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On July 3, GMF Brussels hosted George Perkovich and Frédéric Grare, both at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, for a talk entitled “Pakistan: Time to Stop Pretending.”  Grare and Perkovich offered different perspectives on Pakistan; Grare analyzed the regime, border issues, and the situation on the ground in Pakistan while Perkovich offered perceptions from an international standpoint.  Robert Kagan, a GMF Transatlantic Fellow and Senior Associate at Carnegie, moderated the session.  In attendance was a transatlantic community from NATO, the EU, the Belgian Prime Minister’s office, and several journalists, among others.   Grare, a visiting scholar at Carnegie, lived in Pakistan for the previous three years and began his comments by challenging the myth that the current military regime under Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf is the best and last defense against Islamist radicalism.  Grare claims there is no reason to believe the military would willingly hand over power or that Islamists would takeover the government.  Western policy for the region, however, is still being built around this fear.  The real and important threat that Pakistan poses is its continued support for terrorist organizations.  This activity, combined with the threat of instability, allows Pakistan to “blackmail” Western powers with the threat of radicalism.  This government, says Grare, should be viewed and treated as an obstacle, and not a stepping stone, toward stability in the region.   From an international perspective, Perkovich, Carnegie’s Vice President for Studies and Director for Non-Proliferation, pointed out that a military regime has certain natural priorities in governance, including territorial issues — such as border disputes with India and Afghanistan — and a nuclear program.  India’s economic growth also is seen as a major threat for the country.   Perkovich said his concern is that Pakistan will do anything to deter India, including sell nuclear information to many more countries than have even been reported.  Grare then added, “Pakistan fears, more than anything, isolation.”   At the end of the discussion, Kagan posed a difficult question that those around the table did not have time to solve, but which could have fueled another hour of discussion.  How can we ask the ruling party in Pakistan to hold free and fair elections — which they may lose — while at the same time asking them to do a better job of border security concerning terrorists?