Pakistan's Constraints in Post-NATO Afghanistan

As the United States and its NATO allies continue their military drawdown from Afghanistan, there is a great deal of concern about what will become of the country — and its eastern neighbor, Pakistan — after the withdrawal. The fate of Afghanistan is intrinsically linked to that of Pakistan, the destabilization of which has been one of the biggest casualties of the longest war in U.S. history. Washington hopes that stability in Pakistan would help protect Kabul from jihadist recidivism. Washington and Islamabad both hope that a power-sharing agreement between Kabul and the Afghan Taliban would help prevent the cross-border insurgency from worsening. However, the war has greatly damaged Pakistan, and there are serious constraints on Islamabad's ability to help the United States manage the situation.