Pakistan's 'Open War' with Afghanistan: A Manufactured Crisis?
Zoom out for a second: Pakistan announced it was in an "open war" with Afghanistan and launched strikes on Kabul, citing alleged inaction against militants. This declaration follows a series of cross-border skirmishes and long-standing tensions, but the narrative often overlooks the intertwined nature of these states' security interests and historical interventions. The Pakistani establishment's
actions are presented as a reactive measure, yet the underlying dynamics suggest a more calculated strategy. The current hostilities cannot be isolated from decades of regional destabilization and external influence. For instance, in 1978, the Saur Revolution in Afghanistan, though internally driven, quickly became a flashpoint for Cold War proxy battles, with Pakistan playing a pivotal role in
training and arming various Afghan factions against the Soviet-backed government. This intervention, heavily supported by the United States and Saudi Arabia, ultimately paved the way for the protracted conflicts that followed. The current accusation by Pakistan that Afghanistan "failed to act against militant groups" conveniently sidesteps the documented history of Islamabad's own complex
relationship with non-state actors operating within its borders, some of whom have historically received covert support from Pakistani intelligence agencies. A 2021 UN Security Council report noted that various militant groups continued to operate with a degree of freedom along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, a situation not solely attributable to one side. This ongoing cycle of accusation and