Deadly Embrace: Pakistan, America, and the Future of the Global Jihad
By Bruce Riedel
4.5/5
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About this ebook
Pakistan and America have been gripped together in a deadly embrace for decades. For half a century American presidents from both parties pursued narrow short-term interests in Pakistan. This myopia actually backfired in the long term, helping to destabilize the political landscape and radicalizing the population, setting the stage for the global jihad we face today.
Bruce Riedel, one of America's foremost authorities on U.S. security and South Asia, sketches the history of U.S.-Pakistani relations from partitioning of the subcontinent in 1947 up through the present day. It is muddled story, meandering through periods of friendship and enmity. Riedel deftly interprets the tortuous path of relations between two very different nations that remain, in many ways, stuck with each other.
The Preface to the paperback provides an inside account of the discovery of Osama bin Laden's Abbottabad hideout that led to the al Qaeda leader's demise. Accusations of Pakistani complicity in harboring bin Laden once again dramatized the ambivalence and distrust existing between two nations that purport to be allies. Riedel discusses what it all means for the war on terror and the future of U.S.- Pakistani relations.
Praise for the hardcover edition of Deadly Embrace "Mr. Riedel, who has advised no fewer than four American presidents, knows power from the insidesomething he is keen to share with the reader.... His book provides a useful account of the dysfunctional relationship between Pakistan and America." The Economist "Bruce Riedel has produced an excellent volume that is both analytically sharp and cogently written. It will engage both specialists and the interested public. Essential reading."Peter Bergen, author of Holy War, Inc. and The Osama bin Laden I Know "Riedel lucidly provides an overview of the last thirty years of Pakistan's internal politics, its relationship with the United States, as well as the various insurgent and terrorist groups with which it has had close association. The book is informed by his own experiences over most of this period as an intelligence analyst for the U.S. government. As usual with Bruce, it is brilliant, and quite soberingyet hardly without hope." Foreign Policy
Bruce Riedel
Bruce Riedel is senior fellow and director of the Brookings Intelligence Project. He joined Brookings following a thirty-year career at the CIA. His previous books include The Search for al Qaeda: Its Leadership, Ideology, and Future; Deadly Embrace: Pakistan, America, and the Future of the Global Jihad; and Avoiding Armageddon: America, India, and Pakistan to the Brink and Back.
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Reviews for Deadly Embrace
2 ratings1 review
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Written by a true insider (member of Brookings Institution's Saban Center for Middle East Policy and 30 years with the CIA) and adviser to four US Presidents. Slightly out-of-date (before the assassination of Osama bin Laden) but still very pertinent and informative as it tells the story of the US's mishandling of its relationship with Pakistan since the Partition of 1947. Few westerners have any real knowledge of Pakistan history. For example, did you know that "The name Pakistan is basically an acronym compiled from the names of the areas of Punjab, Afghania, Kashmir, Sindh and Baluchistan" (p. 4)? I didn't.
After an excellent short summary of the history of relations between the US and Pakistan, Riedel turns to his major theme: concerns over the rise of the jihadist state in Pakistan and the escalation of global violence. The last chapter contains his experienced and realistic (but bound-to-be-unpopular-with-some) recommendations of how to begin to get US-Pakistani relations back on track by building dialogue and trust.
Much of Pakistan's situation today is the result of its focus on its neighbour (India)--the rise of its military establishment, the ISI, the appeal of military dictatorships, the ambivalent attitude towards its MANY political and jihadist factions. His recommendations, which after reading the preceding chapters, have the sound of pragmatism to them include resolving border disputes (Afghanistan, Kashmir) which necessitate a strong army and nuclear arms; helping Pakistan with its infrastructure (water, education) problems without the strings of past imposed "foreign aid" restrictions; engaging in strengthening Pakistan's civilian-elected leaders starting with the freely elected prime ministers (and NOT focusing on single individuals who may be rogue leaders in the end (e.g. Reagen's support of Zia, GW Bush's support of Musharraf) but in supporting all those fighting for democracy and free elections); providing them with the helicopters needed to fight highly mobile guerilla insurgent groups in the field; and in working with both India and Pakistan in ways that are supportive of peaceful relations between the two. As Riedel writes, "Pakistan is a complex and combustible society undergoing a severe crisis, which American helped create over the years" (p. 118). Yet he remains confident that Pakistanis and Americans can "transform what has long been a deadly embrace into a union of minds with a common purpose: to defeat the jihad monster" (p. 144).