U.S. Foreign Policy
Reports
Global China: US-China relations through the lens of technology competition
Secret City: How homosexuality shaped politics and foreign policy in DC
America and Afghanistan: One year after the withdrawal
Caitlin Talmadge
Nonresident Senior Fellow - Foreign Policy, Strobe Talbott Center for Security, Strategy, and Technology
Steven Heydemann
Nonresident Senior Fellow - Foreign Policy, Center for Middle East Policy
Witney Schneidman
Nonresident Fellow - Global Economy and Development, Africa Growth Initiative
[The economic and political turmoil in Pakistan has shifted attention away from the heavy rainfall and delayed the government’s response to the floods.] People weren’t focusing on [the rainfall] so things that should happen in a disaster, like getting the word out for people to evacuate from areas where there was going to be flooding, didn’t happen. [The economic problems are also likely to affect the government’s ability to shelter the displaced and rebuild what was destroyed.]
Pakistan has faced a series of crises this year: economic, political, now, a natural disaster. Running underneath all of this has been the political crisis. As Balochistan was being flooded — scenes and videos were rolling in from Balochistan — the government was basically concerned entirely with politics, and Khan was concerned entirely with politics. The blame in many ways falls on the state for not taking charge of, for instance, its National Disaster Management Authority, not jumping into action right away.
