An Indirect Strategy for Sanctuary Defeat: Addressing Pakistan's Regional Security Concerns
Abstract
The United States and its allies have made great progress in Afghanistan. However, it has not yet achieved its goals regarding defeat of the Taliban and al Qaida. The insurgent sanctuary in western Pakistan is probably the most significant reason this is true. Therefore, the US must pursue an effective way to eliminate that sanctuary. Fundamentally, this should be a counterinsurgency campaign. However, the US could execute that campaign in a number of ways. First, they could pursue a US-led or Pakistani military-led military option. However, both are likely to alienate the local population and actually reduce the legitimacy of the Pakistani government within the tribal areas. The second option is to pursue a whole-of-government approach to address the root causes of discontent the insurgents exploit. However, because of history and the perception of its regional security environment, the Government of Pakistan maintains policies toward the tribal areas that prevent this strategy from being successful. Therefore, the thesis of this paper is that US must pursue a strategy that works with Pakistan to stabilize their regional security concerns in order to allow it confidence to adjust tribal area policies. Once Pakistan is less concerned with its regional security environment than its internal security environment, it will be able to conduct a successful counterinsurgency campaign to eliminate the sanctuary. This paper frames the basic components of an interagency strategy to accomplish this goal.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Apr 01, 2009
- Accession Number
- ADA539154
Entities
People
- Neil E. Anderson
Organizations
- Air Command and Staff College