AfPak AfPak ( or Af - Pak ) is a neologism used within US foreign policy circles to designate Afghanistan and Pakistan as a single theater of operations . The neologism reflects the policy approach introduced by the Obama administration , which regarded the region of Afghanistan and Pakistan as having a single , dominant political and military situation that required a joint policy in the War on Terror . Following sharp criticism from Pakistan , condemning the perceived comparison of their country with Afghanistan , the US Government stopped using the term in 2010 . Origin . Michael Quinion writes that the term began appearing in newspaper articles in February 2009 . The term was popularized , and possibly coined , by Richard Holbrooke , the Obama administration ' s Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan . In March 2008 ( a year before he assumed that post ) Holbrooke explained the motivation behind the term : First of all , we often call the problem AfPak , as in Afghanistan Pakistan . This is not just an effort to save eight syllables . It is an attempt to indicate and imprint in our DNA the fact that there is one theater of war , straddling an ill - defined border , the Durand Line , and that on the western side of that border , NATO and other forces are able to operate . On the eastern side , it ’ s the sovereign territory of Pakistan . But it is on the eastern side of this ill - defined border that the international terrorist movement is located . According to the US government , the common policy objective was to disrupt , dismantle , and prevent Al Qaeda and its affiliates from having a safe haven from which it can continue to operate and plot attacks against the U . S and its allies . This policy decision represented a shift from previous ways of thinking about Afghanistan as an independent problem that required a military solution . The AfPak strategy was an attempt to win the “ hearts and minds ” of the Afghan and Pakistani people . Impact . The term AfPak has entered the lexicon of geopolitics , and has made clear to the world that the primary fronts for the global war on terrorism lie in Afghanistan and Pakistan . It has reinforced the message that the problems of Islamic religious extremism , and the resulting terror infrastructure and problems in the two countries are intertwined . Official use of the term within the Obama administration has been echoed by the media , as in " The Washington Post " series " The AfPak War " and " The Af - Pak Channel " , a joint project of the New America Foundation and " Foreign Policy " magazine launched in August 2009 . Criticism . The term has been widely criticized in Pakistan . Amir Taheri writes that Holbrooke ' s use of the term has been resented by many Pakistanis , who see Pakistan as " in a different league than the much smaller and devastated Afghanistan . " Clifford May writes that it is disliked by Afghans as well . Pakistani journalist Saeed Shah who is a contributor to The Guardian newspaper mentioned that the international community have always had Pakistan and India bracketed together , and Pakistan always had , and still in some ways , compares itself with India . This is due to the fact that Pakistan was a part of India before 1947 . Pakistanis have never compared themselves with Afghans . He mentions that the United States has lumped Pakistan with Afghanistan under " Af - Pak " , a diplomatic relegation , while India is lauded as a growing power . This is a key reason why Pakistan is seeking a nuclear deal with the US as " parity " with India . In June 2009 former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf criticized the term in an interview with " Der Spiegel " : I am totally against the term AfPak . I do not support the word itself for two reasons : First , the strategy puts Pakistan on the same level as Afghanistan . We are not . Afghanistan has no government and the country is completely destabilized . Pakistan is not . Second , and this is much more important , is that there is an Indian element in the whole game . We have the Kashmir struggle , without which extremist elements like Lashkar - e - Taiba would not exist . As seen by Pakistan , India " should have been " part of a wide regional strategy including Afghanistan , Pakistan and Kashmir . However , the Indian government disposed of this proposition with ease . Answering questions at a June 2009 press conference in Islamabad , Holbrooke " said the term ' Afpak ' was not meant to demean Pakistan , but was ' bureaucratic shorthand ' intended to convey that the situation in the border areas on both sides was linked and one side could not be resolved without the other . " In January 2010 Holbrooke said that the administration had stopped using the term : " We can ' t use it anymore because it does not please people in Pakistan , for understandable reasons . "