Afghan-Pakistan Border Incidents: The Underlying Problem

11/29/2011
11/27/2011 By Richard Weitz Pakistan and the United States have experienced their most serious incident along the Afghan-Pak border. According to Pakistani sources, confirmed by NATO, U.S. helicopters acting as part of NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan attacked a military checkpoint in northwest Pakistan on Saturday, killing…

MemoGate Affair Highlights Need to Reform Pakistan’s Security Sector

11/24/2011
12/24/2011 by Richard Weitz The resignation of Husain Haqqani as Pakistani Ambassador to the United States over the so-called “memogate” scandal highlights the need for further reform of Pakistan’s security sector. Its main elements--the Pakistani armed forces, intelligence agencies, and police force—are responsible for ensuring Pakistan’s external and internal security…

Panetta At The Helm

07/07/2011
By Dr. Richard Weitz 07/07/2011 - Notwithstanding his achievements during his more than four years as Defense Secretary, Robert Gates left some unfinished tasks for his successor, Leon Panetta.He has many tough challenges ahead. The Senate’s 100-to-0 vote in favor of Panetta’s confirmation showed strong confidence in Panetta’s ability to…

Maritime and Port Security in Pakistan

04/21/2011
By Mathias Hagstrøm, Stud. Scient. Soc., Roskilde University Strategic Insights No 27 October 2010 4/21/2011 - With a population of more than 180 million people and being a potential gateway for Central Asian and western Chinese trade, Pakistan is a very interesting developing market. But with problems of insurgency groups…

Pakistan and the Afghan End Game

01/04/2011
[caption id="attachment_12920" align="alignleft" width="150" caption=" "][/caption] By Dr. Richard Weitz 12/22/2011 - Following the November 26 incident, the Pakistani government convened an emergency session of the Defence Committee of the Cabinet (DCC), Pakistan’s highest forum for defense policy consultation and coordination. The DCC decided to retaliate for the attack by…

Explaining Afghan-Pakistan Border Tensions

11/05/2010
By Dr. Richard Weitz (Credit: http://www.dawn.com) 11/05 /2010 - The Obama administration has decided to pursue a more “proactive” air campaign against the Taliban insurgents and Islamist terrorists operating out of the autonomous tribal regions of northwest Pakistan. Afghan border outposts come under constant attack by Taliban and Haqqani-affiliated insurgents…