The counter-fatigue battle

As if Pakistan did not have enough battles to fight a fresh struggle has emerged courtesy of a former American Ambassador to Pakistan, Cameron Munter. He was speaking to this newspaper on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, a moot that has seen considerable activity on the part of Pakistan players this year. The conversation was free of the constraints of diplomacy and Mr Munter had much to say on the relationship between Pakistan and America, the take-away quote being that those relations have been frayed and degraded by what he called ‘Pakistan fatigue’ in Washington. The syndrome is characterised by the perception that much of the effort that American has expended in respect of supporting Pakistan in counter-terrorism and the building of social capital as well as international relations — ‘have not worked.’



It would be both easy and wrong to see this as a re-boot of the ‘must do more’ mantra, because it points to a longer-term failure of America to engage effectively with Pakistan and that failure in part is owned by Pakistan as well as America. There were high expectations early in the Munter tenure, ‘good things that people wanted to do but could not’ — following which there was a period of more modest expectations. He referenced the speech of General (retd) Raheel Sharif — also at Davos — as being indicative of a more positive future, and there is no doubt that the new administration of President Trump will be casting its gaze in this direction, possibly soon.

What Mr Munter was doing to looking both back and forwards, being more hopeful of economic linkages and support than government-to-government assistance. There were strong hints that our Foreign Office needs to move fast and far if the ‘Pakistan fatigue’ of the Obama administration is not to read across to that of President Trump. Success in Washington is going to be coupled to success on the ground in Pakistan and the sooner Pakistan has a counter-fatigue strategy in place and running the better. Whether our tin-eared politicians will be heeding Mr Munters’ words is however a considerable moot point.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 25^th, 2017.

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