In the meantime, Washington will be watching for Nawaz Sharifs ability to tackle Pakistans immense problems at home and

with neighbouring Afghanistan and India Afghanistan continues to both sustain and in!ure bilateral ties "he #nited States and Pakistan ha$e a shared history of misad$enture in Afghanistan, paying dearly for each others mistakes Afghanistan is the latest place where we ha$e found one another to be indispensable, partially reliable and sometimes unhelpful allies Scapegoating is a common practice, but as much as both countries complain about each other, neither can cut the ties that bind without causing grie$ous self%punishment Pakistan is as necessary for the withdrawal of #S military e&uipment as it was for its deployment into Afghanistan And Pakistan continues to need #S help to deal with economic difficulties and internal security threats Neither can succeed at counterterrorism without the others help Pakistani and #S soldiers who ha$e ser$ed multiple tours battling $iolent e'tremism ha$e borne the brunt of mistaken national security policies (ther reasons to stabilise bilateral relations are ob$ious As the communi&u) from the state $isit makes plain, the #nited States has helped Pakistan to deal with its energy dilemmas far more than *hina "his has barely been noticed in the current phase of anti% Americanism within Pakistan +ilitary assistance continues, but has shifted , and will shift still more , away from hardware associated with con$entional warfare to helping Pakistans military deal with e'tremists who kill at a rate that dwarfs that of drone warfare As long as it is easier within Pakistan to rail against drones than for the Pakistani military to take action against the targets of drone strikes, our two nations will remain only partial and troubled partners in countering $iolent e'tremism Internal and e'ternal security threats are linked, of course -ut internal cohesion can only be accentuated by missteps in Afghanistan or in dealings with India In Pakistan, internal security is of paramount importance, as .en /ayani repeatedly says "o the outside world, Pakistans efforts in this regard are o$ershadowed by those who use its soil to carry out $iolent acts across borders Its hard to recognise mistakes, and e$en harder to engineer course corrections "here is good reason to suspect that Afghanistan is too fractious a place for ambitious state% building A grand Afghan political settlement is likely to remain ephemeral or illusi$e 0amiliar di$ides will reappear because they ha$e ne$er gone away

Whate$er chips Pakistans national security managers might try to play in an Afghan settlement ha$e not rewarded Pakistan in the past, and are unlikely to help Pakistan find a brighter future "wo generations of Pakistani strategic analysts ha$e held the mirage that Afghanistan pro$ides strategic depth, when the re$erse has pro$en to be true Pakistan has been destabilised by its own and by #S misad$entures in Afghanistan, and could be destabilised further if India gains a foothold there to use as a staging ground to support disaffection in -alochistan A role re$ersal of this kind, mirroring Indias decades%long misfortunes in /ashmir, could only multiply Pakistans domestic woes A political settlement, if one can be found, will ha$e to tackle this issue which, in turn, re&uires impro$ed ties between Pakistan and India Nawaz Sharif has great sympathy and support in Washington "he (bama administration will continue to pro$ide assistance to tackle Pakistans economic, energy and internal security woes 0irst impressions in Washington, as in Pakistan, suggest a man hobbled by the immensity of his countrys problems and the obstacles that others so easily place in his path 1ast month, at the margins of #N .eneral Assembly speechmaking, he and Indian Prime +inister +anmohan Singh promised to &uiet e'changes of fire across the /ashmir di$ide "hese flares appear to outsiders as contri$ed to pre$ent Nawaz from pursuing what he so clearly wants , impro$ed relations and greater direct trade with India As long as firing across the /ashmir di$ide continues, it suggests opposition to this agenda, which is critical to Pakistans well%being +ore difficult, by orders of magnitude, will be taking action against e'tremists that are dri$ing up Pakistans death toll 1ea$ing aside countries like Syria which are in the throes of a ci$il war, Pakistan now ranks abo$e Afghanistan, and second only to Ira&, in fatalities due to sectarian $iolence The writer is co-founder of the Stimson Centre in Washington.