Nuclear Power with Feet of Clay?

Pakistan: Nuclear Power with Feet of Clay?
Husain Haqqani: Yaleglobal, May , 2007

A nuclear-armed Pakistan may have the military capability worthy of an emerging global power, but its external power is belied by an increasingly precarious domestic situation. While the spread of anti-American and pro-Islamist sentiments in the past six years has empowered armed extremists and other non-state actors across the country, the educated middle class is increasingly disenchanted with the military rule. General Pervez Musharraf relies on the national army to suppress political protests, but the use of force has only fragmented society, adding to the army’s challenge of maintaining order in the country’s four ethnically diverse provinces. Almost half of the country has been turned into anarchic or inadequately governed space. Such conditions have opened the door to the small militant organizations and contributed to the growing ineffectiveness of state institutions. Husain Haqqani, a former senior Pakistani official and policy analyst and author, argues that the West must set aside its preoccupation with a Pakistan without Musharraf and instead examine the fundamental conditions of the Pakistani state: The focus on military power may give the appearance of control, but does little to ease internal tension and conflict. – YaleGlobal

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