Description
Pakistan: Statecraft and Geopolitics in Today’s World / Shahid Javed Burki / Paperback / Oxford University Press
ISBN: 9780190704261 / 978-0190704261
There are several studies on Pakistan’s external relations but none of them paint the picture on as wide a canvas as the one chosen for this work. Most studies deal with bilateral relations, however, the scope of this work is much wider. This book examines Pakistan’s relations with India, China, the United States, and Afghanistan and several other countries in a dynamic framework. The author looks at Pakistan’s external relations from several disciplinary angles and explains that it is difficult to fully comprehend economic changes—in particular, the influences on the making of public policy—without understanding the political, social, and cultural environment in which Pakistan’s economy functions. Some of the topics discussed in the book are demography; geography; migrations; religion; climate change and global warning; American–China trade war; America’s conflict with Iran; India’s decision to absorb Kashmir as a ‘territory’ of the Indian Union; and the impact of international migration on the political systems in several Western nations.
Shahid Javed Burki is a prominent professional economist. In 1974, he joined the World Bank as Senior Economist and served as Vice-President of the organization until he took early retirement in 1999. He held several senior executive positions at the World Bank and was a de facto Finance Minister of Pakistan on a caretaker basis (1996–7). He writes a weekly column for The Express Tribune, and contributed to the op-ed pages of the Financial Times, London, and The Indian Express, Delhi. He is the author/editor of several books on Pakistan, including: Pakistan Under Bhutto (1980); Pakistan under the Military: Eleven Years of Zia Ul-Haq (with Craig Baxter, 1991); Pakistan: Fifty Years of Nationhood (1999); A Historical Dictionary of Pakistan (1999); and Changing Perceptions, Altered Reality: Pakistan’s Economy under Musharraf, 1999–2006 (2007). Presently, Burki is Chairman, Advisory Board of the Burki Institute of Public Policy, Lahore, Pakistan.