Beyond Af-Pak: Australia’s long-term interests in Pakistan
The Australian Strategic Policy Institute has today released a new Strategic Insights publication titled ‘Beyond Af-Pak: Australia’s long-term interests in Pakistan’ by Kate Boswood, Jacob Townsend and Silal Shafqat.
The report argues that stability in Pakistan will remain central to the international community’s interests in South Asia, well beyond the war in Afghanistan.
Australia is not a major player shaping the international community’s interests in Pakistan. But we can contribute by fostering security at the margins because we are viewed as having less of an ‘agenda’ or political baggage than others. Australia should shift its practical actions to peripheral geographic areas to engage with Pakistan’s major zones of instability.
The most important of these are Pakistan’s border areas with Afghanistan: Balochistan province, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province (KPK) and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas. Large swathes of these areas have long been identified as incubators and theatres of serious transnational security challenges, with impacts felt regionally and globally. But no Australian department is directly attempting to improve security at the local level in Balochistan and KPK.
Australia’s current assistance does not address community insecurity directly. We are missing a strategy that aligns our long-term interests in Pakistan’s stability with more substantive opportunities to pursue them. A practical emphasis on improving community security in Pakistan’s border areas would more closely align with our priority of supporting Pakistan’s stability.
Australia should:
• strengthen civilian oversight of police
• strengthen community policing
• improve training for lower police ranks.
Australia should stress the importance of Pakistan’s future, regardless of what happens in Afghanistan.
By shifting the focus to improving stability in Pakistan’s peripheries, Australia will find feasible opportunities for engagement that more directly align with our interests. Promoting community security—by supporting civilian oversight of police, community policing pilots, and training for low-rank personnel—is a niche that Australia can fill.