ISAS Working Papers

The fate and future of Pakistan has been an issue of considerable concern and anxiety not only inside Pakistan but in the world at large and South Asia in particular. The Fund for Peace project on the ranking of failed and failing states has been placing Pakistan in the top category of ‘critical alert’ year after year. According to this ranking Pakistan was 13 th i n 2012. It was 12 th in 2011 and 10 th in 2010 and 2009. 2 In an analysis of Pakistan for the 2012 listing, Robert D Kaplan , who organi s es these rankings , said : “Perversity characteri s es Pakistan”. Several academic institutions and scholar s have come forward to explore the fate of Pakistani s tate and society. 3 The Brookings Institution undertook such a project in 2010 with the support of US Institute of Peace and the Norwegian Peace Foundation, and the results of the study have since been published. The coordi nator of this project and an acknowledged American scholar on Pakistan Stephen P Cohen wrote after completing the project : “With its declining social indicators, crumbling infrastructure and the military’s misplaced priorities, Pakistan is a deeply trouble d state and, were it not for the large number of talented Pakistanis, one would be tempted to judge it to be in terminal decline”