Pakistan | openDemocracy

“Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.”

- Bertrand Russell

Supplying war in Afghanistan: the frictions of distance

Derek Gregory 11 June 2012

Pakistan has said NATO's supply convoys can cross the Afghan border so long as America's drones do not. Though the expanded use of cyberwarfare, covert special forces and drones is designed to overcome the frictional problems of waging war from a distance, logistics still matter. The world is not flat - even for the US military.

America, India, Pakistan, China: the next game

Paul Rogers 7 June 2012

The tension between Washington and Islamabad over the former's drone assaults on targets in Pakistan is rising. But a prospective geopolitical rivalry involving both countries has even wider ramifications.

The gendered cost of NATO in Pakistan

Afiya Shehrbano Zia 30 April 2012

Pakistan's Domestic Violence Bill has become the latest fatality in the barter between women's rights, NATO, and issues of national security, says Afiya Shehrbano Zia

The Jirga in modern day Afghanistan

Ali Gohar 2 April 2012

The complexity of local and regional conflict dynamics in Afghanistan and Pakistan would be well served by the revivification of the Jirga system, the only convincing institutional base through which to build lasting peace.

Jalal Alamgir, 17 January 1971 – 3 December 2011

Rosemary Bechler 30 March 2012

The tragic early death of the scholar, consultant, researcher and teacher, has elicited a series of tributes and testimonies to the life of a remarkable man.

Pakistan tribal areas: what matters

Muhammad Shakir Baccha 28 March 2012

Within Pakistan and internationally, there is a growing recognition that well-off tribesman will not become the tools of terrorist organizations. But will it come soon enough?

The Pakistan Lawyers' Movement: setting a course for genuine democracy?

Malaiz Chopan-Daud 6 March 2012

Peace in Pakistan and the entire region can only be achieved by the creation of genuine democracy in Pakistan, with its military institutions accountable to its elected bodies. Pakistan’s army consumes 38% of Pakistan’s budget without accounting for most of it.

Peacebuilding in Kashmir transcends the religious divide

Dr Debidatta Aurobinda Mahapatra 5 March 2012

The conflict in Kashmir has largely been seen through the prism of religious antagonism. New research on cross-border peacebuilding calls the classic conflict analysis into question.

Tempest in Islamabad

Farah Jan 10 February 2012

Since the start of the year, civil–military relations have taken a nosedive in Pakistan, with no recovery in sight, and with each side threatening serious consequences. What are the chances of a coup?

Syem Saleem Shahzad: death of a journalist

Nick Fielding 10 February 2012

The Pakistani journalist Syed Saleem Shahzad made both friends and enemies in the course of his detailed reporting of Islamist groups and insurgencies in the country. An official report on his abduction and murder in May 2011 may leave key questions unanswered, says Nick Fielding, but read carefully and in context it brings the truth of his end closer.

Democracy in Pakistan: a wolf in sheep's clothing

Shazad Ali 10 February 2012

In Pakistan, the west has always turned a blind eye to the civilian deployment of all the ingredients of dictatorship.

Uncertainty looms amid progress in talks with the Taliban

Arif Rafiq 19 January 2012

The Afghan Taliban and the United States have begun talks, advancing prospects that coalition forces can withdraw from Afghanistan. But there are many potential pitfalls on the road to peace: a real risk of a political and military stalemate in Afghanistan, forcing the United States to leave the region under uncertain and possibly dangerous terms.

Perspectives and prospects of negotiating with the Taliban

Yahya Massoud and Djeyhoun Ostowar 12 January 2012

The negotiation of peace settlements with the Taliban remains an unpalatable solution to the problem of reconciliation. Power-sharing with the Taliban will effectively estrange Afghans from their leaders and possibly pave the way to civil war

Al-Qaida: an open endgame

Paul Rogers 12 January 2012

There is powerful evidence for the argument that the al-Qaida movement is in decline. But there are other processes at work - including in United States presidential politics - that could yet create a different outcome.

Pakistan: next in line?

Shazad Ali 19 December 2011

After Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan, the US has now turned its belligerent attention towards Pakistan. But opening up a new battlefront, this time in Pakistan, in the run-up to the presidential elections, will prove another quagmire for the Obama administration.

This week's editor

Heather McRobie is a regular contributor to 50.50

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European Union stars in Paris. Flickr/notarim. Some rights reserved.

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