This up-to-date account of Pakistan's complicated political tapestry focuses on two related sets of questions. The first concerns the ethnic tensions within Pakistan, including the Mohajir movement, Pashtun and Baloch nationalisms, and the 'Punjabization' of the country. The second focus is the country's complex position within the South Asian region. Kashmir has been for years the main bone of contention between India and Pakistan. Since the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan twenty years ago, Pakistan has been also one of the main players in the Afghan war; especially after it supported the Taleban. The book examines Pakistan's foreign policy, including the dialectic between domestic and foreign policy and the role of the army. The many questions raised include the definition of identity, the intersection of religious and ethnic factors, a deeply flawed institutionalization of democracy, control of the state, and the potentially explosive interaction of regional and domestic politics.
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Review:
'Thoughtful essays on the problems that Pakistan has had in achieving a coherent national identity and becoming a stable nation.' Foreign Affairs
About the Author:
CHRISTOPHE JAFFRELOT is deputy director of the Centre d'Etudes et de Recherches Internationales (CERI) in Paris. He teaches South Asian politics at the Institut d'Etudes Politiques and is the editor-in-chief of Critique Internationale. The CONTRIBUTORS are Pakistani, Indian, British and French scholars.
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