Paperback review: Pakistan on the Brink, By Ahmed Rashid

 

Arifa Akbar
Friday 22 March 2013 20:50 GMT
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This serious-minded book – not as fatalistic as its title – is just as much about Afghanistan as it is about Pakistan.

Its central argument revolves around the belief that while this beleaguered nation is teetering on the edge of a precipice, the situation is salvageable. For Rashid, this is also the case for Afganistan.

Holding Turkey up as an example of how a previously volatile state can turn itself around, he thinks Pakistan can do the same if it lets go of its paranoia, while Afghanistan’s solution is a regional one.

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