All along the watch tower

[Jcrowley]

All along the watch tower
By Peter J Middlebrook and Sharon M Miller

Five years after US coalition forces commenced Operation Enduring Freedom, the steadily rising tide of insurgency in southern Afghanistan and northern Pakistan continues to bedevil the beleaguered international stabilization effort. In the presence of a heavily contested border between the two countries, and given that the current International Security Assistance Force/North Atlantic Treaty Organization (ISAF/NATO) operation simply cannot succeed in the absence of a parallel route of political diplomacy, there is an urgent need to reassess the entire direction of the current "peacekeeping" and "counter-insurgency" operation.

The paper argues that while the Durand Line agreement is no longer considered a contentious issue between the current de jure Afghan and Pakistan states, the continued existence of political discontent between their sub-national Pashtun <1>, Baloch, North West Frontier Province (NWFP)and Federally Administered Tribal Area (FATA) interest groups continues to usurp the rule of law and undermine the effectiveness of border management controls.

In the absence of a legally recognized and enforceable border management agreement, it is therefore impossible for the international community to apportion responsibility for the lack of effective state control over the insurgency, terrorism, narcotics and smuggling; a situation which must surely be unacceptable to the United Nations, the United States and the United Kingdom. The failure to address the root causes, not just the effects, of historical discontent must therefore remain the central tenet of a yet-to-commence state to sub-state reconciliation and peace process.

Ahead of the NATO summit in Riga, Latvia on November 28-29, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice spoke of the need for "transformatory diplomacy". Given the significance of the Afghan-Pakistan-India axis for the structure of the new world order, meeting the challenges presented by the Afghan-Pakistan border crisis provides an important test case for NATO's muscle outside of Europe.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/HL12Df07.html