President Obama's Policy Options in Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA)
Hassan Abbas, ISPU Fellow

There is an emerging consensus among foreign policy experts
that the growing insurgency and militancy in Pakistan’s Federally
Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) poses the greatest security
challenge not only to Pakistan and Afghanistan, but also to the
United States. Some scholars even project that a major terrorist
act with al-Qaeda footprints in the United States might result in
an American strike and ground invasion of this area. President
Barack Obama has repeatedly talked about stepping up military
action in Afghanistan as a panacea to the expanding crisis in
that country and hinted as early as August 2007 that if elected,
he would sanction direct military strikes in FATA if there were
“actionable intelligence about high-value terrorist targets” and if
Pakistan failed to act. Situation has deteriorated in the region
during the last year further complicating Obama’s policy options
for stabilizing South Asia.