THE ECONOMIST
Two good books about an important but confusing country which has been driven, partly by American intervention, into strange ways
Pakistan: A Hard Country by Anatol Lieven. PublicAffairs; 558 pages; $35. Allen Lane; £30.
Deadly Embrace: Pakistan, America, and the Future of the Global Jihad by Bruce Riedel. Brookings Institution Press; 180 pages; $24.95 and £16.99.
It is a shame that these books should be published at a time when the world is riveted by events in the Middle East. Pakistan’s population is more than half the size of the entire Arab world; for most of the past three decades it has been involved in a war with a superpower, first against it, and now on the same side as it; it suffers from an Islamic insurgency that has killed 30,000 people over the past four years; it is regarded by students of geopolitics as the most likely location of nuclear conflict; and the reasons why it does not work as a country are many and fascinating.
The Economist for more
(Thanks to reader)