Pakistan

by Lieven, Anatol

• ISBN13: 9781610390217
• ISBN10: 1610390210
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-04-12
• Publisher: Public Affairs

Summary

In the past decade Pakistan has become a country of immense importance to its region, the United States, and the world. With almost 200 million people, a 500,000-man army, nuclear weapons, and a large diaspora in Britain and North America, Pakistan is central to the hopes of jihadis and the fears of their enemies. Yet the greatest short-term threat to Pakistan is not Islamist insurgency as such, but the actions of the United States, and the greatest long-term threat is ecological change. Anatol Lieven's book is a magisterial investigation of this highly complex and often poorly understood country: its regions, ethnicities, competing religious traditions, varied social landscapes, deep political tensions, and historical patterns of violence; but also its surprising underlying stability, rooted in kinship, patronage, and the power of entrenched local elites. Engagingly written, combining history and profound analysis with reportage from Lieven's extensive travels as a journalist and academic, Pakistan: A Hard Countryis both utterly compelling and deeply revealing.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	p. ix
Acknowledgements	p. xi
List of Acronyms	p. xiv
Land, People and History
Introduction: Understanding Pakistan	p. 3
The Struggle for Muslim South Asia	p. 41
Structures
Justice	p. 83
Religion	p. 124
The Military	p. 161
Politics	p. 204
The Provinces
Punjab	p. 259
Sindh	p. 302
Balochistan	p. 339
The Pathans	p. 371
The Taleban
The Pakistani Taleban	p. 405
Defeating the Taleban?	p. 442
Conclusions	p. 477
Notes	p. 483
Books Consulted	p. 496
Glossary	p. 506
Chronology of Muslim South Asia	p. 509
Pakistani Statistics	p. 518
Index	p. 521
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