Review: The Unraveling

The Unraveling by Schmidt John R
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a brilliant piece of work by John Schmidt. He is an American ex-diplomat who was based in Pakistan for a long time and a subject matter expert on Pakistan. I wanted a neutral honest view of Pakistan and its foreign policies and I was absolutely bowled over by the author's work. It is a refreshing take on Pakistani foreign policies through the eyes of an American.

He has given a detailed inside account of Pakistan and its geo-political environment. What is commendable is that he has documented each and every terrorist attack inside the country and abroad by jihadist forces and its implications on Pakistan. In the initial chapters he has given a background of the feudal system, its political patronage given to powerful politicians and non-tax paying rich landowners, lack of public utilities and infrastructure and absence of sound education system which has contributed largely to the poverty and backwardness in the country. He has given a brief history of various terrorist organisations, their rise to power inside Pakistan and Afghanistan and in some cases their downfall. He goes into the history of Kashmir conflict and gives a concrete reasoning as to why the dispute may never get resolved. He goes into the root of the problem facing the country with respect to its policies towards India, Afghanistan, USA and China. The final two chapters provides all possible outcomes / scenarios like Pakistan falling into the hands of terrorists and its likely implications on USA and India over such a scenario, including the possibility of use of nuclear warheads in the likelihood of war with India.

Although this was read 5-6 years too late (book was published in 2011-12), not much has changed with the exception of a few more terrorist attacks in Pakistan and abroad and a change in the Afghan government. But you realize at some point that Pakistanis have suffered far more than Indians economically and financially on the world stage. The author should also have given us a glimpse of Pakistan and its relation with its closest ally, China which I found lacking in this book. But otherwise this is a mind blowing book for people interested in politics or history.

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