The Idea of Pakistan

When the British partitioned their India, the Muslims purported to believe in what was known as the "Two-nation theory:" the idea that the Muslims of the subcontinent, because of the sharp differences between them and the majority Hindu communities, constituted a separate nation, which would be founded in the Muslim-majority regions of India. Hence today, we have Pakistan: a country which barely functions on the civil or political level, somewhat riven by ethnic and regional divides, but supported by a very capable military, which is indeed the only really competent component of the Pakistani state. A veritable army with a country. Professor Cohen closely examines the historical background of this weak yet powerful nuclear-armed entity, with emphasis on the roles of the army, politics (highly corrupt and basically inept), Islam and how demographics (the country already has a population of 200 million), education (weak and almost non-functional, except for the religious schools) and the economy (flat-lining, except for the textile sector) impinge on Pakistan's future. As America's foremost expert on South Asian security affairs, Cohen's assessment is not optimistic, and it is obvious as to why not. While slightly dated, this book will fill in any gaps you might have on the importance and weaknesses of this strategic country.

This is an interesting book that helps to illuminate many of Pakistans faces. The face of militarism, the various coups and dictators that have ruled the country such as Zia and Musharref. It highlights the politicians such as Ali Bhutto and his daughter Benezir as well as Newaz Sharif and Ali Jinnah. The role of Islamism is explained as well as the role of Sharia and Islamic law in Pakistan. There is some discussion as to the inter-ethnic and tribal problems of the country.But this book lacks something and that seems to be honesty facing the brutal reality and the true history. Pakistan and India were born in the same manner, and yet one became a fascist religious dictatorship for most of its life, stoning women who are victims of rape, with radical terrorists using it as a base to murder innocent civilians abroad and overthrow neighboring countries. With Islam as a national religion it proceeded under fundamentalism to ethnically and religiously cleansed itself of every minority and made it illegal to 'defame' the 'prophet'. Meanwhile India remained mutli-religious and democratic. Why? This book does not dare provide the answers.There is no talk of how Pakistan was born either, how it was born in blood over the graves of over 100,000 Hindus and SIkhs murdered, and over the forced removal of millions of Sikh and Hindu refugees forced to flee Pakistan so that Pakistan would be 100% Muslim by 1949 while India would be only 75% Hindu.So the pulling of punches and businesslike way this book is written leaves the reader wondering what else is missing.Seth J. Frantzman

Stephen Philip Cohen has produced, since 1995, a minimum of 48 publications among articles, books, and others, about his main area of expertise: India, Pakistan, South Asian security, and proliferation issues. His academic background, previous working positions, and various trips to the South Asian region, have provided him with the opportunities to understand the politics, social, military and economic aspects of the countries involved. The Idea of Pakistan is the result of a compilation, synthesis, and analysis of many of these publications. The author shows a great deal of knowledge on the subject and he supports his thesis with enough evidence and data, ranging from his personal visits to the country and the region, to different interviews and academic research. He has obtained all this support facts through more than 40 years in his career.In his work, Cohen describes the origins of the nation-state of Pakistan in 1947, with an emphasis on the initial expectations in the creation of the state, in order to contrast those expectations against the outcome and current prevailing conditions. The author also dissects the country’s historic trajectory in all political, social, religious, military, economic, and diplomatic aspects, in an effort to describe the past and present, and to point out its plausible futures, adding a final chapter with a discussion of different US courses of action to ensure its interests in the long and short term. The book is descriptive in nature, almost prescriptive when the author suggests different US approaches to deal with Pakistan’s challenges and to secure US national interests, and somewhat futuristic in terms of modestly predicting future outcomes from current conditions.Although the author does not clearly state his thesis, I can identify Pakistan’s six future possible scenarios (which he summarizes on page 297 of his book) as the main question that he tries to answer. He is modest enough as to predict which one of these future scenarios is to emerge, but gives an educated estimate of the probability for each to occur and its strategic and political consequences to the state of Pakistan. Everything else in the book, except for the suggested US courses of action, is simply a scientific account of Pakistan’s history. Being this a very recent book (2004), it is difficult to test his thesis against time. However, the facts are fairly accurate, as compared to other references, like the CIA World Factbook , Henry Kissinger’s Diplomacy , and others .The book portrays the historic life of Pakistan as a nation building a state at the beginning, after loosing East Pakistan (half of its population), flirting with terrorism, nuclear weapons and even trying to become an Islamic state; Pakistan still finds itself in the reverted task of an already formed state, trying to build a nation. Cohen points out 5 basic failures of the state of Pakistan: Failure to live up to past expectations, failure of vision, economic failure, failure of leadership and catastrophic failure . In the account of Pakistan’s history, Cohen also identifies a strong social alliance that tied the military, the civil service, key members of the judiciary and other elites. This alliance was called the “Establishment” and resembled a classic oligarchy and he identifies it as responsible for all of the mentioned failures. However, in some instances, Cohen blames the military as the institution responsible for Pakistan’s poor reputation of failure, when he refers to it as “…the central feature of the state for forty years: a military establishment that wants the façade but not the substance of a democracy” . As a contrast, in other parts of the book, Cohen addressed the military as the obstacle against many of Pakistan’s evils, namely the separatists, radical Islamists and terrorist factions. The military has also been the only institution with a national security consciousness.This description of the relationship between the military and the country’s social elite is studied by the author at a possibly shallow depth, falling short of rationalizing why it is that the Pakistani society has not been able to produce intellectuals and politicians (and leaders) that have taken the country in the proper direction. The history of the civilian governments that have ruled the country is plagued with corruption allegations, self-centered, populist and demagogic leadership. It could be that the country’s overall Political Culture has not yet achieved the desired level? Or that the deterioration in the educational system is so severe that there is no production of leadership? It seems a little simplistic to blame an oligarchy, or especially the military for all the ills the country faces.The best part of the book is the identification of Pakistan’s six plausible futures, listing them in order of probability and explaining the conditions necessary for each to occur and the various strategic and political implications of each possibility. The other valuable contribution is the listing of American options that give US readers an idea of how to approach the issue at hand. This is especially important considering the historical link between Pakistan and Afghanistan.The Idea of Pakistan is a valuable contribution of Stephen P. Cohen to today’s world, especially because he addresses issues of current events in a very dangerous and important region of the world, and his work is objective and accurate.

Although I lived a long time in Pakistan more than 30 years ago, un update of my knowledgde about this country was absolutely necessary and reading Stephen Cohen's book was an excellent way to do so.My Pakistani friends may not fully agree with all what Cohen is writing but they cannot deny that he has done a serious effort to be impartial which is really not simple for this country.