I’m becoming increasingly convinced that in a year to 18 months time, we’ll come to view the global situation as even more alarming than the economic one. Arguably, the greatest cause for concern is Pakistan. (I still, though, tend to view Iran’s nuclear ambitions as the greatest potential threat.) In Pakistan, almost every concern of the post 9/11 world comes together: a weak to failing state, an Islamist insurgency, nuclear weapons, a security service compromised by its links to militants and terrorists seeking a base of operations.
Everyone in the West talks earnestly about the need to strengthen the Pakistani state. But there are few concrete and practical ideas of how to do this. So, instead we are left trying to muddle through. Karen DeYoung sums up the situation well in The Washington Post:
“The United States is fighting Pakistan-based extremists by proxy, through an army over which it has little control, in alliance with a government in which it has little confidence.
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