A Turbulent Pakistan: India’s Choices in Response

The fate and future of Pakistan has been an issue of considerable concern and anxiety not only inside Pakistan but in the world at large and South Asia in particular. The Fund for Peace project on the ranking of failed and failing states has been placing Pakistan in the top category of ‘critical alert’ year after year. According to this ranking Pakistan was 13th in 2012. It was 12th in 2011 and 10th in 2010 and 2009. In an analysis of Pakistan for the 2012 listing, Robert D Kaplan, who organises these rankings, said: “Perversity characterises Pakistan”. Several academic institutions and scholars have come forward to explore the fate of Pakistani state and society. The Brookings Institution undertook such a project in 2010 with the support of US Institute of Peace and the Norwegian Peace Foundation, and the results of the study have since been published. The coordinator of this project and an acknowledged American scholar on Pakistan Stephen P Cohen wrote after completing the project: “With its declining social indicators, crumbling infrastructure and the military’s misplaced priorities, Pakistan is a deeply troubled state and, were it not for the large number of talented Pakistanis, one would be tempted to judge it to be in terminal decline”.