What's Next for Afghanistan and Pakistan?

Eleanor Roosevelt once said that "poor minds discuss people, average minds discuss events, and great minds discuss ideas." Integral minds, we might add, discuss all three.

In Integral Life's new Daily Evolver series, host Jeff Salzman explores some of the greatest and most pressing news stories of our time, lending some much-needed perspective to the people, events, and ideas that shape the world around us. The Daily Evolver uses the Integral lens to help make sense of the complexity, anxiety, and turbulence that surrounds our lives, offering a regular touchpoint for one of the most important practices of all: the practice of staying informed.

This week's Daily Evolver focuses on what is currently emerging in Afghanistan following the death of Osama Bin Laden. The United States is considering a variety of options for its withdrawal of military forces from the county beginning this year—but you can't have a conversation about what may emerge in Afghanistan without also turning an eye to its neighbor, Pakistan. The fallout from the Osama operation taking place within Pakistani sovereignty without their permission is still reverberating.

In this conversation, David and I look at the current mission of the United States led coalition as it attempts to do two things. Reduce the effectiveness of the Taliban fighting force and provide stability for nation building that includes all Afghanistan cultural perspectives from tribal to modern. What can we expect to emerge in Afghanistan from an Integral perspective that would lessen the suffering of the Afghanistan people? What would end the civil war between the nationalist, war lord and Taliban factions?

And then there is Pakistan, a democratic, modern country with large tribal populations. Is there any validity to the fear that Islamic fundamentalists with support from certain factions within the Pakistani military and intelligence circles could take control of the government and gain access to Pakistan's nuclear weapons? And what about Pakistan's complaints that their sovereignty being violated by the United States military operations against the Taliban within their borders? How is the security of the global community best served while acknowledging Pakistan's national rights? What emerges in this area of the world over the next years will tell us a lot about what evolutionary moves are necessary to bring tribal nations into the modern global community.

Finally, we explore how this might all this play out in light of the upcoming US elections, as factions of both the Democratic and Republican parties are questioning not only our role in this effort, but the costs of maintaining expensive security and nation building projects around the world.

How do you think it is going? What would you do, if you were setting policy?

What's Next for Afghanistan and Pakistan?  Right click to download mp3  Duration: 33 minutes