RealClearWorld - Pakistan

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Child Victims of Pakistan's Begging Mafia - Mobeen Azhar, BBC Magazine

For many Pakistani Muslims, visiting a shrine and donating money to beggars go hand in hand. But their generosity has encouraged the creation of a 'begging mafia' which forces thou...

U.S. Did Pakistan a Favor By Whacking Taliban Leader - Daily Times

The fallout of the drone attack that killed the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan’s (TTP’s) second-in-command Waliur Rehman has followed the expected trajectory. There are condemnatio...

The Drone War Is Far from Over - Akbar Ahmed, New York Times

Drone strikes like Wednesday's, in Waziristan, are destroying already weak tribal structures and throwing communities into disarray throughout Pakistan's tribal belt along the bord...

Obama Bows to the Islamic Street - James Traub, Foreign Policy

Obama can't live without drones, Pakistan can't live with 'em. So the president bowed to the Islamic street....

U.S. Shift Poses Risk to Pakistan - Declan Walsh, New York Times

Pakistani leaders who have long demanded an American exit from their region may get their wish, but a broader disengagement is also likely to diminish the financing, prestige and p...

Why a Taliban-al-Qaeda Divorce Is Unlikely - Rob Crilly, Daily Telegraph

Technically the Haqqanis have sworn loyalty to Mullah Omar and say they will stand by his decision but this book makes clear that it might not be as simple as that, and to give up ...

Obama Drone Policy Strikes Balance - USA Today

For all the success and domestic popularity of America's drone warfare against terrorists abroad, the program carries some major downsides: It kills innocent civilians. It radicali...

Kashmir on a Knife's Edge - Vanessa Dougnac, Worldcrunch/Le Temps

Originally published in Le Temps. SRINGAR - An eagle boldly splits the air, to and fro, between disputed territories. On the ground, an electrified fence hurtles down the jagged fl...

The China-Pakistan Alliance Deepens - Dawn

THREE points — energy, Afghanistan and counter-terrorism — stand out among the number of issues on which Pakistan and China reached understanding during Prime Minister Li Keqia...

Obama's Speech: No More Drone Strikes? - John Yoo, National Review

The president risks rendering impossible the only element of his counterterrorism strategy that has bred success....

Can Obama Make the Legal Case for the War on Terror? - Rosa Brooks, FP

Normally, law professors thrive on confusion: We foment it in the classroom whenever possible. But while confusion is good for the law student soul, it's not so good for the execut...

A Pakistani Votes for the First Time - Sonya Rehman, The Diplomat

This year, on the 11th of May, I voted. As a Pakistani citizen, I voted for the first time in my life....

Cause for Hope -- and Fear -- in Pakistan - Peter Tomsen, Los Angeles Times

Can new Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif succeed? That will depend largely on whether he has the strength of will to resist the military and to confront radical Islamists....

Why Does Pakistan Accept Violence? - Beenish Ahmed, American Prospect

n the wake of election violence, one reporter explores the country's acceptance of its bloody everyday—and how different it is from the United States' reaction to bloodshed...

World's Most and Least Racially Tolerant Countries - Max Fisher, WaPo

When two Swedish economists set out to examine whether economic freedom made people any more or less racist, they knew how they would gauge economic freedom, but they needed to fin...

Sharif Must Curb Pakistan's Military - Amin Saikal, The Australian

Pakistan has taken an important leap towards generating a democratic order. Amid many incidents of violence and bloodshed aimed at thwarting the parliamentary elections, Pakistani...

U.S. Congress Should Clarify Authorization for War - Washington Post

The Obama administration's political and legal authority to wage war against al-Qaeda has steadily eroded. Both liberal and conservative members of Congress have challenged the adm...

Pakistan's Islamist-Friendly Prime Minister - Dawn

CONTINUING from where he left off in the last days of the election campaign, prime minister-in-waiting Nawaz Sharif has said all the right things about the US, India and Afghanista...

Nawaz Sharif, Pakistan's Comeback Kid - Bruce Riedel, The Daily Beast

Sharif, Pakistan’s former prime minister, once faced possible execution. Now he will return to the nation’s highest office....

Pakistan's Democratic Promise - Toronto Star

For the first time in its 66-year history, Pakistan has changed one democratically elected government for another....

Pakistan's Surprisingly Hopeful Election - Isaac Chotiner, New Republic

The fact that this same Sharif, the man who oversaw Pakistani nuclear tests and is known for close ties to conservative religious groups, has now made a comeback after years in e...

Pakistan Vote a Marker of Global Progress - Christian Science Monitor

The Pakistan election on Saturday put a former prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, back in power but that's not really the big story. Democracy itself advanced against Islamic terror and...

Can Sharif Make Peace with the Taliban? - Claude Rakisits, Conversation

The newly-elected Pakistani government of Nawaz Sharif is set to enact policies - most notably negotiating with the Pakistani wing of the Taliban - that will forever alter the dyna...

Pakistan Is Still an Enemy of the U.S. - Max Boot, Commentary

In foreign policy, however, there is unlikely to be much change since pretty much the entire army leadership–not just General Kayani–supports Pakistan’s existing ...

Brave Pakistanis Stood Up to the Radicals - Huma Yusuf, Latitude

Defying threats from Taliban suicide bombers, almost 60 percent of registered voters in Pakistan headed to the polls on Saturday. It was the greatest turnout since 1970. The elec...

Is Sharif's Win Really Good News for India? - Praveen Swami, Firstpost

For a decade, Prime Minister Singh worked towards a seamless South Asia, believing trade and people-to-people contact it will pave the way for a durable peace. The dream is a pleas...

Pakistan Army Helps Advance Democracy - Haroon Siddiqui, Toronto Star

If Pakistan can get through this year smoothly, it should be well on its way to becoming a stable democracy, the best antidote to all that has been so horribly wrong with it for to...

Can a New Government Heal Pakistan? - Ishtiaq Ahmed, Daily Times

Whether Pakistan was created to establish an Islamic order where justice and fair play would prevail or not, the fact remains that the Pakistani ruling class has pillaged national ...

Third Time's the Charm in Pakistan? - The Economist

Does all this mark a hopeful new beginning for Pakistan? After years of despair, and talk of Pakistan being on the brink of becoming a failed state, Mr Sharif could make a start at...

Despite Grave Dangers, an Energized Vote in Pakistan - Dawn

Still, flawed and indifferent to fundamental problems as the campaign season has been, it has also seen energy and enthusiasm on a riveting scale. The tussle between the PML-N and ...

Pakistan's Last Shot at Democracy - Anatol Lieven, Financial Times

Pakistan is about to cross an important threshold: this weekend’s elections, if all goes to plan, will mark the country’s first transition between elected governments. But this...

Democracy's Low Approval Rating in Pakistan - Aziz Nayani, The Atlantic

On May 11, Pakistanis will head to the polls to elect a government for the next five years. For a country that has struggled to maintain democracy, and one that has been governed b...

Pakistan's 'Change' Candidate Channels Obama - Omar Waraich, Time

The front wall of Lahore’s Shaukat Khanum hospital has come to resemble a shrine. Scores of bouquets of flowers are arrayed amid a sprinkling of “get well soo...

In Balochistan, It's Nationalists vs. Separatists - Anita Joshua, The Hindu

The May 11 parliamentary election is being seen by both the Pakistan state and insurgents as a referendum on secessionism....

Pakistan Election: Bloodied, but Not Beaten - The Economist

It was a television image that many feared seeing in an election campaign beset by terrorist attacks. A prominent party leader, aspiring to be prime minister,was shown bloodied, un...

Imran Khan: Pakistan's Wildcard - Samira Shackle, New Statesman

Khan's accident may have brought an early end to his rousing public appearances, but it is unlikely that at this stage, it will make much difference. Sharif remains the frontrunner...

Pakistan's Old Feudal Elites Struggle - Omar Waraich, Time

Yousaf Raza Gilani throws himself behind the wheel of his white SUV and sets off into the countryside outside Multan, an ancient city in Pakistan’s Punjab province. Gilani, 60,...

America's Drone Delusion - Steve Coll, The New Yorker

The Obama Administration has never made clear why it thought that capturing Awlaki and bringing him to trial was infeasible. Nor has it described the specific standards it used to ...

Is Nawaz Sharif the Answer to Pakistan's Problems? - The Economist

After 14 years in exile and opposition, Nawaz Sharif expects to win a third spell as prime minister....

Is Israel Really Pakistan's Enemy? - Farooq Yousaf, The Big Picture

Growing up in Peshawar, a slightly conservative city of Pakistan, my sentiments as a child were nothing different from those of others in most parts of the country. I had a slight ...

Is Pakistan a Failing State? - Gustav Ranis, Yale Global

The coming election will put to test the Pakistan People's Party leadership of Asif Ali Zardari, who succeeded his murdered wife, Benazir Bhutto. Polls indicate that Nawaz Sharif o...

The Af-Pak Peace Tipping Point - Chaudhary & Samad, The Daily Beast

Relations between Kabul and Islamabad have soured since February when it was announced at a trilateral meeting hosted by the British Prime Minister that a peace deal may be pos...

Pervez Musharraf: Yesterday's Man - The Australian

Getting a dose of his own medicine as a dictator and ending up under house arrest was obviously not the outcome Pakistan's former military ruler Pervez Musharraf anticipated when h...

No Victory for Pakistan's Democracy - John Schmidt, The National Interest

Many observers, including those inside Pakistan, have hailed the success of the Zardari government in serving out its entire term as a significant victory for Pakistani democracy. ...

Who Really Rules Pakistan? - Hasan-Askari Rizvi, The Express Tribune

Pakistan is approaching the 10th general elections. It is, therefore, pertinent to ask who rules this country. There is no brief and single answer to this question....

Pakistan

War Still Rages in Pakistan's Tribal Badlands

The Filthy Rich Loot Pakistan

Can Pakistan Make Peace Next Door?

Can Pakistan Avoid Demographic Doom?

Nawaz Sharif and the Islamist Gauntlet

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