Frontline Pakistan

An October headline in Newsweek magazine declared that the most dangerous nation in the world isn’t Iraq—it’s Pakistan.

Earlier in October the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, the social unrest set off by the assassination, and the subsequent state of emergency declared in November, brought the country to the attention of the world. Too bad it took such a dramatic chain of events to bring Pakistan to the forefront of the world’s conscious.

For everyone belatedly learning about the complex politics of Pakistan, Zahid Hussain’s book, Frontline Pakistan: The Struggle with Militant Islam is a must-read. Wall Street Journal Asia just named it one of Asia’s best books for 2007. In giving the book the honor the paper called it “a more nuanced view of the political forces at work”. Other coverage of the book includes Foreign Affairs, where Carl Brown in his review says “offers a detailed and persuasive account of the received wisdom on Pakistan since 9/11.”

Watch a video of Zahid Hussain’s talk at The Asia Society.