AfPak
AfPak (or Af-Pak) is a neologism used within US foreign policy circles to designate Afghanistan and Pakistan as a single theater of operations. Michael Quinion writes that the term began appearing in newspaper articles in February 2009.[1] The term was popularized, and possibly coined, by Richard Holbrooke, the Obama administration's Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan.[2][3] In March 2008 (a year before he assumed that post) Holbrooke explained the motivation behind the term:
First of all, we often call the problem AfPak, as in Afghanistan Pakistan. This is not just an effort to save eight syllables. It is an attempt to indicate and imprint in our DNA the fact that there is one theater of war, straddling an ill-defined border, the Durand Line, and that on the western side of that border, NATO and other forces are able to operate. On the eastern side, it’s the sovereign territory of Pakistan. But it is on the eastern side of this ill-defined border that the international terrorist movement is located.[1]
Amir Taheri writes that Holbrooke's use of the term has been resented by many Pakistanis, who see Pakistan as "in a different league than the much smaller and devastated Afghanistan,"[4] while Clifford May writes that it is disliked by both Afghans and Pakistanis.[5] In June 2009 former Pakistani ruler Pervez Musharraf criticized the term in an interview with Der Spiegel:
I am totally against the term AfPak. I do not support the word itself for two reasons: First, the strategy puts Pakistan on the same level as Afghanistan. We are not. Afghanistan has no government and the country is completely destabilized. Pakistan is not. Second, and this is much more important, is that there is an Indian element in the whole game. We have the Kashmir struggle, without which extremist elements like Lashkar-e-Taiba would not exist.[6]
Answering questions at a June 2009 press conference in Islamabad, Holbrooke "said the term 'Afpak' was not meant to demean Pakistan, but was 'bureaucratic shorthand' intended to convey that the situation in the border areas on both sides was linked and one side could not be resolved without the other."[7]
Official use of the term within the Obama administration has been echoed by the media, as in The Washington Post series The AfPak War[8] and The Af-Pak Channel, a joint project of the New America Foundation and Foreign Policy magazine launched in August 2009.[9][10]
Notes
- ^ a b Quinion, Michael (2009-04-18). "Afpak". World Wide Words. Retrieved 2009-08-27.
- ^ Safire, William (2009-04-23). "On Language: Wide World of Words". The New York Times. Retrieved 2009-08-27.
{{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ Cooper, Helene (2009-02-26). "Obama reaps diplomatic windfall as goodwill lingers". The New York Times. Retrieved 2009-08-27.
{{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ Taheri, Amir (2009-01-05). "Pakistan and the Mad Mullahs of the Mountain". Asharq Alawsat. Retrieved 2009-08-27.
- ^ http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MjAxYWMzMGMzMzFmNmZmNTBjMzIzY2IyNjYwNzQ5YmQ=
- ^ "SPIEGEL Interview with Pervez Musharraf: Obama 'Is Aiming at the Right Things'". Der Spiegel. 2009-06-07. Retrieved 2009-08-27.
{{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ http://www.hindu.com/2009/06/06/stories/2009060659771000.htm
- ^ http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/afghanistan-pakistan/index.html
- ^ http://www.foreignpolicy.com/afpak
- ^ Ricchiardi, Sherry (August/September 2009). "Assignment AfPak". American Journalism Review. Retrieved 2009-08-27.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help); Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help)
External links
 | This vocabulary-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |