A roundtable conference was organized by the Area Study Centre, University of Peshawar, Pakistan on August 15, 2008, on “Pak-U.S. Relations and Regional Militancy” in Peshawar.  Professor Stephen Cohen of the Brookings Institution, and a large number of University faculty, journalists, diplomats, research scholars, and bureaucrats participated. Dr. Azmat Hayat Khan, Vice-Chancellor University of Peshawar, introduced Prof. Stephen Cohen to the participants.

Dr. Cohen, an author of several books on Pakistan, delivered a brief speech, which was followed by a lengthy question and answer session.  He said that Pakistan was the most frequently discussed country in the 2008 U.S. presidential debate and added that states are getting weaker, while nations and ethnic groups are getting stronger. Dr. Azmat asked him about U.S. foreign policy in the region, eliciting the response that U.S. policy in the frontier is murky. There is a deep concern in the U.S. about Pakistan’s control over its territory, particularly relating to people crossing the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Professor Adnan Sarwar, Chairman of the University’s International Relations Department, said that during the Cold War, U.S. policy was considered tilted towards Pakistan vis-a-vis India, yet at the end of Cold War it was said that U.S. policy will be even handed. Now it appears rather tilted towards India. Cohen explained U.S. South Asia policy and mentioned the BJP idea of bifurcation. He said that Pakistan and India are neighbors and said that he doesn’t understand the rhetoric of bifurcation. The Indian economy is booming, foreign investment is growing, and India is investing in the U.S. as well. It has huge markets and a potential to play the role of rival to emerging China but added that US diplomacy should be more flexible towards Pakistan.

Mr. Zubair, Law college lecturer, talked about Pakistan’s search for identity. The American scholar answered that Pakistan’s search for identity is still ongoing. Pakistan has failed to benefit from globalization; however no major country wants Pakistan to fail. Pakistan has also missed opportunities to attract foreign investment due to the poor security situation.

In an answer to a question on the amount and type of aid America is giving to Pakistan, Mr. Steve Lebens, Public Affairs Officer at the U.S. consulate in Peshawar, said that the size of U.S. aid to Pakistan is $1billion per year. The U.S. has given aid to Pakistan since the 1950s. It has provided assistance in different fields; improvement of physical infrastructure, balance of payments, and education, Fulbright fellowships, teachers’ training, sanitation, and health care excess. He particularly mentioned U.S. assistance in the development of the Agricultural University in Peshawar in the 1980s.

Dr. Cohen said that Pakistan is the most anti-American country in the world, and criticized the way U.S. aid is provided; little has reached the people of Pakistan. He compared it with what happened in Afghanistan. He underlined that while a huge amount of aid is given to Afghanistan, little has actually reached the country. Large contractors give it to subcontractors, then subcontractors give it to other subcontractors and in this way, out of $100 only $10 is actually reaching the people of Afghanistan. He said that conditionality attached to aid should be pro-Pakistani rather than anti-Pakistani.  Transparent conditionality should be attached to the aid.

Regarding the situation in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), the Brookings Institution expert said that both the U.S. and Pakistan military are wrong. This counterinsurgency is total nonsense, and the lessons of Iraq may be applied to Afghanistan. He said that India has faced many insurgencies and lessons should be learnt from the Indian experience. He mentioned the U.S. experience in Vietnam and the British way of dealing with IRA, and elaborated that insurgency is a protracted and durable phenomenon which may be ongoing for more than a generation.

In response to a comment to the effect that there is a common perception among people in Pakistan that Pakistan is fighting a U.S. war on its territory, Cohen responded that Pakistan is a moderate state and its women are educated, and explained that President George W. Bush has hugely exaggerated its actions against extremists; it should have been called a police action rather than global war. He referred to Barack Obama’s concern for the genuine security interests of Pakistan and also pointed out that the U.S. is beginning to realize that Pakistan’s strategic interests are different from those of the U.S.