This is the Kator Daily Podcast for Friday, September 21st, 2018. I'm Caleb Brown.

Why does Pakistan continue to sponsor militant groups in the face of considerable U.S. pressure to stop.

It's a question that's plagued U.S. Pakistan relations for decades.

What should the current administration do to reduce tensions in pursuit of shared goals.

Saharkan is author of the new Cato paper Double Game, why Pakistan

supports militants and resists US pressure to stop.

We spoke yesterday. Double Game pressure to stop. We spoke yesterday.

Double game refers to the U.S. Pakistan relationship.

And it has been a term that's been used for several years now

for a couple of reasons.

The first is that the U.S. and Pakistan have always been

allies but they haven't always been the best ones and so the United States feels

that Pakistan is playing a double game with it because on the one hand

Pakistan will say that they are an ally in the global war on terror and that they will

facilitate US interests and US operations on the ground in

South Asia, specifically in Afghanistan.

Yet at the same time, there has been a lot of empirical evidence that indicates that Pakistan has been

sponsoring militant groups throughout the region and so that's essentially the

double game. It also points to a phrase that's been used historically called the Great Game, which has been referred to politics in Afghanistan, not just domestic politics, but also foreign interests that have colluded with domestic politics in Afghanistan.

in Afghanistan.

So the Great Graham essentially refers

to Russian interests or the Soviet Union's

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