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

Publication Date: September 2006

Publisher: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

Author(s): Frederic Grare

Research Area: International relations; Politics

Type: Report

Coverage: Afghanistan Pakistan

Abstract:

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.