President Barack Obama's special envoy arrived in Islamabad this week as his administration tackles what may be its greatest foreign policy challenge: a nuclear-armed country hurtling towards chaos.
Obama's aides say Pakistan really "scares" him. The country is threatened by growing Islamist insurgency, economic collapse and a crisis of governance as it struggles to establish democratic rule. Obama believes it is the key to pacifying Afghanistan and countering al-Qaeda and has appointed pugnacious diplomatic troubleshooter Richard Holbrooke as his special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan.
"We often call this situation Afpak," said Holbrooke at a conference before flying to Islamabad. "A new and fragile democracy has emerged [in Pakistan] ... but the situation requires attention and sympathy."
Leaks of a US military review conducted under David Petraeus, the American general in charge of the region, suggest Pakistan, not Iraq, Afghanistan or Iran, is Obama's most urgent foreign policy issue.
FULL ARTICLE
15 February 2009
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