From Great Game to Grand Bargain

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Afghanistan has been at war for three decades, and that war is spreading to Pakistan and beyond. A time-out needs to be called so that the players, including President-elect Barack Obama, can negotiate a new bargain for the region.

LAHORE – The “Great Game” is no fun anymore. Nineteenth-century British imperialists used that term to describe the British-Russian struggle for mastery in Afghanistan and Central Asia. More than a century later, the game continues. But now, the number of players has exploded, those living on the chessboard have become players, and the intensity of the violence and the threats that it produces affect the entire globe.

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