Pakistan

10/1/2025

Overview

Formed in 1947 out of the partition of British Colonial territories in South Asia, Pakistan has experienced decades of conflict with India, including a brief flare up in 2025. Domestically, Pakistan has undergone internal conflict between its secular government and the rising presence of Taliban-led Islamism. Pakistan's status as a key strategic partner in the United States’ War on Terror has been reexamined in recent years, and the country's burgeoning economic relationship with China could represent a realignment of South Asian power dynamics. Join Active Minds as we examine the future of this crucial player on the world’s stage.

Key Lecture Points

  • Until the arrival of British colonialism in the 18th century, the history of South Asia was one of large Hindu and Muslim empires with borders that shifted over time. The modern nation-state of Pakistan did not come into being until the withdrawal of the British Empire and the partition of India in 1947.
  • Pakistan and India have fought four separate wars since partition. Indo-Pakistani relations have a recurring flashpoint: the disputed region of Kashmir. Tensions in India and Pakistan escalated sharply in Spring 2025 and given that both countries are nuclear states, any potential conflict between them creates strategic risk.  Whereas Indian leadership denied the role that President Trump played in negotiating a 2025 cease fire, the Pakistani leadership specifically thanked President Trump for helping prevent a potential nuclear war.
  • When the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979, the US made a strategic decision to stem the expansion of Soviet influence into South Asia, by funneling arms and support via Pakistan to the Afghan Islamic-inspired fighters. After the defeat of the Soviets in 1989, many of these fighters turned their military organization into a political one with the support of the Pakistani intelligence services: the Taliban, which gained influence over Afghanistan and the remote Northwest Frontier Area of Pakistan.
  • After 9/11, Pakistan became an important but tenuous partner in the US-led war against terrorism and the search for Osama bin Laden. The inability of Pakistan, to root out al Qaeda and Taliban supporters in Pakistan frustrated the US and American drone strikes further enraged Pakistanis. Currently, Islamic terrorist groups based in Afghanistan have attacked Pakistani security forces and find refuge in its borderlands.

Discussion Questions

  • What are the main reasons for the political instability of Pakistan?
  • How do you see the Kashmir conflict being resolved?
  • Should the United States continue to seek Pakistan as a partner in South Asia?
  • How could the Partition of Indian and Pakistan could have been handled to result in less long-term conflict, like the 1990 “velvet” Czech Republic-Slovakia split?
  • Have your perceptions of Pakistan changed over the course of your lifetime? In what way?
  • Do you think India and Pakistan will ever resolve their disputes and live as peaceful neighbors? How?

More to Explore

Books For Further Reading

  • Barker, Kim. The Taliban Shuffle:  Strange Days in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Doubleday, 2011. 320 pages. A foreign correspondent’s description of the absurdities and tragedies in this war zone.
  • Gul, Imtiaz. The Most Dangerous Place:  Pakistan’s Lawless Frontier. (paperback) Penguin, 2011. 320 pages. Award-winning Pakistani journalist writes a groundbreaking book describing the tribal region’s slide into militancy based on accounts by high-level Pakistani intelligence and military operatives and extensive firsthand reporting in villages where no American would be safe.
  • Lievan, Anatol. Pakistan: A Hard Country. Penguin, 2012. 607 pages. A magisterial investigation of this highly complex and often poorly understood country: its regions, ethnicities, competing religious traditions, varied social landscapes, deep political tensions, and historical patterns of violence; but also, its surprising underlying stability, rooted in kinship, patronage, and the power of entrenched local elites.
  • Mueenuddin, Daniyal. In Other Rooms, Other Wonders. W W Norton, 2009. 247 pages. These stories portray life in Pakistan during its feudal period.