The Fragile Pakistani State: Ally of the United States and China

Pakistan has been almost permanently at war since its bloody birth in 1947 as a pair of wings, amputated from British India for Muslims only: wars first with India over Kashmir and then its Eastern wing; then helping the US fight the Soviets in Afghanistan. Now it is an impoverished, misruled garrison-state, armed with nuclear weapons and missiles, partly supplied by China, and huge quantities of advanced conventional arms, supplied by the US for fighting the Taliban and terrorism. It is a major nest of Islamic extremists where global terrorist schemes are being hatched.

In this chapter of a forthcoming Clingendael monograph on China's relations with South Asia, Willem van Kemenade describes how Pakistan became what it is today, with special focus on the role that Pakistan's big neighbour China - and distant ally America - played in this process.