Pakistan's Nuclear Proliferation Activities and the Recommendations of the 9/11 Commission: U.S. Policy Constraints and Options

Publication Date: May 2005

Publisher: Library of Congress. Congressional Research Service

Author(s):

Research Area: Government

Type:

Coverage: Pakistan

Abstract:

In calling for a clear, strong, and long-term commitment to the militarydominated government of Pakistan despite serious concerns about that country's nuclear proliferation activities, The 9/11 Commission cast into sharp relief two longstanding dilemmas concerning U.S. policy towards Pakistan and South Asia. First, in an often strained security relationship spanning more than five decades, U.S. and Pakistani national security objectives have seldom been congruent. Pakistan has viewed the alliance primarily in the context of its rivalry with India, whereas American policymakers have viewed it from the perspective of U.S. global security interests. Second, U.S. nuclear nonproliferation objectives towards Pakistan (and India) repeatedly have been subordinated to other important U.S. goals. During the 1980s, Pakistan exploited its key role as a conduit for aid to the anti-Soviet Afghan mujahidin to avoid U.S. nuclear nonproliferation sanctions and receive some $600 million annually in U.S. military and economic aid. Underscoring Pakistan's different agenda, some of the radical Islamists favored by its military intelligence service later formed the core of Al Qaeda and the Taliban.

A crucial U.S. policy challenge is to gain Pakistani cooperation in shutting down the extensive illicit nuclear supplier network established in the 1990s by the selfdesignated "father" of Pakistan's nuclear bomb, Abdul Qadir Khan, which provided nuclear enrichment technology to Iran, Libya, and North Korea, while at the same time supporting stability in Pakistan and gaining its maximum cooperation against terrorism. To date, the Administration appears largely to have acquiesced in Pakistan's refusal to allow access to Khan by U.S. intelligence officials. The Administration has been equally reluctant to publicly criticize the Musharraf government's apparent use of international arms dealers to obtain controlled U.S. dual-use technology for its own nuclear weapons program, in violation of U.S. law.

The 109th Congress has been asked by the Administration to provide some $698 million in military and economic assistance to Pakistan for FY2006, part of a fiveyear, $3 billion aid package. Some Members of Congress have expressed concern that, as during the 1980s, the urgent need for Pakistan's cooperation will prevent the Administration from dealing forcefully with its nuclear proliferation activities, and have introduced legislation that seeks to make U.S. assistance contingent on Pakistan's cooperation on nuclear proliferation.

This report: (1) briefly recounts previous failed efforts to reconcile American nuclear nonproliferation and other security objectives regarding Pakistan; (2) documents A.Q. Khan's role, whether with or without official involvement, in supplying nuclear technology to "rogue" states and how these activities escaped detection by U.S. intelligence agencies; (3) considers issues regarding the objectives, and viability of the military-dominated government of President Pervez Musharraf; and, (4) outlines and evaluates several U.S. options for seeking to gain more credible cooperation from Pakistan's regarding its nuclear activities while still maintaining effective counterterrorist cooperation. This report will not be further updated.