US-Pakistan: Free Fall

This article appeared in The Friday Times on December 16, 2011

 

US-Pakistan ties have been in a downward spiral since the beginning of this year, but now they seem to be in free fall. The Pakistani state insists on playing the injured victim and betrayed ally card, both for domestic consumption and as an oft-overused bargaining tool. And the US administration appears to have become impatient with an always-complaining ally who is reluctant to face reality.
US-Pakistan relations have always had a see-saw nature. So at one level the current frictions in the relationship are not surprising.

 

Imran Khan’s self-serving journey

This book review was published in DailyTimes on November 14, 2011

Pakistan: A Personal History
By Imran Khan
Bantam Press; Pp 390; Rs 995

 Read this quote to a young Pakistani, and it would almost instinctively be identified as coming from the country’s Islamising military dictator, General Ziaul Haq: “Pakistan came into existence as a country because of Islam and the Islamic beliefs of its founders and citizens.” Ziaul Haq expressed the same thought but somewhat differently: “The ideology of Pakistan is Islam and only Islam. There should be no misunderstanding on this score. We should in all sincerity accept Islam as Pakistan’s basic ideology…otherwise…this country (will) be exposed to secular ideologies.” The first quote, however, comes from Pakistan’s latest media icon of ‘change’, Oxford-educated cricket legend Imran Khan who is finally gaining some traction in Pakistan’s treacherous political world after a fringe role for over 15 years.

 

 

India-Afghanistan-Pakistan: Not a Zero Sum Game

This article was published in HuffingtonPost on October 21, 2011

 

Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s recent trip to India portends a new development. During the visit, the two countries signed a ‘strategic partnership’ pact which entailed agreements on counter-terrorism cooperation, training of Afghan security forces and increased trade.

 

Islam in National Story of Pakistan by Aparna Pande

This journal article appeared in the October/ November 2011 issue of Current Trends in Islamist Ideology

Please click on link above to read journal article

 

My review of Schofield’s book on Pakistan army

This article was published in HuffingtonPost on October 5, 2011

Carey Schofield’s book, Inside the Pakistan Army: A Woman’s Experience on the Frontline of the War on Terror, claims to be a book on the Pakistan army but a more apt description of its subject would be “the world according to Pakistan’s military officers.”

 

Review of my book in Newsline Magazine

This article was published in the September 2011 issue of the NewslineMagazine

 

Book Review: Explaining Pakistan’s Foreign Policy
By Ismail Khan

 

This book review was originally published in the September 2011 issue of Newsline under the headline “Inescapable India.”

 

A day before this year’s Independence Day, Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif grabbed attention when he presented a resplendent portrait of the prospects of India-Pakistan relations. Speaking at a forum of Indian delegates in Lahore, Sharif touched on the commonalities of the two countries. His argument was clear to follow: partitioned from the same land, there was much to share than to lose. When Nawaz Sharif concluded his speech, media commentary followed.

 

 

Dawn’s Review of my book

This article appeared in Dawn on September 18, 2011

Focused on India: Pakistan’s foreign policy

Reviewed by Huma Yusuf

Books about Pakistan by foreign academics, policymakers, and journalists have recently flooded the market. Many of these have sought to explain – and to some extent apologise for – Pakistan to the western world. As such, these books paint accurate portraits of contemporary Pakistan, relying heavily on anecdote and historical sweeps to do so. Owing to their emphasis on deconstructing the experience of inhabiting present-day Pakistan, these books may be of less interest to Pakistanis who know their country intimately but seek to better understand how it got itself into so much trouble.

 

Review of my book by C. Raja Mohan

This review appeared in Indian Express on August 20, 2011

Border Forces

C. Raja Mohan Posted online: Sat Aug 20 2011, 03:14 hrs

Explaining Pakistan’s Foreign Policy: Escaping IndiaAparna Pande

Routledge

Pages: 245

80 pounds

 

After more than a quarter-century of cross-border terrorism, most Indians do see Pakistan as a hostile and recalcitrant neighbour. But very few of them, even at the top layers of the national security establishment, know why. Profound ignorance of Pakistan and its narrative of grievances against India adds to the unending Indian perplexity at the actions of the state across the Radcliffe Line.

 

The Way Forward for India

This article was published in RealClearWorld on August 11, 2011

As India takes over the presidency of the UN Security Council for the month of August and Indian strategists and policy makers trumpet this event, it is time to take a deeper look at the challenges facing this 64-year old democracy.

 

If we look at the political arena we see that the two largest parties seem to be stuck in limbo: Congress struck by corruption scandals and lack of desire on part of current leadership to reform the party from within, BJP still torn between whether it is an ideological movement-cum-party or a political party with an ideology. BJP too is struck with corruption and so while it’s been happy to criticize the government, it also doesn’t want to rock the boat too much because it is not ready to face the electorate with a new agenda.

 

 

Pakistan-India: Still Seeking Parity

This piece was published in HuffingtonPost on July 28, 2011

Two days after U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton asked India to play a greater role and stated that America viewed Indian leadership in South and Central Asia as being “critically important,” Pakistan’s Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani responded by asserting that there was no need for a “chaudhry [chieftain]” in the region and Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar asserted that Pakistan would resist “Indian hegemony.”

This knee-jerk reaction to any attempt at labeling India a big power and tying it into Pakistan’s fear of so-called Indian hegemonic ambitions is consistent Pakistani policy. As I argue in my book, Explaining Pakistan’s Foreign Policy: Escaping India, statements such as these can only be understood if we realize that at the core of Pakistan’s security and foreign policy lies the desire for parity with India.