Confusion reigns about a solution for Pakistan's internal problems. International opinion oscillates between the need to apply more pressure on the country, or else to help it more generously. Yet increased aggression or abandoning the country to deal with its difficulties are not very sensible options, as both could unleash severe destabilisation within Pakistan and beyond.

Why did the world, particularly U.S. individual donors, give so much for Haiti but show so little concern for Pakistan? The two most common answers are the poor economy and donor fatigue. While they are certainly playing a role, these two factors provide an incomplete picture.

The generosity of the British public in helping Pakistan's flood victims is "shaming politicians around the world", the head of the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) has said. Brendan Gormley, chief executive of the DEC, said the UK public was leading the way in donations, but that further funds were urgently needed.

Aid has been associated with diplomacy, and often with the projection of soft power. In the context of India-Pakistan relations, however, there has never been an eventuality for such a case to arise.

Pakistan has accepted an offer of $5 million of flood aid from neighbor and longtime rival India, in a move that could spark a political backlash at home. In an interview with Indian news channel NDTV, Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi described the offer of aid, made last week, as a “very welcome initiative."

Pakistan said on Thursday it is still mulling over India's offer of aid for flood-affected communities, despite a serious shortage of funds hampering Islamabad's ability to provide relief to the eight million people in need...India last week offered $5 million, but a Pakistani diplomat said Islamabad has not yet decided whether to accept, despite the massive scale of the flooding and its lack of resources to respond effectively.

In principle, the United States is in a position to replicate the "Chinook diplomacy" that created immense goodwill toward America in 2005, when the U.S. conducted a massive helicopter airlift after an earthquake in Pakistani Kashmir.

Pakistani-American Leadership Center, an advocacy group working on the Capitol Hill, has urged President Barack Obama to visit Pakistan during his trip to Asia in November, arguing that the U.S. leader’s expression of support for flood-hit ally this way would greatly help ties between the two nations.