Pakistan on the Brink

With Bin Laden dead, Pakistan threatened by internal power struggles, relationships between the United States and Pakistan at an all-time low, and as the US and Britain begin their withdrawal from Afghanistan, what are the possibilities - and hazards - facing the world's most unstable region? Where is the Taliban now, and how do they figure in the future of Pakistan as well as Afghanistan? What does the immediate future hold, and what are the choices that Pakistan, Afghanistan and the West can make? These are some of the crucial questions that Ahmed Rashid takes on in this follow-up to his acclaimed "Descent into Chaos". Rashid correctly predicted that the Iraq war would need to be refocused into Afghanistan, and that Pakistan would emerge as the leading player through which American interests and actions would have to be directed. Now, as Washington and the rest of the West wrestle with negotiating with unreliable and unstable "allies" in Pakistan, there is no better guide to the dark future than Ahmed Rashid. He focuses on the long-term problems: the changing casts of characters, the future of international terrorism, and the actual policies and strategies both within Pakistan and Afghanistan and among the Western allies. As he has done so well in the past, "Pakistan on the Brink" offers sensible solutions and provides a way forward for all countries involved, while the world tries to bring some stability to a fractured region saddled with a legacy of violence and corruption.

ISBN 1846145856   Pages 256 ISBN13 9781846145858 (What's this?)   Weight (grammes) 484 Publisher Penguin Books Ltd   Published in London Imprint Allen Lane   Height (mm) 240 Format Hardback   Width (mm) 162 Publication date 15 Mar 2012   Spine width (mm) 26 DEWEY 954.91053   Academic level General DEWEY edition DC23

The foremost chronicler of modern Afghan and Pakistani history The Times Pakistan's best and bravest reporter -- Christopher Hitchens A journalist of the highest narrative and analytic gifts -- Max Hastings His knowledge of events and people there is second to none -- Kim Sengupta A superb work on the future of Pakistan, a country many people deem the world's most dangerous -- Bruce Riedel Washington Post Ahmed Rashid has established a well-earned reputation as a meticulous, reliable and authoritative chronicler of events in south-west and central Asia ... Unlike many journalists ... Rashid does have the courage to outline how he believes the catastrophic situation in both his homeland (Pakistan) and its neighbour, Afghanistan, can be improved -- Jason Burke Guardian Rashid assembles a broad network of sources on all sides of the debate and is probing in his treatment of all the main actors ... a powerful and pacey primer -- Shiraz Maher Spectator

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