• ISBN13: 9780199475179
• Binding: Hardcover
• Subject: Military and Police Studies
• Publisher: Oxford UP
• Publisher Imprint: Oxford UP
• Publication Date: September 12, 2016
• Pages: 184
• Original Price: 750.0 INR
• Language: English
• Edition: N/A
• Item Weight: 717 grams

This volume explains Pakistan's strategy of using Islamist militants, as a rational response to acute state weakness and to Pakistan's founding narrative, rather than simply the product of inexorable social forces, perverse structural incentives, or organizational pathologies. It also shows that despite its past benefits, the strategy has outlived its utility, and Pakistan will have to abandon it in order to avoid catastrophe. This will require not simply a change of policy, but a thoroughgoing reconceptualization of the Pakistani state.

Parul Kapur is Associate Professor of National Security Affairs, U.S. Naval Postgraduate School.