A wisecracking foreign correspondent recounts her experiences in Afghanistan and Pakistan while sharing cautionary observations about the region in its first post-Taliban years and the responsibilities of the U.S. and NATO.

Describes how a cycle of rioting and violence leading up to the partition of India and birth of Pakistan resulted in brutal and widespread ethnic cleansing on both sides of the border, creating a divide between India and Pakistan that persists decades later.

"The region of the Indus Valley has a 4,000-year-old history, being the site of one of the earliest riverine civilizations in the world, while the modern nation of Pakistan as we know it was created as a postcolonial homeland for the Muslims of British India. This Very Short Introduction looks at Pakistan as one of the two nation-states of the Indian sub-continent that emerged in 1947. Pippa Virdee reaches into the ancient past to understand the complex...

Chronicles the final months of the hunt for Osama bin Laden. August 27, 2010. Three CIA officers inform CIA Director Leon Panett that agents have tracked a courier with deep Al Qaeda ties to a heavily protected fortress at the end of a dead-end street in Abbottabad, Pakistan. It may be the end of the race to apprehend and bring to justice the mastermind of the most consequential terrorist attack in American history: Osama bin Laden. Wallace delivers...

"The former New York Times Pakistan bureau chief paints an arresting up-close portrait of a fractured country. Declan Walsh's electrifying portrait of Pakistan after 9/11 captures the sweep of this "strange, wondrous and benighted country" through the dramatic lives of nine fascinating individuals. On assignment for the New York Times and other outlets, Walsh traveled from the raucous port of Karachi to the salons of Lahore, and from Baluchistan to...

Taking the partitions of British India rather than the two world wars as the century's inflection points, Joya Chatterji examines how issues of nationalism, internal and external migration, and technological innovation contributed to South Asia's tumultuous twentieth century. Chatterji weaves together elements of her autobiography and family history; stories of such legendary figures as Tagore, Jinnah, Gandhi, and Nehru; and, in particular, the accounts...