Herodotus's The Histories

US policy in South Asia seen through my eyes

By Kush Tandon

"Following is a post, I wrote on www.square.com 6-7 months ago as a 101 on US-South Asian politics, but with recent yes to shipments of F-16s to Pakistan, this is more than topical. Does it make sense?"

I am amazed how young students in College Station or Corvallis know so little about South Asia even after 9/11. Let's revisit US - South Asia politics since 1950s. The US policy in South Asia had seen heady days of JFK-Nehru bonding on utopian ideas, Jacqueline's elephant rides in India, John Galbraith and Daniel Moynihan speaking up for India but also touched nadir when Indira Gandhi and Nixon were barely on talking terms and from strategic viewpoint, India was totally written off from 70-90s being in the Soviet camp. In case of Pakistan, their brightest hour was when they became the go between for Nixon's Great Wall diplomacy but then low point was reached when all they were gun runners extraordinaire during Soviet occupation of Afghanistan and Clinton only paid a visit to them for few hours (and chastised them openly on TV).

In 70s-90s, USA was solely concentrating on China in that region and others were secondary players in the geopolitical game at that time. However, things have now changed. India is slowly emerging as a true economic power, at least a fledgling one and Pakistan holds the key to stability for the entire region (India-Pakistan-Afghanistan-Iran). United States now wants India to be a counter-weight to China 20-30 years from now.

The new US policy in South Asia should really include:

Vigorous Economic Engagement: Outsourcing, high tech industry, and textiles. Recently, Pakistan requested for textile tariffs to be removed but US turned it down. Small acts like that will touch more the common Muslim on the streets in Pakistan that anything else, including new F-16s. Both, India and USA are on the right track on becoming serious business partners. Outsourcing creates more new markets than jobs lost and also, an atmosphere for enduring friendship.

No blank checks to Pakistan. Even in Marshall Plan, there was strong accountability on a six-month basis. I understand situation is very delicate but on long term, Pakistan has always had the core talent that can grow into "Turkey-like" democracy. Pakistan has one of the most advanced infrastructure in Islamic nations. Indonesia is slowly joining the ranks of Turkey, so can Pakistan. In past, democratic governments in Pakistan have been sporadic and short lived.

During 9/ 11 hearings, I think George Tenet pointed out that US intelligentsia was basically uneducated with respect to Middle East (language, culture, politics, etc.). The liberal arts education in USA has a very strong European tilt and little bit of Japan. It definitely needs to incorporate South Asia, Middle East and Koreas in a rigorous way at college level, besides curry and Ravi Shankar. He was referring to reasons for intelligence failure but also holds true for marketing "USA" in South Asia.