Bestselling author, Brookings Institution Senior Fellow, and former CIA officer Bruce Riedel recommended the book Crossed Swords: Pakistan, its Army and the Wars Within by South Asia Center director Shuja Nawaz as one of his top five books on the subject of Pakistan’s recent political situation.

Riedel is interviewed by Daisy Banks of The Browser, and describes Nawaz’s book below:

[Q:] Your next book is Shuja Nawaz’s Crossed Swords: Pakistan, Its Army and the Wars Within, which looks at the role of Pakistan’s army and its relationship with the United States.

Shuja Nawaz’s book is a monumental study of the Pakistani army and its politics, and, since Pakistan is a country in which the army has always had an unusually large role in determining the political and economic future of the country, it is absolutely critical to understanding modern Pakistan. Shuja comes from a family that is part of the establishment. He knows the army from the inside and is able to tell the story of its development and how it played an increasingly important role in the country’s politics.

At the same time, he maintains the objectivity you need to have. So this is not the army’s story of its role in Pakistan but really an objective study of their role in Pakistan and in politics.

[Q:] And what does he think needs to happen with the army?

To sum it up, the army needs to stay in the barracks as a professional military force and stay out of politics.

Nawaz followed up the book’s research in “Learning by Doing: The Pakistan Army’s Experience with Counterinsurgency,” published February 1.