Pakistan's Enduring Challenges - by C Christine Fair & Sarah J Watson (Hardcover)

About the Book

In Pakistan's Enduring Challenges, experts on the region survey Pakistan's prospects following the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, examining the country's security concerns, its domestic political and economic issues, and the withdrawal's ramifications on Pakistan's ongoing relationships with foreign powers like the United States.

Book Synopsis

From the start of the U.S. war in Afghanistan in 2001 to the withdrawal of U.S. troops in 2014, Pakistan's military cooperation was critical to the United States. Yet Pakistani politics remain a source of anxiety for American policymakers. Despite some progress toward democratic consolidation over the last ten years, Pakistan's military still asserts power over the country's elected government. Pakistan's western regions remain largely ungoverned and home to the last remnants of al-Qaeda's original leadership as well as multiple militant groups that have declared war on the Pakistani state. The country's economy is in shambles, and continuing tensions with India endanger efforts to bring a durable peace to a region haunted by the distant threat of nuclear war.

Pakistan's Enduring Challenges surveys the political and economic landscape of Pakistan in the wake of U.S. military withdrawal. Experts in the domestic and international affairs of the region consider the country's prospects from a variety of angles, including security issues and nuclear posture, relations with Afghanistan, India, and the United States, Pakistan's Islamist movements, and the CIA's use of drone warfare in Pakistan's tribal areas. This timely volume offers a concise, accessible, and expert guide to the currents that will shape the country's future.

Contributors Christopher Clary, C. Christine Fair, Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, Karl Kaltenthaler, Feisal Khan, William J. Miller, Aparna Pande, Paul Staniland, Stephen Tankel, Tara Vassefi, Sarah J. Watson, Joshua T. White, Huma Yusef.

Review Quotes

"Pakistan's Enduring Challenges draws the portrait of a country trapped in its own contradictions, and where the search for security and status has only exacerbated existing fragilities and people's sense of insecurity. The book accurately describes the many tensions, domestic and external, that have led the country to become its own worst enemy, without ignoring the positive societal developments that have taken place in Pakistan's recent past. A must-read for anyone with an interest in South Asia and its future."-- "Frederic Grare, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace"

About the Author

C. Christine Fair teaches in the Department of Peace and Security Studies in the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. She is author of several books, including The Madrassah Challenge: Militancy and Religious Education in Pakistan. Sarah J. Watson is Intelligence Research Specialist for the Counterterrorism Bureau of the New York City Police Department.