Early diplomatic career Robin Raphel began her career in the U.S. government as an analyst at the
CIA after graduating with her master's degree. After leaving Iran she joined the diplomatic corps and assisted
USAID in Islamabad as an economics analyst. In 1978, Raphel returned to the United States and joined the State Department. At the time, Pakistan had not tested its nuclear capabilities, opting for a policy of
nuclear opacity. India's nuclear program was at the time also under the same undeclared status, which ended in 1998 with the
Pokhran-II tests. Tensions between Pakistan and India over the unresolved
dispute in Kashmir were threatening war between the two nations. Pakistan's
armed forces and
intelligence services were using Afghanistan's turmoil to create "strategic depth" by fostering alliances with the
Taliban. Meanwhile, democracy's experiment in Pakistan was witnessing a revolving door of army-induced change between the governments of
Benazir Bhutto and
Nawaz Sharif.
India-Pakistan dispute over Kashmir At the State Department, Raphel tried to reduce tensions between India and Pakistan by engaging both countries in a negotiated solution to their Kashmir dispute. Kashmir was raised on the agenda in Bhutto's first state visit to Washington in April 1995. It would remain a key topic of regional and bilateral discussions with both India and Pakistan throughout Clinton's two terms in office. She left the State Department's South Asia section in late June 1997. She was one of the first senior American officials to meet personally with Taliban. One of the channels for U.S.-Taliban cooperation that she prioritized was through energy. U.S. energy policies in the mid-1990s sought to develop alternative supply routes to counter increasing tensions in the Middle East. The Clinton administration supported oil and gas pipelines to transport
Turkmenistan's energy reserves through Afghanistan to an exit at Pakistan's Indian Ocean seaport of
Gwadar.
Unocal, an American company that was one of the many international oil companies seeking the rights to build this pipeline, entered into negotiations with Taliban, to secure protection for the pipeline. Raphel spoke in favor of the pipeline project on trips to Afghanistan and Pakistan in April and August 1996. Her meeting with Taliban leaders in 1996 to advocate for a pipeline project earned her the sobriquet "Lady Taliban" in the Indian press. After Raphel's successor
Karl Inderfurth took over, the pipeline deal collapsed, however.
Advocacy for Pakistan Raphel entered her State Department assignment at a time when U.S.-Pakistan relations were strained. Sanctions imposed by
George H. W. Bush over concerns about Pakistan's burgeoning nuclear program under the
Pressler Amendment banned all military ties, supply of military hardware and jet fighters, and cut off political relations with Islamabad. Bhutto sought rapprochement with the Clinton White House, visiting the United States in April 1995. Bhutto, working with Pakistan's envoy to Washington at the time,
Dr. Maleeha Lodhi, sought Congressional support for an exception to the Pressler Amendment that would allow Pakistan to take delivery of military equipment that it had already paid for. This exception to Pressler (known as the Brown Amendment) was strongly supported by Raphel and by other Clinton administration officials. It was put into effect in November 1995, permitting the one-time transfer to Pakistan of $368M of equipment that had been blocked by the Pressler Amendment.
Criticism from India Raphel became unpopular with Indian media in 1993, after publicly describing Kashmir as a "disputed territory." India's position is that
Jammu and Kashmir, having been ceded to India in 1947 by their maharajah, are an integral part of India's territory. Raphel's advocacy for negotiation between India and Pakistan was perceived as an attack on India's territorial integrity. Raphel's decades of work with Pakistan led Indian media to consider her a "brazenly pro-Pakistan partisan in Washington." President
Zine El Abidine visited the Clinton White House in 1999. One month later, however, Cassidy canceled the Pakistan lobbying contract after Pakistan's president
Pervez Musharraf declared emergency rule. Raphel continued her role at Cassidy, lobbying for other international clients who included Bangladeshi politician
Anwar Hossain Manju and the Iraqi
Red Crescent Organization, according
The Hill. Her focus was to allocate U.S. resources committed under the proposed
Kerry-Lugar Bill. That legislation was enacted in late 2009, tripling civilian U.S. aid to Pakistan to approximately $1.5 billion annually. Raphel's responsibilities included oversight of spending for law enforcement, improvements in Pakistan's
judicial system and
education programs to raise the country's literacy standards. She worked with USAID in a number of Pakistan's border areas in particular to distribute non-military assistance.
Recognition by Government Of Pakistan In 2023, she was awarded
Hilal-e-Pakistan,Pakistan's second-highest civil award, which recognizes "meritorious contribution to the national interests of Pakistan." ==FBI Investigation==