pakistan’s

acceptable than what might emerge in the future. If Iran viewed the Taliban and al Qaeda as
threats inimical to its national (and regime) security, ISIS must surely be viewed as a hugely
magnified present-day version of those earlier threats. Reintegrating Iran into the international
community and encouraging it to work together with Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, in concert with
the rest of South and Central Asia, is in the world’s larger interest. Without this, the pacification
of ISIS is unachievable.
What should the United States and other global and regional powers do? First, sectarian
divisions are at the heart of the various conflicts that currently dominate Afghanistan and
Pakistan as well as the greater Syria-Iraq-Lebanon region. These divisions are largely fueled
either by perceptions of marginalization or by economic causes that have been exacerbated by
perceptions of sectarian oppression. The regions involved, and indeed the world at large, would
benefit from a rapprochement between Iran and Pakistan. Since economic development is very
much predicated on the ability of countries to fuel new industrial growth that would also have
a beneficial spillover effect on their contiguous regions, Pakistani and Iranian leaders should
enhance cooperation on energy issues that would stimulate economic development and growth
and reduce the scourge of poverty and unemployment. Improved energy and economic ties would
inevitably expand to security issues. However, current global rivalries and stand-offs have to be
subsumed now to meet the new threat of global terrorism. In a sense, the world today may already
be witnessing the beginnings of a global conflagration. Whereas in World War II both sides were
fighting a conventional war, the existing world order is now being challenged by forces that use
both conventional and unconventional weapons and do not accept or respect any of the currently
established international norms or rules of engagement. Therefore, a global alliance to fight this
scourge must look at the larger threat and subsume local or more narrowly defined rivalries or
antagonisms for the larger good.
Following the same logic, Pakistan should revitalize efforts at normalizing relations with
both India and Iran. Expanding trade with India, particularly in the energy sector, would help
triangulate the bilateral relations between the three countries into a beneficial framework that
could then grow to embrace Central Asia on the western side and Southeast and East Asia on the
eastern flank. In fact, energy cooperation through extending existing power grids from national
to regional configurations would ultimately establish the logic of putting in place an interlinking
grid of symbiotic interdependence that would be the foundation for a stable security regime in the
larger Asian region.
However, these developments can only happen if other international actors, particularly the
United States, work toward building partnerships with Iran to address growing security challenges
that override all other considerations at this point in time. Without this, neither Pakistan nor Iran
would likely feel compelled to reach out to the other.
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SPECIAL REPORT u FEBRUARY 2016