The Idea of Pakistan
"Interview - two-page spread" —Anil Padmanabhan, New York Bureau Chief,India Today International, 11/29/2004"Cohen is the United States' leading analyst of South Asia, and this authoritative work of broad scope and meticulous research will surely become required reading on Pakistan." —Pervez Hoodbhoy, Quaid-e-Azam University,Foreign Affairs, 11/1/2004"[A]s Stephen Philip Cohen points out in his fine new book, THE IDEA OF PAKISTAN, the fear that Pakistan could become a center for Islamist revolution 'is widely held in India and, increasingly, America, but it is not accurate.'  " —Owen Bennett Jones,Washington Post Book World, 2/6/2005"Cohen's book is a singularly successful effort to explain Pakistan....The intellectual power and rare insight with which the book breaks through the complexity of the subject rivals that of classics that have explained other societies posing a comparable challenge to understanding." —Touqir Hussain, Senior Fellow at the United States Institute of Peace,The Middle East Journal, 12/1/2005"A valuable and and essential read for those who want to understand the various complexities of Pakistan's eventful existence. The book offers a solid history of Pakistan that only an observer of Cohen's highly regarded academic background could put together with such skill and lucidity. Cohen knows Pakistan well and his analysis is very perceptive." —Ghazi Salahuddin,Newsline (Karachi, Pakistan), 5/15/2005"This is an important work, by a leading expert of south Asia... Stephen Cohen is to be applauded for his attempt to contextualise America's current security interests and concerns in Pakistan. He rightly points to the need both to 'probe beyond the headlines' (p 2) and to take the longer view." —Ian Talbot,Economic and Political Weekly (India), 5/21/2005"A vital aid to both policymakers and scholars." —Jitendra Nath Misra, Assocate Professor, Georgetown University,World Policy Journal"THE IDEA OF PAKISTAN is so full of comprehensive, fact-based analysis, and its recommendations so persuasively argued, that it must be required reading for policymakers both in the United States and in India." —Sudheer Apte,DesiJournal, 4/8/2005"Professor Cohen has produced a dependable, comprehensive history of Pakistan." —Owen Bennett-Jones,Asian Affairs, 11/1/2005"From the distinguished author of INDIA:EMERGING POWER comes a lucid, penetrating and brilliantly constructed book on the state and nation of Pakistan. Cohen, an old South Asia hand, brings to the fore all his knowledge and expertise of one of America's most important allies in the war against terror." —A. Mazumdar, Miami University,Choice, 5/1/2005"Cohen's work is remarkable both for its lucid argument and historically grounded scholarship." —Praveen Swami,Frontline"...richly observed and well grounded in both current scholarship and journalism..." —Farzana Shaikh, University of Cambridge, UK,International Affairs, 3/1/2005"Having left a long and productive career in the academy for the policy-making world, Stephen Philip Cohen is a veteran analyst who knows the difference between complexity and over-simplification, nuance and trivialization." —Ayesha Jalal, Tufts University,The International History Review"This is a thorough, balanced, intelligent assessment of Pakistan's crucially important struggle to find stability and a successful modern identity." —Steve Coll, author of GHOST WARS"THE IDEA OF PAKISTAN is an intellectural tour de force, a gripping and informative tale about a dangerously flawed but not failed state. Stephen Cohen provides a highly perceptive analysis of the role and ethos of the Pakistan army, which dominates the country's political life. Cohen offers a wise recipe to U.S. policymakers —America must stay engaged with a shaky nuclear-armed Pakistan but should be pressing harder for real reforms." —Dennis Kux, Senior Policy Scholar, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars"Finally, there is a single book that provides a solid, comprehensive introduction to Pakistan. Informative and insightful, Cohen's well-written volume identifies how the country's present internal dynamics are the confluence of its distinctive history, ideology, socioeconomic challenges, and political combat. The author has a special knack for treating provocatively otherwise familiar topics." —Marvin G. Weinbaum, Professor Emeritus, University of Illinois, and former Pakistan Analyst, US Department of State"Pakistan is a truly critical country for the United States in South Asia and beyond in the war on terror and in maintaining stability and security in an increasingly Islamic and nuclear environment. Stephen P. Cohen is both an expert and a scholar on the military, on strategy, on the region, and on its politics and history. With the army playing the key role in politics, this book is a must read. The book brings together the key threads, analyzes succinctly the challenges, and makes sensible and workable proposals for U.S. policy." —Ambassador Thomas R. Pickering, former Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs ('97-'00) and US Ambassador to India ('92-'93)"In this book, Stephen P. Cohen, America's most seasoned expert on Pakistan, provides a necessary corrective to the popular, alarmist view that Pakistan is a state on the brink of collapse." —Aqil Shah,Foreign Affairs