Najam on Global Reaction to India-Pakistan Crisis
As tensions between India and Pakistan continue to pile up following an early morning air strike into Pakistan territory, Adil Najam, Dean of the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, was invited on various Pakistani TV news channels to discuss the escalating situation. This included an interview on one of Pakistan’s leading news shows, Aaj Kamran Khan Kay Sath on Dunya TV on February 26, 2019.
Asked how the U.S. was reacting to the mounting tensions, Najam suggested that in Washington there was a “deafening silence,” even as these two nuclear-armed countries dance on the brink of armed conflict. He suggested that one reason for this is that the U.S. in particular was distracted by other crises including President Donald Trump’s visit to North Korea and the turmoil in Venezuela.
However, another reason Najam cited is that the world has gotten increasingly tired of the unending bickering between India and Pakistan. Finally, he suggested, the build-up to the Indian airstrike has been long and tedious and in some ways the world has already “priced in” some action by India in response to what India claims as Pakistan support for terrorist organizations that allegedly trained the suicide attacker that killed scores of Indian soldiers earlier this year.
Watch the full interview (in Urdu) below:
Najam expressed grave concern about this silence from the major powers as well as from the United Nations and warned that the world may come to regret its silence and disinterest since escalation and a potential Pakistani response to the Indian airstrike now seems inevitable. Najam also suggested that Pakistan’s negative international image has cost the country greatly because any charge against the country is “easy to stick.”
Adil Najam is the inaugural dean of the Pardee School and a commentator on foreign policy and diplomacy in South Asia. Learn more about him here.