Pakistan’s Enduring Challenges

In Pakistan's Enduring Challenges, experts on the region survey Pakistan's prospects following the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, examining the country's security concerns, its domestic political and economic issues, and the withdrawal's ramifications on Pakistan's ongoing relationships with foreign powers like the United States.

From the start of the U.S. war in Afghanistan in 2001 to the withdrawal of U.S. troops in 2014, Pakistan's military cooperation was critical to the United States. Yet Pakistani politics remain a source of anxiety for American policymakers. Despite some progress toward democratic consolidation over the last ten years, Pakistan's military still asserts power over the country's elected government. Pakistan's western regions remain largely ungoverned and home to the last remnants of al-Qaeda's original leadership as well as multiple militant groups that have declared war on the Pakistani state. The country's economy is in shambles, and continuing tensions with India endanger efforts to bring a durable peace to a region haunted by the distant threat of nuclear war.

Pakistan's Enduring Challenges surveys the political and economic landscape of Pakistan in the wake of U.S. military withdrawal. Experts in the domestic and international affairs of the region consider the country's prospects from a variety of angles, including security issues and nuclear posture, relations with Afghanistan, India, and the United States, Pakistan's Islamist movements, and the CIA's use of drone warfare in Pakistan's tribal areas. This timely volume offers a concise, accessible, and expert guide to the currents that will shape the country's future.

Contributors: Christopher Clary, C. Christine Fair, Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, Karl Kaltenthaler, Feisal Khan, William J. Miller, Aparna Pande, Paul Staniland, Stephen Tankel, Tara Vassefi, Sarah J. Watson, Joshua T. White, Huma Yusef.

Introduction: Pakistan's Challenges Beyond 2014
—C. Christine Fair and Sarah J. Watson

PART I. SECURITY CHALLENGES
Chapter 1. Pakistani Militancy in the Shadow of the U.S. Withdrawal
—Stephen Tankel
Chapter 2. A Cooperative Jihad? The Religious Logic of Hafiz Muhammad Saeed and the Limits of Pan-Sunni Cooperation in Pakistan
—Joshua T. White
Chapter 3. The Future of the American Drone Program in Pakistan
—Sarah J. Watson and C. Christine Fair
Chapter 4. The Safety and Security of the Pakistani Nuclear Arsenal
—Christopher Clary

PART II. DOMESTIC POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC ISSUES
Chapter 5. Democracy on the Leash in Pakistan
—C. Christine Fair
Chapter 6. New Media in Naya Pakistan: Technologies of Transformation or Control?
—Huma Yusuf
Chapter 7. Pakistan's Self-Inflicted Economic Crises
—Feisal Khan

PART III. FOREIGN RELATIONS
Chapter 8. America and Pakistan After 2014: Toward Strategic Breathing Space
—Paul Staniland
Chapter 9. Partner or Enemy? The Sources of Attitudes Toward the United States in Pakistan
—Karl Kaltenthaler and William J. Miller
Chapter 10. Friends of Last Resort: Pakistan's Relations with China and Saudi Arabia
—Aparna Pande
Chapter 11. Violent Nonstate Actors in the Afghanistan-Pakistan Relationship: Historical Context and Future Prospects
—Daveed Gartenstein-Ross and Tara Vassefi

List of Contributors
Index
Acknowledgments