Rubenstein -- Cofounder and Managing Director, The Carlyle Group
* Charles A. Sanders -- Former Chairman & CEO, Glaxo Inc.
* James R. Schlesinger** -- Senior Adviser, Lehman Brothers, Inc.
* Brent Scowcroft** -- President, Forum for International Policy
* Rex Tillerson -- Chairman & CEO, Exxon Mobil Corporation
* Frederick B. Whittemore -- Advisory Director, Morgan Stanley

Posted by: Pappy 2008-04-12 23:20

#3 My bet is it's "bipartisan"...

Posted by: tu3031 2008-04-12 20:31

#2 What is the political orientation of this "think tank" and these wouldn't be former Carter and Clinton "senior administration officials" would they? /s

Actually this a serious question but I think I know the answer if memory serves (sometimes it doesn't).

Posted by: tipover 2008-04-12 14:58

#1 Vermin

Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2008-04-12 14:31

00:00