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94 Foreign Aff. 160 (2015)
An Unworthy Ally: Time for Washington to Cut Pakistan Loose

handle is hein.journals/fora94 and id is 1174 raw text is: An Unworthy Ally Time for Washington to Cut Pakistan Loose C. Christine Fair and Sumit Ganguly Ever since 9/11, the United States has provided Pakistan with a steady supply of security and nonsecurity assistance. U.S. officials have justified these generous transfers-worth more than $30 billion since 2002-on the grounds that they secure Pakistan's ongoing cooperation in Afghanistan, bolster Pakistan's ability to fight terrorism, and give the U.S. government influence over the country's ever- expanding nuclear weapons program. Failing to deliver this support, the argument runs, could dramatically weaken the will and capacity of Pakistan's security forces and possibly even lead to the collapse of the Pakistani state. In that event, Pakistan's nuclear know-how, material, or weapons could well fall into the hands of nefarious actors. Yet that logic is fundamentally flawed. Many of the weapons Wash- ington gives Islamabad are ill suited to fighting terrorism, and continued transfers will do nothing to convince the Pakistani government to end its long-standing support for terrorist groups. In fact, U.S. assistance gives Pakistan an incentive to foster a sense of insecurity concerning its nuclear arsenal and expanding ranks of jihadists. Since the current approach has little chance of aligning Pakistan's interests with those of the United States, the time has come for Wash- ington to change course. If Washington cannot end Pakistan's noxious behaviors, it should at least stop sponsoring them. OLD HABITS DIE HARD Pakistan's reliance on militant proxies is as old as its very existence as an independent state. As early as 1947, when Pakistan was emerging C. CHRISTINE FAIR is Associate Professor in the Security Studies Program at Georgetown University's Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service and the author of Fighting to the End: The Pakistan Army's Way of War. Follow her on Twitter @CChristineFair. SUMIT GANGULY is Professor of Political Science and Rabindranath Tagore Chair in Indian Cultures and Civilizations at Indiana University, Bloomington. He is the author of the forthcoming book Deadly Impasse: India and Pakistan at the Dawn of a New Century. 160 FOREIGN AFFAIRS

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