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Since taking office in January 2009, United States President Barack Obama has been keenly aware that the problems of Afghanistan and Pakistan are closely related. In March 2009, he unveiled a White Paper outlining a new policy intended to counter extremism in both countries. In announcing his revised strategy at the West Point military academy on 1 December 2009, Obama again closely associated the two, saying: ‘Our success in Afghanistan is inextricably linked to our partnership with Pakistan.’ It was necessary to have a strategy ‘that works on both sides of the border’, he said.