In this book, Stephen Cohen offers a panoramic and intensely biographical portrait of this complex country--from its ideational origins to its present existence as a military-dominated state Pakistan's experiences with uneven growth, political chaos, sectarian violence, and tense relations and nuclear crises with India are also discussed. The book offers the reader nuanced understanding beyond popular impressions in India of Pakistan as nothing more than an army with a country. The volume also answers a critical question which most South Asians, and particularly Indians ask themselves. What makes Pakistan so important in the United State's regional calculus? Can Pakistan join the community of nations as a moderate Islamic state, at peace with its neighbours, or is it waiting to dissolve completely into a failed state, spewing terrorists and nuclear weapons in all directions?