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“Crossed Swords” by Shuja Nawaz — A Review by Ahmad Faruqui

On the left sleeve of his khaki uniform, every soldier of the Pakistani army proudly wears an emblem – two white crossed swords on a green background. That striking image provides the title for Shuja Nawaz’s copious history of the Pakistani army. 

With half a million men in uniform and several hundred thousand in reserve, it is a formidable fighting force. What it lacks in conventional weaponry it makes up in its panoply of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles.  

The army regards itself as the heir to the martial traditions going back centuries to the days of early Islam. Indeed, the generals who commanded the British Indian army often referred to their Muslim soldiers as being a martial race.  

But the army’s most prominent role in Pakistan’s history has not been that of a military force but that of a governing body. In the early sixties, Prime Minister Nehru of India is believed to have said that while other states had armies, in Pakistan the army had a state. His counterpart, Field Marshal Ayub, Pakistan’s first military ruler, never disputed that contention. In fact, he often thought of his country as the Prussia of the subcontinent.

Commenting on the army’s frequent political interventions, the historian Stanley Wolpert once called the Pakistani army a wolfhound that was not afraid to turn on its master. These two faces of the army, military and civilian, have conflicted so often in history that Nawaz’s book could well have been sub-titled Crossed Circuits.

Nawaz is neither a soldier nor a social scientist but a journalist. The strength of his book derives from his interviews with serving and retired military officers. He comes from an army family and his brother once led the army. But he does not let these personal ties bias his research.  

Troubled by army’s frequent coups, he quotes Musharraf’s predecessor (who also served as his ambassador to Washington) as saying that the army has done no better than the civilians when it comes to ruling the country.

And when it comes to fighting wars, Nawaz shows in meticulous detail that the army has a weak resume. So much for Musharraf’s assertion when he seized power that the army had never let the nation down.  

For much of its history, the army has carried out misguided adventures against the much larger Indian army, believing until 1971 that one Muslim soldier was worth ten Hindu soldiers. More recently, it has been engaged in operations against rag-tag bands of militants allied with Al Qaeda in the tribal areas of Waziristan. These battles have not gone well. Indeed, they have given the Americans an excuse to directly target the militants through drone-launched missiles.  Scores of civilians have been killed in the process, further hampering the army’s job.    

Last year, the army raided a mosque in the heart of Islamabad, where militants affiliated with the Taliban were holed up. That operation did not go well.  Similar operations against dissenters in prior decades have been carried out in the provinces of Sindh and Balochistan, all with singular lack of success.  

The biggest failure was in 1971 when the army’s decision to not uphold the results of a general election precipitated a civil war in the majority province of East Pakistan. This prompted an Indian invasion several months later which concluded with the surrender of the Pakistani garrison and the secession of East Pakistan.  

That failure led the army to acquire nuclear weapons. Widely regarded as the crown jewels of the arsenal, they have now become the object of much desire for terrorists and brought Pakistan front and center in America’s war against terror.

Ayub Khan, who seized power in 1958, was very popular in the beginning because he seemed capable of ridding the country of the miasma of corruption and incompetence that had entered its body politic during the first decade of civilian rule. His economic policies stimulated growth in the 1960s but also heightened economic inequalities between classes and exacerbated tensions between the eastern and western provinces.

A decade later, he left the country in disgrace after having presided over a failed war with India in 1965. His successor, General Yahya Khan, held fair elections but refused to hand over power to the victors. He presided over the 1971 dismemberment of the country. General Zia held non-political elections and presided over a proxy war with the Soviets in Afghanistan during the 1980s. While the war brought about the defeat of the Red Army, its legacy –Al Qaeda and the Taliban—continues to haunt not only Afghanistan or Pakistan but the entire world. 

And General Musharraf, while making a well-advertised U-Turn on the Taliban in the country’s foreign policy under American pressure, failed to rein in the religious militants on the home front. Despite Musharraf’s loud talk of enlightened moderation, the country is even more divided along ethnic, sectarian and other fault lines than it was in 1999 when he seized power.  

Despite the considerable heft of Nawaz’s history, which checks in at 655 pages, we are left searching for a theory that would explain the army’s troublesome past behavior, much less predict its future. 

Why do some army chiefs carry out coups and others don’t? Is it their personality, the circumstances, external influences or something else? And what can be done to prevent a fifth coup which would end Pakistan’s third democratic transition?  

Why does the army consistently under-estimate its enemies, fail to coordinate its operations with the navy and air force and count on its allies to bail it out when it fails? Why does it not learn from its failures? Is the promotion process flawed? Is loyalty rather than skill the main criterion in the selection of general officers?

What can be done to reorganize the army to fight tomorrow’s wars? Can anything be done to trim defense spending and focus on the human development of the country? What, if anything, can be done to stop the intrusion of the military in the economy? 

And, most importantly, why does the Indian army, the larger twin of the Pakistani army, not intervene in politics? 

The reader would be hard pressed to find answers to these fundamental questions in Crossed Swords. But even with its limitations, Nawaz has penned a book which will become a standard reference on the Pakistani army for years to come.    

One hopes it will also be read, and read carefully, by aspiring general officers. It is still a ways away from being “the finest fighting force in Asia,” a goal that was articulated for it by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto when he took over as the first civilian ruler of Post-Bangladesh Pakistan.    

Ahmad Faruqui, an associate of the Pakistan Security Research Unit at the University of Bradford, is the author most recently of “Musharraf’s Pakistan, Bush’s America and the Middle East,” Vanguard Books, Pakistan.

The Battle for Pakistan

US Edition

Order the US Edition from Rowman & Littlefield (use promo code RLFANDF30 to get 30% discount on pre-orders) or Amazon.com.

South Asia Edition

Order the South Asia Edition from Amazon.in or (in Pakistan) Liberty Books.

Praise for The Battle for Pakistan

Vintage Imprint of Penguin Random House

‘An intriguing, comprehensive and compassionate analysis of the dysfunctional relationship between the United States and Pakistan by the premier expert on the Pakistani army. Shuja Nawaz exposes the misconceptions and contradictions on both sides of one of the most crucial bilateral relations in the world’
BRUCE RIEDEL, senior fellow and director of the Brookings Intelligence Project, and author of Deadly Embrace: Pakistan, America and the Future of the Global Jihad 

‘A superb, thoroughly researched account of the complex dynamics that have defined the internal and external realities of Pakistan over the past dozen years. The Battle for Pakistan is a compelling read that provides enormous insights on the forces at work within Pakistan as the country’s civilian and military leaders determine Pakistan’s way forward at a critical juncture in time’ 
GENERAL DAVID PETRAEUS, former commander of the US Central Command and Coalition Forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, and former director of the CIA 

‘With well-researched and meticulously collected information, in-depth analyses and scholarly insights, Shuja Nawaz has produced an impressive and invaluable study of the twists and turns of US-Pakistan relations. Only a person with his understanding of the political dynamics in the two countries could provide such an authoritative and cogent account of how the dissonant but important respective interests of the two countries brought about periods of consequential cooperation. And yet these interests failed to create a basis for a stable relationship which continues to have critical relevance to the complex circumstances of the region. This book will be essential reading on the subject and for examining the past six decades of developments in the region’
RIAZ MOHAMMED KHAN, former Foreign Secretary of Pakistan, and author of Afghanistan and Pakistan: Conflict, Extremism, and Resistance to Modernity 

‘Shuja Nawaz has followed up his earlier tour de force of the Pakistan Army—Crossed Swords: Pakistan, Its Army and the Wars Within—with a superbly researched study of US-Pakistan relationship in all its dimensions. The Battle for Pakistan is essential reading for anyone attempting to fathom the fundamentals of the relationship between the two countries now and in the future. Shuja’s view is truly panoramic and he has masterfully pieced together the many facets of a complex and evolving relationship. His insights and deep analyses are invaluable for understanding the forces of change that are shaping the relationship and Pakistan’s future’
GENERAL JEHANGIR KARAMAT, former Chief of Army Staff and Pakistan ambassador to the United States 

‘An engaging and insightful exploration of the realities and dynamics that have shaped present-day Pakistan and the US-Pakistan relationship. Nawaz captures the essence of Pakistan’s seventy-year difficult and rocky journey. A relevant and important book’
CHUCK HAGEL, former US Secretary of Defense and US senator 

 ‘Writing about Pakistan is often like travelling through the looking glass, given the vast difference in perception of the nation from the outside and the perception that those within have of the world outside. Just as he did with his last book, in The Battle for Pakistan, Shuja Nawaz deftly manages the journey between what he calls “both homelands”, US and Pakistan: balancing a critical look of Pakistan’s actions on terror and foreign policy in the past decade and a half, with an insider’s account of who said what to whom, unravelling events like the killing of Osama Bin Laden to civil-military tensions, and all that led up to the Imran Khan election. The suggestions Mr Nawaz proffers at the end of the book bear some careful study as well’
SUHASINI HAIDAR, diplomatic editor, The Hindu 

‘In The Battle for Pakistan Shuja Nawaz delivers a forensic and illuminating investigation of the troubled relationship between the United States and Pakistan. His work is informed by valuable original interviews and delivers new details and evidence—including about the hunt for Osama Bin Laden—that will be of great interest to scholars, analysts, and the general public in both countries’
STEVE COLL, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Ghost Wars and most recently Directorate S: The CIA and America’s Secret Wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan 

‘Shuja Nawaz’s new book makes a critical contribution to our understanding of the turbulence of the last decade in US-Pakistan ties and Pakistan’s fight for its democracy and security. US-Pakistan relations have long suffered because of mutual mistrust, suspicion, and misunderstanding. Shuja’s unique access in Washington and Islamabad has allowed him to tell both sides of the story in recent US-Pakistan relations. In doing so, hopefully this book can contribute to improved relations between our two countries in the coming decade and beyond’
GENERAL JAMES JONES, former Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, and National Security Advisor to President Barack Obama 

‘Shuja Nawaz has written with deep knowledge and arresting eloquence about what he calls the “misalliance” between two nations that often misunderstand each other, but must ultimately reach an understanding as two vital partners in a necessary alliance. And he writes as a citizen and insider of both countries, with matchless personal knowledge of the personalities who have both made history and will make the future. There is no better or more compelling volume to read about this often troubled, but imperative relationship between two nations on other sides of the world that have been brought into the same orbit by geopolitics, and an increasing diaspora of human talent’
SCOTT SIMON, Peabody Award–winning host of National Public Radio’s Weekend Edition Saturday 

 ‘His unique access to centres of power in Washington, Islamabad and Rawalpindi enable Shuja Nawaz to offer rare and fascinating insights into the roller-coaster US-Pakistan relationship. As the Afghanistan-Pakistan drama heads for denouement, The Battle for Pakistan promises to be an invaluable guidebook for politicians, diplomats and soldiers attempting to navigate this South Asian quagmire’
ADMIRAL ARUN PRAKASH, former chief of the Indian Navy and chairman, Chiefs of Staff 

Shuja Nawaz’s new book ‘The Battle For Pakistan’ to be published by Penguin

Penguin Random House India announces the acquisition of an authoritative and analytical take on Pakistan’s relationship with its neighbours and the United States. Titled The Battle For Pakistan: The Bitter US Friendship and a Tough Neighborhood, this book is written by Shuja Nawaz, an author and a distinguished fellow at the Atlantic Council’s South Asia Center in Washington. It will be published under the Vintage imprint and will release in August 2019. This is Nawaz’s second book on the topic since 2009.

The Battle for Pakistan is about the complex relationship the country has shared with the USA and its neighbours, namely, Afghanistan and India. Based on the author’s deep and first-hand knowledge of the region and the US and his numerous interactions and interviews with leading civil and military actors, coupled with his access to key documentation, this book helps understand the US–Pakistan misalliance since 2008. It identifies the potential dangers for a critical region of the world and offers suggestions for both countries to create better policies that will benefit both of them and South Asia in general.

Shuja Nawaz has played an active role in advising civil and military leaders in his native Pakistan and his adopted homeland of the United States in the past decade or so. He has been on the front line of the battle for Pakistan as well as the fraught US relationship, looking for answers to difficult questions. Commenting on his new book, he says, ‘I am delighted and honoured to join Penguin Random House’s superb list of authors to share my new book with a wide South Asian audience. South Asia has the potential to become a fulcrum for global growth and stability—only if its leadership learns to create a connected neighbourhood. The United States could play a critical role in this process, if it chooses to do so. Not just to counter real and imagined threats from the Asian neighbours of India and Pakistan, but also to benefit from the political and economic advantages of the world’s largest potential market for its goods and services. I refuse to be pessimistic about this. The hardworking youth and broad population of South Asia deserve much better. Learning from our history may help us reshape our future.’

Answering some critical questions—Why can’t Pakistan and the United States trust each other? Will the US abandon Afghanistan yet again, leaving a mess for Pakistan to deal with? Why can’t the US help India, Pakistan and Afghanistan learn to live and grow together?—this book examines these and other centrifugal and centripetal issues in The Battle for Pakistan.

Milee Ashwarya, Publisher, Ebury Publishing and Vintage Publishing, Penguin Random House India says, ‘The Battle For Pakistan: The Bitter US Friendship and a Tough Neighborhood is an authoritative, well-researched and insightful book on Pakistan and its place in the world in the light of the ever changing global power politics. It is a must read for anybody interested in international relations, politics, diplomacy, current affairs and South Asia. I am delighted that Shuja has written this timely and important book, and that we are able to publish it. This will be a very special addition to our list.’

Priya Doraswamy from Lotus Lane Literary comments, ‘It’s not every day that an agent gets to work with an author who’s not only great as a writer and a thinker but is also prescient. Shuja Nawaz’s brilliant narrative The Battle For Pakistan: The Bitter US Friendship and a Tough Neighborhood, is a wakeup call to the world at large, and should be compulsory reading to anyone who’s interested in the future of South Asian geopolitics. I am honored to represent Shuja Nawaz and delighted that Milee Ashwarya and team at Penguin Random House India, will be publishing this fine book for the Subcontinent.’

Crossed Swords

Crossed SwordsBased on 30 years of research and analysis, this definitive book is a profound, multi-layered, and historical analysis of the nature and role of the Pakistan army in the country’s polity as well as its turbulent relationship with the United States. Shuja Nawaz examines the army and Pakistan in both peace and war. Using many hitherto unpublished materials from the archives of the United States, the United Kingdom, and the General Headquarters of the Pakistan Army, as well as interviews with key military and political figures in Pakistan and the United States, he sheds light not only on the Pakistan Army and its US connections but also on Pakistan as a key Muslim country in one of the world’s toughest neighbourhoods. In doing so, he lays bare key facts about Pakistan’s numerous wars with India and its many rounds of political musical chairs, as well as the Kargil conflict of 1999. He then draws lessons from this history that may help Pakistan end its wars within and create a stabler political entity. Forthcoming April 2008, Oxford University Press (Pakistan) and May 2008 OUP, USA. Updated 2nd edition 2017.

To order from OUP USA please visit here.

To order from Amazon.com please visit here

Advance Reviews

“This is by far the fullest and most authoritative analysis yet published of Pakistan and its army and intelligence services”
William Dalrymple, The New York Review of Books, Feb 12, 2009

“Shuja Nawaz has used his considerable expertise to delve deep into the Pakistan Army. The result is an insightful study of an institution that has been, and remains, the center of gravity in Pakistan. This superbly researched book comes at a critical time in Pakistan’s history. A must read to understand the past and the ongoing events.”
General Jehangir Karamat, Chief of Army Staff, Pakistan. 1996-98

“This exceptionally authoritative book, rich in insider history, could not have come at a better time as a key to understanding the underlying power structures of Pakistan as it struggles to find its place in the world.”
Barbara Crossette, former South Asia Bureau Chief, The New York Times

“Shuja Nawaz’ study is as definitive as we are likely to get: no other book has penetrated so deeply into the army, and so carefully examined this powerful institution in the context of Pakistan’s history and politics.”
Stephen P. Cohen, The Brookings Institution, Washington DC, author of The Pakistan Army, and The Idea of Pakistan

“An exhaustive account of the most powerful pillar of the Pakistani state structure, this is more than just a study of a single institution. It is an insider’s considered view of sixty years of Pakistani history. Using information culled from an array of hitherto unused sources, including some rare interviews and the Pakistan army’s own archives, the author blends astute analysis and gripping historical narrative with consummate skill. Containing a welter of insights into the military mindset, its partnership with the civil bureaucracy and attitude towards the political fraternity, this is a book no serious student of Pakistan can afford to miss.”
Ayesha Jalal, Mary Richardson Professor of History, Tufts University

“To understand Pakistan you need to understand the army and to understand the army you need to read this book.”
Owen Bennett-Jones, BBC, author of Pakistan: Eye of the Storm (Yale 2002)

At a time of crisis and peril for Pakistan, this ground breaking book offers unprecedented information about and provides unique insights into the country’s most important and powerful institution. Nawaz opens new ground on the army that has ruled Pakistan for half its political life. The army wields immense power in troubled Pakistan. Nawaz explains why and how in the most well researched and lucidly written book of its kind.”
Ahmed Rashid, author of Taliban, and Jihad: the Rise of Militant Islam in Central Asia

“Running at more than 600 pages, this densely researched study of Pakistan’s army – the country’s premier political institution – is set to become a standard reference. Based on a wealth of primary documentary sources and privileged access to key players, both domestic and foreign, it lays bare the less-than-benign role of a power broker that has dominated Pakistan’s national politics and that could yet determine its future course”.
Farzana Shaikh, Associate Fellow, Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House), London

‘Crossed Swords is extremely authoritative and based on extensive research; it balances the in-depth knowledge of the insider with the critical eye of the scholar; and is both accessible enough for students while invaluable for specialists. In short, it is much needed and fills a longstanding gap on the existing literature on Pakistan.’

Yasmin Khan, author of The Great Partition: The Making of India and Pakistan (Yale University Press 2007)

FATA — A Most Dangerous Place

FATAIncreased militancy and violence in the border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan known as the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan has brought FATA into sharper focus, as U.S., Afghan, and Pakistani leaders attempt to find solutions to the problems underlying the situation there. This most dangerous spot on the map may well be the source of another 9/11 type of attack on the Western world or its surrogates in the region. Should such an attack occur, it likely will be spawned in the militancy that grips FATA and contiguous areas in Afghanistan and Pakistan today. The principal actors are the Taliban, in both countries; their allies—former Soviet-era mujahideen commanders including Gulbadin Hekmatyar of the Hezbe Islami and the Haqqani group (headed by Jalaluddin and his son Siraj); Sunni militants from Central and Southern Punjab; and al Qaeda, which benefits from links to most of these insurgents. The Taliban leader Mullah Omar is suspected to be hiding in southwestern Afghanistan and Pakistani Balochistan. The Taliban are engaged in a struggle against foreign forces inside Afghanistan and now against the military in Pakistan. Hekmatyar has spoken against the Pakistani government but has not yet taken up arms against it. The Haqqanis have also not provoked a battle with the Pakistani forces as yet. The Punjabi militants, however, have become franchisees of al Qaeda and have been linked to attacks on the Pakistani state and its army.

While many ideas have been put forward for tackling the issues facing FATA, too often they rely on longer-term plans and solutions. This report attempts to define the conditions that spawn militancy and violence among the Pakhtun tribesmen that inhabit FATA and suggest practicable ways of approaching them in the short and medium term. Concrete actions by the principal actors—the U.S., Afghan and Pakistan governments and the U.S. and Pakistan militaries—are suggested. These will need to be underpinned by a national debate in Pakistan, in particular, on the nature of the country’s polity and the need to tackle terrorism and militancy as domestic issues. But the debate will need to be rooted in a clear consensus among the civil and military leadership on the nature of the Pakistani state and society and how to tackle the growing militancy inside the country and in broad-based support from major political parties and the general public. The United States needs to forge a longer-term relationship with Pakistan and its people, shifting from a transactional relationship to one built on strategic considerations and respect for Pakistan’s political and development needs. Failure to bring peace and to restore a modicum of stability to FATA will have widespread repercussions for the region and perhaps the world.

This report by a team sponsored by the Center for Strategic and International Studies of Washington DC was released on January 7, 2008. The principal author is Shuja Nawaz.

You can download the report as a PDF file: FATA – A Most Dangerous Place

The video and audio can be reached at http://www.csis.org/component/option,com_csis_events/task,view/id,1893/

Journeys

JourneysJourneys is Shuja Nawaz’s travelogue that traces a complex of journeys across the globe. But wherever he goes, the pull of memory draws him towards Pakistan. He captures the sounds and the sights of his homeland while viewing foreign lands through the lens of a native Punjabi. He attempts to revisit and revive many of the rhythms and rhymes of Punjabi poetry in English verse, using his experience with translations, including that of the Potohari verse of the late Baqi Siddiqui of Rawalpindi. This book of verse is a celebration of Shuja Nawaz’s deep and strong emotional links with the land of his birth. Published by Oxford University Press 1998. Out of Print.