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Walsh, D., Schmitt, E., & Myers, S. L. (April 27, 2012). United states talks fails as Pakistanisseek apology. The New York Times. .

Sarah Colegrove

April News Report

Recently, the United States and Pakistan have been in conversation with each other over

an incident that occurred last fall where 24 Pakistani soldiers were killed when the United States

had an airstrike along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. Pakistan has been demanding for a

formal apology for the soldiers who were killed in the airstrike. The United States has refused

after attacks on April 15th took place towards forces in Afghanistan by a terrorist group within

Pakistan. As result Pakistan and the United States are at a standoff

Pakistan has closed NATO

supply routes and the United States will not give Pakistan promised aid. This is just the

culmination of Pakistani distrust of the United States since they see the U.S. as having repeatedly

violated their sovereignty in the past several years. The United States, in turn, has little patience

for Pakistan and distrusts their government. According to U.S. officials, the drone attacks in

areas of where terrorist holdings are will continue to occur (even if they are in or very close to

Pakistan) unless Pakistan takes action against these insurgents themself. Pakistan has not done so

and as such the countries are at a stalemate (Walsh, Schmitt, & Myers 2012)

This stalemate between Pakistan and the United States highlights the issues that countries

have with each other. It also shows just how unstable the international relations and international

cooperation can be. Pakistan is only looking for an apology for the attack that left twenty-four

Pakistanis dead and for the U.S. to stop violating its sovereignty and hurting its people. The U.S.

is looking to get rid of terrorists even if they have to use extreme measures. Pakistan has stated

that they agree with the U.S. that terrorism needs to be gotten rid of. However, their issue comes

about in the way that the U.S. goes about getting rid of terrorist groups in and around the

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Pakistani border (Walsh 2012).

This situation also seems to highlight the anarchical international system the system

that is in place in the world because there is no overarching government or agency that can

moderate countries. This whole situation could be avoided if there was such an institution in

place that could control or moderate the actions that countries take. The chances of a country,

such as the United States, killing soldiers of another country and relatively getting away with it,

would be lessened. Restrictions would be in place to prevent this and sanctions would occur

afterwards that might cause a country to think twice before doing something similar in the future.

Another result of the anarchical system that can lead to tensions between countries is the

stalemate that comes between countries, such as in this situation. There is not an overhead figure

to mediate the situation and as such breakdowns between the countries can occur. Each country

has stopped providing the other with a service or funds that the other desires (a NATO supply

lane has been closed and promised aid has not been dispersed).

This situation that has emerged between Pakistan and the United States has occurred, in

part, because the international system is anarchical. If there were to be an overhead or

overarching international actor, this situation and ones like it would more than likely be

prevented. However this is not how the international system currently works. Instead, countries

must work out the difference between them on their own. Hopefully, this situation can be taken

care of quickly before the tensions escalate and something even worse happens.