Anatol Lieven is a British-based author, belonging to the Lieven family in Livonia. He graduated in history and received a doctorate degree in political science. He worked as a journalist, policy analyst, and professor. During most of his life, he served as a British journalist in south Asia and USSR, his aforementioned book, Pakistan, a hard country, is also a result of his twenty years of research in Pakistan. For now, he’s a professor at Georgetown university school of foreign service, Qatar, and also serving as a visiting professor in the war studies department of King’s College London. Moreover, he is a renowned senior fellow of the New America Foundation in Washington DC.

His other books are also famous including Climate Change and the Nation-State, Ethical Realism, America Right or Wrong, Ukraine and Russia, Chechnya, and last but not the least Baltic Revolution. Besides these, he had also written more than twenty extraordinary and remarkable articles on contemporary issues, from global warming to US foreign policy. His research work and books evidence his interests in insurgency and counter-insurgency especially in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Russia and US political strategy ( what it is and what it should be).

Anatol Lieven has made a significant political, historical and anthropological insight view of Pakistan. He had special affection and understanding of the South Asia region because of his lineage, who has served under the British in this area. After 9/11, the hard and monolithic view of Pakistan in western countries has been successfully and evidently shattered by comprehensive research of twenty years of Anatol Lieven, in the form of this book.

The title itself implies that Pakistan is causing hard problems for the whole world. But, Lieven has tried to figure a comparatively optimistic image of the country. By wide-ranging interviews, he legibly articulated the working of Pakistan, its basic structures, inter-provisional and intra- provisional balance and disparities, and the substantial Taliban and their influence in Pakistan.

In the debuting part of the book, the author placed unusual juxtapositions about Pakistan. On one hand, he deliberately confirmed the western view that it is an economically and socially collapsing state because of insurgency, yet, on the other hand, he astonishingly claimed Pakistan to be tough and resilient as a state and a society. The crux of his research and book is 'yet it moves.' He analyzed Pakistan to be tougher than it looks, because of its weak state and strong societies knitted by the firm cords of patronage and kinship. He affirmed the country as a rare ‘negotiated state', that uses coercion and persuasion at the same time. He declared the Pakistani economy to be defective yet functional. He examined the Democratic and military regimes inclusively, finding no exceptional difference between them and categorizing them as autocracies.

In the second part, he criticized the basic structures of Pakistan as dysfunctional yet working. The Justice system is seen by him as defective as in failed states. Incompetent, inept, and corrupt police, lawyers, and judges contribute to the grievances of the masses further worsen by the high influence of kinship involved in legal processes. These flaws and public desire for the implementation of shariah leave greater space for informal local laws, jirgas, Pashtunwali, and panchayat to play their part. Religion is analyzed by the author as the dividing and uniting factor among the society. Sectarians' conflicts are countered by shrines and Sufi's peace preaching. Religious political parties are strong enough to influence government decisions and public opinion yet weak enough to bring Islamist revolution. The outburst of militants is often attributed to religion, but it did not seem so to the writer. Anatol declared the military as the most disciplined and functional institute of Pakistan. Despite some corruption allegiances, minor revolts, external threats, internal instability, and political disruption, the Pakistan army proved to be a hard army, with high patriotism and firm integrity. The military intervened in politics and imposed a coup for nearly half of Pakistan’s age, and in the remaining, it ruled indirectly. It happened because almost all institutions cross their limits, and the army does it to another extent. Its wide budget, well-established cantonments, and high-spirited men and its history distinguish it from other institutions. Although the public has high reverence for them, the US alliance with Pakistan in a war of terror temporarily blackened their image. He also said that ISI and the military did support Afghanistan Taliban militancy, same as the US, but they were driven by the fear of India to annex them, nuclear deterrence is also part of it.

In the last chapter of this part, the author chemically defined politics as P2K, P for politics, other P for patronage, and K for kinship. From the level of local elections to national assembly elections, from being a minister to being prime minister, kinship and family ties are only decisive factors, yet, they work because to maintain their izzat, (glory) and support they had to provide the masses with a nominal amount of oxygen ( development).

In the latter half of the book, Anatol explored the provinces by extensive traveling, he found the linkage chain and dividing lines between these provinces. He says Punjab is the most populous of all provinces, accommodating 46% of Pakistanis. It is comparatively developed, educated, and industrialized. Many of its inhabitants are migrants from India. Sectarian conflicts are part of its history but countered by preaching of peace by shrines. It has a feudal system but overall its people are businessmen, farmers, and other middle-class occupations that do not want Islamist revolution, the manifesto of Taliban. Sindh is the province situated in the old Indus civilization. Its capital, Karachi has been a sneak peek of conflicts between migrants and local Sindhi’s. Despite social chaos, Karachi is relatively stable and developed than the rest of the Sindh, governed by waders. Its main threat is a future water shortage, as, Indus river is the only water source for agriculture. Baluchistan is most deprived of all provinces in terms of development, peace, stability, and education. It can be attributed to the government’s apathetic attitude, migration of Pathans from Afghanistan, militancy, and most importantly, its people’s slackness and disinterested attitude. Despite its high natural resources reserves, it can not use them because of extreme terrorism. Pathan areas include former NWFP and FATA. These areas have the most militant bases because of the border with Afghanistan and are governed by Pashtunwali (local law). There had never been direct governance in FATA. The loyalties of people are with their tribal Chiefs. The first military operation in FATA after 9/11 caused upraising among people, which later turned into bloodshed. Its people are the worst sufferers of the war of terror. 

The closing portion is about the Taliban, how and why Pakistan backed the Afghan Taliban on the orders of the US, and particularly because of the threat of Indian domination in Afghanistan. This opened the war of terror on the whole of Pakistan especially on the innocent people of NWFP, Baluchistan, and FATA. The action against the Afghan Taliban created the Pakistani Taliban, who had a stance of protecting Pakistan against militancy. Pakistani Taliban were considered jihadis. They were treated discriminatingly by the military and people unless they became a real threat to the country’s existence. Pakistan's army proved to be hard once again by defeating these Taliban and the threat of Islamist revolution with the help of the US.

In a nutshell, Anatole sees Pakistan as Janus faced, in which its structures keep insurgency and threat of revolution in check but also impedes its progress. The most firm structure influencing all other structures is a kinship that makes Pakistan a hard country. Another driving force is the Indian threat of domination. The US and the world should estimate the real worth of nuclear Pakistan, and avoid strict policies and direct military operations inside the country. The only possible threat to existence is ecological disasters and population explosion. Anatol advises China and the US to help Pakistan progress, for the stability of the whole region.

Anatol has provided such a holistic and unbiased analysis of Pakistan with a gentle touch of humor, that I would recommend Pakistanis as well as foreigners to read this book because it would reveal the true internal and external look of Pakistan. As a student of IR, I think you cannot understand world affairs without knowing your own country. This book will surely enlighten you with the realities often exaggerated and often underestimated.

|By: Areesha Manzoor|
The writer is a student of International Relations at the NUML University, Islamabad. She will be available to answer any query in the comment section.