The International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) has claimed that the west's counter-insurgency strategy has "ballooned" out of proportion to the original aim of preventing al-Qaeda from mounting terrorist attacks there, and must be replaced by a less ambitious but more sensible policy of "containment and deterrence".

According to The Guardian, IISS has challenged critics of US-NATO pull out plan, who claim that the presence foreign troops in Afghanistan is necessary to prevent al-Qaida from returning.

It has also called for a fundamental shift from the expansive nation-building approach currently being pursued by Nato.

"There should be a more clearly defined strategy. This would revolve around containment and deterrence," IISS said.

While launching the IISS's annual survey of world affairs, director-general John Chipman noted that public tolerance in the troop-contributing countries for a long-term deployment in Afghanistan was waning.

He recalled the original strategic goal as being to disrupt, dismantle and destroy al-Qaeda there.

"This had largely been achieved, but since then the war aims had ballooned into a comprehensive strategy to develop and modernise the country and its government, he added.

Another IISS director and former deputy chief of Britain's Secret Intelligence Service, Nigel Inkster, claimed that al-Qaeda is now "engaged in Pakistan in very small numbers," and no such threat is likely to come from al-Qaeda elsewhere, including Yemen and Somalia. (ANI)