The ongoing game of thrones inside the White House is riveting and real. The Daily Leaks on who’s in, who’s out are gripping. But palace intrigues are also a measure of continuing dysfunction.

While the alt-right and globalist factions battle it out, a real-life general is slowly getting a functioning National Security Council (NSC) in place. President Donald Trump’s national security adviser, Lt Gen H R McMaster, has emerged as a steady hand, bringing a measure of relief to US partners waiting to start engaging substantively with the new administration.

The news that McMaster named Lisa Curtis, a well-respected expert, to be the senior director for South and Central Asia at the NSC has come as a welcome surprise. She is the first and only person appointed so far for the region in any government department. Curtis would be the highest-ranking person dealing with India and Pakistan on the NSC and essentially the arbiter on the regional policy before McMaster takes recommendations to the president’s table.

It’s an onerous responsibility at the best of times, but even more so when the region faces a resurgent Taliban, a nascent Islamic State, a swaggering Pakistan and an aggressive China determined to change the balance of powerwhile Russia plays on the edges. Curtis is expected to travel to the region as soon as her security clearance is complete and report back to McMaster after taking the temperature of key capitals.

She recently co-authored a report on Pakistan advocating a tougher US policy (‘A New US Approach to Pakistan: Enforcing Aid Conditions Without Cutting Ties’, Husain Haqqani and Lisa Curtis, Hudson Institute, goo.gl/KJcbmJ). Now she is in a position to drive the policy, if she so chooses.

Widely seen as fair and balanced, Curtis comes to the job equipped with deep knowledge of the region, contacts across the political spectrum and, most importantly, a ground-level feel for South Asia. She has consistently advocated a clear stand against the use of terrorist proxies by Pakistan. She wrote countless articles asking the Obama administration to practise tough love, but to no avail.

Curtis sees a need to break the US habit of trying to always ‘balance’ policies towards India and Pakistan. And she has no delusions about mediating between the two, something that a Pakistani journalist trapped Trump’s UN ambassador Nikki Haley, a neophyte on foreign policy, into advocating, much to the amusement of everyone. In fact, Curtis’ first memo to all posts might be a broad overview of existing US policy on South Asia and subtle or not-so-subtle changes — if any — the new administration wants. She is experienced enough to know that any offer on US mediation would be dead on arrival in Delhi.

As the Trump administration came in, Haqqani and Curtis released the report that clearly said the US should “no longer sacrifice its anti-terrorism principles in the region for the sake of pursuing an ‘even-handed’ South Asia policy, but rather should levy costs on Pakistan for policies that help perpetuate terrorism in the region”.

The US should stop viewing Pakistan as an ally, enforce the conditions on US military aid written in law, lay out a timeline for specific, “calibrated actions” against terrorists and make clear that failure to make real progress could “eventually result in Pakistan’s designation as a state sponsor of terrorism”.

If Curtis were to work towards these goals, it would be nothing less than revolutionary. It would mark a clear shift from her predecessor in the NSC, Peter Lavoy, who was widely seen as a rationaliser of Pakistan’s double games.

Christine Fair, a Pakistan expert, says Lavoy “never met an army chief he didn’t like or defend even when the evidence suggested otherwise. He was always willing to defend Pakistan no matter how outrageous its perfidies.” Indeed. The Obama administration began its eight years with a ‘Pakistan first’ policy: keep Pakistani generals happy, get them to start peace talks with the Taliban, and get out. It even appointed a special representative who travelled to Pakistan frequently to massage the generals’ egos, only to come back and undermine US policy on India.

The Taliban had no incentive to make peace while under the ISI protection racket. Pakistan had no incentive to change because the US gravy train kept running. Lavoy was at the centre of this failed policy. With Curtis in charge, both India and Afghanistan look forward to real changes to ‘make America great again’ in the region.