Pakistan's politics, governance, institutional capacities, internal and external security, and the nation-building process are at a critical juncture. The stance of the military, thus, will be a critical factor in determining the future course of Pakistan. Under the prevailing scenario in the country, any elected government would need to reestablish the viability and vitality of the state. Should it fail, the army would be compelled to intervene to save the country from falling apart. For an objective and in-depth analysis as to how Pakistan has arrived at this critical juncture, it is important to delve into the personalities and processes that have shaped the destiny of the country. The future of Pakistan is dependent on the flux and interplay of the internal and external processes and compulsions. This book, therefore, traces the military underpinnings in the political, geopolitical, strategic, economic, religious, sociological, and sectarian journey that Pakistan has made over the last sixty years.

We live in an era of nation-states. Nationhood is predicated on shared sense of past and a common purpose of future. More than nation-state, India is a civilization, a complete civilization. To keep this civilization fresh and vibrant, winds from all directions are imperative for its nourishment. But, winds cannot be allowed to build into destructive storms, that threaten to uproot the civilization, the very basis of nationhood. Jihadism and Maoism are the two main destructive storms. Fueling these storms are India’s enemies as well as the forces of proselytization. They have to be crushed both at ideological and physical levels. We have been squeamish in dealing with the problems because of the misplaced notion that all ideologies are basically benign and beneficial, they are not. 73 years of our post-independence experience is testimony. This misplaced notion has caused at least a lakh lives in Kashmir alone, resulting in ethnic cleansing of Hindus from the Valley by the jihadists. Sardar Patel did crush the communist revolt in Telangana, but in the following years due to subversion of our political class, it grew into the ‘Red Corridor’, i.e. from Tirupati to Pashupati. These forces have to be vanquished to secure the internal or the third front. This book ‘Know the Anti-Nationals’ exposes these enemies within.

This book examines the rise of religious extremism in Pakistan, particularly since 1947, and analyzes its connections to the Pakistani army's corporate interests and U.S.-Pakistan relations. It includes profiles of leading Pakistani militant groups with details of their origins, development, and capabilities. The author begins with an historical overview of the introduction of Islam to the Indian sub-continent in 712 AD, and brings the story up to the present by describing President Musharraf's handling of the war on terror. He provides a detailed account of the political developments in Pakistan since 1947 with a focus on the influence of religious and military forces. He also discusses regional politics, Pakistan's attempt to gain nuclear power status, and U.S.-Pakistan relations, and offers predictions for Pakistan's domestic and regional prospects.

The Pakistan Army is poised for perpetual conflict with India which it cannot win militarily or politically. What explains Pakistan's persistent revisionism despite increasing costs and decreasing likelihood of success? This book argues that an understanding of the army's strategic culture explains its willingness to fight to the end

The Battle for Pakistan showcases a marriage of convenience between unequal partners. The relationship between Pakistan and the United States since the early 1950s has been nothing less than a whiplash-inducing rollercoaster ride. Today, surrounded by hostile neighbors, with Afghanistan increasingly under Indian influence, Pakistan does not wish to break ties with the United States. Nor does it want to become a vassal of China and get caught in the vice of a US-China rivalry, or in the Arab-Iran conflict. Internally, massive economic and demographic challenges as well as the existential threat of armed militancy pose huge obstacles to Pakistan's development and growth. Could its short-run political miscalculations in the Obama years prove too costly? Can the erratic Trump administration help salvage this relationship? Based on detailed interviews with key US and South Asian leaders, access to secret documents and operations, and the author’s personal relationships and deep knowledge of the region, this book untangles the complex web of the US-Pakistani relationship and identifies a clear path forward, showing how the United States can build better partnerships in troubled corners of the world.

When India and Pakistan held nuclear tests in 1998, they restarted the clock on an intense competition that had begun with Partition. Nuclear weapons restored strategic parity, erasing the advantage of India's much larger military. But the shield offered by nuclear weapons also encouraged a reckless reliance by Pakistan on militant proxies even as jihadis spun out of control within and beyond its borders. In the years that followed, Pakistan would lose decisively to India, sacrificing its own domestic stability in a failed attempt to assert its claim to Kashmir and influence events in Afghanistan.Defeat is an Orphan tracks the defining episodes in the relationship between India and Pakistan from 1998, from bitter conflict in the mountains to military confrontation in the plains, from the hijacking of an Indian airliner to the Mumbai attacks. It is a frank history of an enduringly bitter relationship, set against the background of Islamist militancy in Pakistan and India's economic leap forward.

The idea of Pakistan stands riddled with tensions. Initiated by a small group of select Urdu-speaking Muslims who envisioned a unified Islamic state, today Pakistan suffers the divisive forces of various separatist movements and religious fundamentalism. A small entrenched elite continue to dominate the country’s corridors of power, and democratic forces and legal institutions remain weak. But despite these seemingly insurmountable problems, the Islamic Republic of Pakistan continues to endure. The Pakistan Paradox is the definitive history of democracy in Pakistan, and its survival despite ethnic strife, Islamism and deepseated elitism. This edition focuses on three kinds of tensions that are as old as Pakistan itself. The tension between the unitary definition of the nation inherited from Jinnah and centrifugal ethnic forces; between civilians and army officers who are not always in favour of or against democracy; and between the Islamists and those who define Islam only as a cultural identity marker.

In sharp contrast to neighboring India, the Muslim nation of Pakistan has been ruled by its military for over three decades. The Army and Democracy identifies steps for reforming Pakistan’s armed forces and reducing its interference in politics, and sees lessons for fragile democracies striving to bring the military under civilian control.

An urgent, on-the-ground report from Pakistan—from the bestselling author of Descent Into Chaos and Taliban Ahmed Rashid, one of the world's leading experts on the social and political situations in Pakistan and Afghanistan, offers a highly anticipated update on the possibilities—and hazards—facing the United States after the death of Osama bin Laden and as Operation Enduring Freedom winds down. With the characteristic professionalism that has made him the preeminent independent journalist in Pakistan for three decades, Rashid asks the important questions and delivers informed insights about the future of U.S. relations with the troubled region. His most urgent book to date, Pakistan on the Brink is the third volume in a comprehensive series that is a call to action to our nation's leaders and an exposition of this conflict's impact on the security of the world.

Examines how the failure of the nation building policies of the United States have contributed to increased instability in both Pakistan and Afghanistan, a result which represents the greatest threat to peace and security in the global community.