As harrowing images of the aftermath of the school massacre that occurred this week in Peshawar, Pakistan, by Pakistani Taliban shock the world, Pakistan’s military is reaching out to Afghan and United States government officials.

There is debate between Pakistan and Afghanistan about the Taliban’s use of land on both sides of the nations’ shared border, which has created tension between them as well as with U.S. officials.

Scott Crichlow, chair of the West Virginia University Department of Political Science in the John D. Rockefeller IV School of Policy and Politics, specializes in U.S. foreign policy and Middle Eastern politics and is available to talk to media. He says the general public may have forgotten about the turmoil in the Afghan-Pakistan region, but it is not going away.