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enforcement services. The inhabitants of these areas must have the opportunity toparticipate in decisions about their future through genuine elections, which theyhave never had. Stabilizing the border also will require coordinated investments inthe underdeveloped areas on both sides, although such coordination can be scaledup only as agreement on the political status of the border develops, and securitythreats no longer override other considerations.• In order to launch a long-term program to stabilize and develop the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region, the United States and the UK should sponsor both officialand second-track discussions involving all stakeholders in the border region.These discussions should ultimately aim to create a context in which Afghanistancan recognize an open border, the tribal territories of Pakistan can be integratedinto and receive a full range of services from the Pakistani state, and the borderarea can become a region for cooperative development rather than insecurity,extremism, and antagonism.OTHER REGIONAL DILEMMASAfghanistan’s regional dilemmas go beyond Pakistan. Afghanistan’s weakness hasalways posed a strategic dilemma for its rulers. Because the country has never producedenough wealth to pay the cost of governing or defending itself, Afghanistan has beenstable only when its neighbors or imperial powers agreed to strengthen it as a buffer ornonaligned state to serve external security interests. The resulting lack of domesticlegitimacy, however, has created opportunities for other foreign powers to interfere.Afghanistan’s experience of interference after the Soviet withdrawal has intensified thecountry’s mistrust of its neighbors and made many skeptical that nonalignment withouteffective deterrence of interference would suffice to guarantee the country’sindependence. Hence, Afghans tolerate international presence, including that of the U.S.military, as the needed deterrence to its neighbors’ interference. Concerns that the UnitedStates might reduce its presence led President Karzai to seek long-term guarantees in the15