Research report published by the Walter & Duncan Gordon Foundation based in Toronto. Report opens as .pdf document.
Abstract: The present crisis‐laden relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan have numerous historical antecedents stretching back to British India, Pakistan’s predecessor in the modern state system. Historically conditioned antipathy and mistrust runs deep. Many of the paths to peace and stability in Afghanistan and Pakistan require such a broader, deeper and historicized understanding of their relations.
Further, the two countries inhabit prime geo-strategic real estate. As a result, the (often contradictory and hostile) interests of regional and global powers often intersect there. From nationalist border clashes to the Soviet invasion, and from the subsequent civil war in Afghanistan and the ascendancy of the Taliban, to the so‐called War on Terror, these conflicts have all been regionalized and/or internationalized, and include actors with transnational links. This complexity is one reason that an external hegemonic agenda can not simply be superimposed onto the region without creating the kind of turmoil that we are presently witnessing. READ FULL REPORT (link opens as .pdf file).
Abstract: The present crisis‐laden relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan have numerous historical antecedents stretching back to British India, Pakistan’s predecessor in the modern state system. Historically conditioned antipathy and mistrust runs deep. Many of the paths to peace and stability in Afghanistan and Pakistan require such a broader, deeper and historicized understanding of their relations.
Further, the two countries inhabit prime geo-strategic real estate. As a result, the (often contradictory and hostile) interests of regional and global powers often intersect there. From nationalist border clashes to the Soviet invasion, and from the subsequent civil war in Afghanistan and the ascendancy of the Taliban, to the so‐called War on Terror, these conflicts have all been regionalized and/or internationalized, and include actors with transnational links. This complexity is one reason that an external hegemonic agenda can not simply be superimposed onto the region without creating the kind of turmoil that we are presently witnessing. READ FULL REPORT (link opens as .pdf file).