Pakistan on the Brink: The Future of Pakistan, Afghanistan and the West

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1846145856 ISBN 13: 9781846145858

Publisher: Allen Lane, 2012

Product Description 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.

About the Author:

Ahmed Rashid is an expert on Central Asia, on jihad and Muslim extremists movements, on the Taliban and Al Qaeda, on insurgency, and on the catastrophe of US policy in this region, on which he has reported for twenty-five years. Author of three books, his work Taliban was a huge international bestseller, widely recognised as the definitive account. He has personally met and interviewed many of the key players in Central Asia. He writes regularly for the Financial Times, Washington Post and the International Herald Tribune, among others. Descent into Chaos was shortlisted for the Lionel Gelber Prize for non-fiction and won the Italian Tiziano Terzani prize.

Review:

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 *