A World Food Program warehouse set on fire by alleged Taliban militants in Swat Valley’s Kanju region

Moving away from the widely held position that their country has been dragged into a U.S. war, Pakistani lawmakers have adopted a new strategy to deal with the terrorist threat inside the country.

A resolution adopted unanimously by both houses of parliament on October 22 refers to terrorism as a “grown menace,” calls on the state to protect the lives of its citizens, and makes clear that civilian casualties in military operations are to be avoided. …

With recent cross-border attacks by U.S. forces inside Pakistan’s tribal areas, the focus of the war on terror is shifting to the Pashtun regions of Pakistan and is likely to intensify.

But the Pashtun intelligentsia — on both sides of the Afghan-Pakistani border — say they want peace and are asking for a better understanding of the dynamics of their homeland. They say force alone is unlikely to solve their problems, which they say are entirely unrelated to terrorism and the violence that comes with it.

Nader Khan Katawazai, a member of the Afghan …

CSTO members in Moscow on September 4

The Collective Security Treaty Organization, (CSTO), which brings together Russia and a number of other ex-Soviet countries, has announced an ambitious plan to set up an 11,000-strong regional army in Central Asia that will have troops deployed in the vicinity of NATO forces in Afghanistan.

The grouping says the move is intended to deal with potential “challenges to the sovereignty” of its member states.

But many observers see it as Moscow’s response to possible further NATO expansion and to Washington’s decision to deploy an antimissile defense …