James Mattis is very worried about Pakistan

James Mattis in Afghanistan.
(Image credit: Jonathan Ernst - Pool/Getty Images)

In a wide-ranging interview at The Council on Foreign Relations, former Defense Secretary Gen. James Mattis reaffirmed his stance that Pakistan is the "most dangerous" country in terms of United States foreign policy.

Mattis said what he describes as the "radicalization" of Pakistani society is the impetus for his reasoning — a viewpoint, he said, that is shared by members of Pakistan's military. "They realize what they've got going on there," Mattis said.

The general described U.S.-Pakistan relations as "twisted," adding that Pakistan's fast-growing nuclear arsenal means Washington needs to focus on "arms control and non-proliferation efforts" when working with Islamabad. "This is a much worse problem, I think, than anyone's writing about today," he said during the CFR event.

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Watch Mattis' full interview here.

Explore More
Tim O'Donnell

Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.