Afghanistan and Pakistan: Conflict, Extremism, and Resistance to Modernity

Description

This book surveys the conflict in Afghanistan from Pakistan’s point of view and analyzes the roots of that country’s ambiguous policy—supporting the United States on one hand and showing empathy for the Afghan Taliban on the other. The author, a former foreign secretary of Pakistan, considers a broad range of events and interweaves his own experiences and perspectives into the larger narrative of the Afghanistan-Pakistan relationship.

Beginning with the 1989 departure of Soviet troops—and especially since the NATO invasion—Riaz Mohammad Khan examines the development of Afghanistan and surveys the interests of external powers both there and in Pakistan. He discusses the rise of extremism and religious militancy in Pakistan and its links with ongoing conflicts in Afghanistan. Ultimately, Khan argues, Pakistan reveals a deep confusion in its public discourse on issues of modernity and the challenges the country faces, an intellectual crisis that Pakistan must address to secure the country’s survival, progress, and constructive role in the region.

Author Description

Riaz Mohammad Khan served as Pakistan’s Foreign Secretary (2005–8) and the country’s ambassador to China (2002–5), European Union and Belgium (1995–98), and Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan (1992–95). He is author of Untying the Afghan Knot: Negotiating Soviet Withdrawal (1991), and was the Woodrow Wilson Center’s Pakistan Scholar in 2009. “ This book offers an insider’s extremely well-informed account of events in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region and an insightful perspective on history that is normally not available in academic books. Riaz Mohammad Khan has produced a serious piece of work, but one that is also eminently readable.” –Shuja Nawaz, Director of the Atlantic Council’s Asia Center “The most compelling features of this book are the analyses of Pakistan’s intellectual crisis and of the interests of various regional players in Afghanistan.” –Ziad Haider, Harvard Kennedy School.