There’s some tough competition but Pakistan is probably the scariest foreign policy problem the world faces. It is where the issues of weak states, Islamic extremism, nuclear weapons and terrorism all come together. Considering Britain’s ties to the place it is a problem that should cause particular concern here.
If you doubt how big a problem Pakistan is, read David Sanger’s excellent piece on the safety, or otherwise, of Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal in The New York Times magazine. Here is the key section:
‘By now Obama has almost surely been briefed about an alarming stream of intelligence that began circulating early last year to the top tier of George W. Bush’s national-security leadership in Washington. The highly restricted reports described how foreign-trained Pakistani scientists, including some suspected of harboring sympathy for radical Islamic causes, were returning to Pakistan to seek jobs within the country’s nuclear infrastructure — presumably trying to burrow in among the 2,000 or so people who have what Kidwai calls “critical knowledge” of the Pakistani nuclear infrastructure.
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