Pakistan: State Failure, Terrorism, and Insurgency in Context — Part 1

Abstract

Pakistan is a nation of contradictions: it is one of the front-line allies in the global war on terrorism, yet it is home to some of the most active and dangerous terrorist organisations in the world today. It contains all of the elements necessary for state failure and terrorism to occur: religious fundamentalism, terrorism, weapons of mass destruction, a history of military dictatorship, and a crumbling society and political infrastructure.¹ It is a complicated country, one of religious and political diversity, fractured by class and ethnicity. In its short history it has had three constitutions (1956, 1962, and 1973); it has never had a successive elected government; and it has witnessed the resignation of four presidents.² Having also faced the struggle of uniting a population divided by language, culture, and ethnicity, it sadly has the distinction of being both the first state to be created and, in 1971, the first state to break up in the post-Second World War period.³