Overview

How did a nation founded as a homeland for South Asian Muslims, most of whom follow a tolerant nonthreatening form of Islam, become a haven for Al Qaeda and a rogue's gallery of domestic jihadist and sectarian groups? In this groundbreaking history of Pakistan's involvement with radical Islam, John R. Schmidt, the senior U.S political analyst in Pakistan in the years before 9/11, places the blame squarely on the rulers of the country, who thought they could use Islamic radicals to advance their foreign policy goals without having to pay a steep price. This strategy worked well at first--in Afghanistan during the anti-Soviet jihad, in Kashmir in support of a local uprising against Indian rule, and again in Afghanistan in backing the Taliban in the Afghan civil war. But the government's plans would begin to unravel in the wake of 9/11, when the rulers' support for the U.S. war on terror caused many of their jihadist allies to turn against them. Today the army generals and feudal politicians who run Pakistan are by turns fearful of the consequences of going after these groups and hopeful that they can still be used to advance the state's interests. The Unraveling is the clearest account yet of the complex, dangerous relationship between the leaders of Pakistan and jihadist groups--and how the rulers' decisions have led their nation to the brink of disaster and put other nations at great risk. Can they save their country or will we one day find ourselves confronting the first nuclear-armed jihadist state?

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Reviews

John Schmidt pulls no punches in this timely book. He makes a powerful case that Pakistan's 'feudal political class' is that deserving but conflicted country's worst enemy. He is just as frank in his critique of U.S. policy. His motive there too is entirely constructive: he administers a bracing and necessary dose of tough love to one of the most important and troubled inter-state relations on earth. -- Strobe Talbott, President of the Brookings Institution<p> This is the go-to book for readers who want in-depth understanding of America's No. 1 foreign policy conundrum: Pakistan. A lively and forceful prose stylist, John Schmidt weaves clear analysis and skilled hands-on diplomatic experience among the country's elites into our best explanation of its downward spiral toward incoherence, fueled by Islamist radicalisms they have nurtured and refused to confront. Essential (and accessible) reading on a challenge Americans will face for years to come. --Thomas W. Simons, Jr., former U.S.

Author Information

John R. Schmidt teaches at the Elliott School for International Affairs at George Washington University. He served in the State Department during a thirty-year service career, including as Political Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad in the years leading up to 9/11.

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