The Pakistan-India conflict is one of the most intractable and enduring regional conflicts in modern times — yet many fail to recognize its importance to U.S. national security.
Since British India was partitioned in 1947, Pakistan and India have fought three full-scale wars and have kept their borders in a persistent state of military readiness. The fact that Osama bin Laden was found in Pakistan came as little surprise to most Indians, who view Pakistan as a constant source of support for terrorism. Indeed, Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence has been accused of helping plan the 2008 attacks in Mumbai, India, which killed and wounded nearly 500 people.
India has long demanded that Pakistan eliminate terrorist groups and safe havens on its soil. The United States has demanded the same, since it is widely suspected that U.S. support to Pakistan indirectly supports the very extremists who are fighting our troops. So how does Pakistan believe it is served by nurturing these extremists?
To understand — though not condone — Pakistan’s behavior and motivations, it helps to view them through the prism of their relationship with India.
As a hedge against Indian influence, Pakistan has sought “strategic depth” in Afghanistan — a decades-long effort to extend its geopolitical reach into Afghanistan and throughout the region. The Taliban and other militant groups have acted as Pakistan’s proxy in its fight against India. After 9/11, Pakistan continued to collude with the Taliban, even as it allied with us in the “war on terror.” Pakistan took billions of dollars in U.S. military aid and used much of it to build up its defenses against its fellow nuclear power, India.
But Pakistan’s search for “strategic depth” isn’t yielding positive results. Its post- 9/11 cooperation with the U.S. has only angered militants within its own borders, against whom Pakistani forces have battled for years, at a cost of tens of thousands of Pakistani lives. While India is one of the world’s fastest growing economies, Pakistan devotes huge sums to building up its military and supporting proxy groups, while neglecting spending on its own people.
Pakistan must choose now whether to take a different course. The U.S. must play a role in pushing it in that new direction and in quietly encouraging a resolution to the Pakistan-India conflict.
Last fall, after a trip to the region, I wrote a letter to President Obama, urging him to engage with Indian government leaders on the issue of Kashmir — a regional dispute that has been source of tension between India and Pakistan for six decades. I told him that I believe there is a role for the U.S. government to play in helping resolve the conflict and other areas of dispute, which ultimately would improve our own national security.
A normalized relationship between Pakistan and India would enable Pakistan to devote more resources to counterinsurgency efforts along its western border with Afghanistan. It could also help Pakistan turn away from supporting proxy groups that destabilize the region and focus instead on building its economy.
We shouldn’t kid ourselves that problems at the core of the India-Pakistan rivalry can be resolved overnight. But it’s encouraging that India and Pakistan recently re-established a security dialogue for the first time since the Mumbai attacks.
With NATO forces beginning to withdraw from Afghanistan this summer, there is no better time for a renewed effort to resolve the Pakistan-India conflict.
The power and influence of Pakistan’s military may continue to be one of the bigger obstacles to a peaceful resolution of the conflict. And to the extent that U.S. assistance to Pakistan’s military props up that power imbalance, we need to look carefully at how our own aid dollars may contribute to regional problems.
Ultimately, only the Indians and Pakistanis can resolve their differences.
But given the implications of this conflict for our national security, we need a consistent and long-term plan to help them develop a framework for peaceful coexistence and stability.
Democrat Mark Udall represents Colorado in the U.S. Senate.
