Deadly Triangle: Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India

Pakistan borders Afghanistan; India does not. All have reason to support stability in Afghanistan as NATO troops withdraw. India has sent a small number of unarmed educators and health workers to contribute to Afghan economic development. Pakistan is fixated with India, notes historian William Dalrymple in an inaugural Brookings research essay: “India’s regional rival, Pakistan, was extremely touchy about India providing military assistance to the government in Afghanistan and had made it very clear that it regarded the presence of any Indian troops or military trainers there as an unacceptable provocation.” Extremists of the Haqqani network, based in Pakistan, have orchestrated brutal attacks on Indian staff in Afghanistan. That helps explain why a 2009 poll showed that Afghans view India more favorably than Pakistan, 74 to 8 percent. The war is no longer NATO versus Taliban and Al Qaeda, but rather complex internal ethnic conflicts, layered with ongoing Indian-Pakistani hostility. Any Pakistani endorsement of jihad to destabilize India could boomerang on Pakistan and disrupt foreign investment in Afghanistan, including that by China. An expectation that Pakistan’s allies and neighbors resist Indian overtures only isolates Pakistan. – YaleGlobal