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Introducing: The Insider Brief
October 27th, 2007 · Shaan Akbar
Pakistan is a country of extremes.
It’s a nation whose strong, nuclear-armed military is capable of deterring a giant neighbor to its east yet is unable to establish control within its own borders. The country’s economy and stock markets rank among the world’s best performing, yet to many onlookers, Pakistan is a failed state. It is home to some of the world’s leading thinkers - and to some of the world’s most notorious terrorists. It is a nation that went from being ruled by an iron fisted, Islamist general one moment to the very next by a liberal, democratically elected woman.
This all translates into one constant: Pakistan is unpredictable.
The Insider Brief will seek to demystify Pakistan and unwind that unpredictability by providing critical intelligence, analysis and commentary through the lens of an insider. The goal is to ultimately enable policy makers and Pakistan-watchers alike, to make better informed decisions about a nation that is fast proving to be vital to regional and global security.
In the coming weeks and months, you will witness increased activity on the blog with an expansion in the scope of our analyses and new contributors representing policy makers, intellectuals and commentators.
We will continue to provide you the same accurate, timely intelligence that we have been over the course of the past few months. To those readers who are new to TIB, we welcome you to look back to our prior posts to see what we mean by “intelligence.”
We’re proud in our ability to keep our readers informed. We’ve kept you updated with the status of closed-door negotiations between Benazir Bhutto and Pervez Musharraf. We told you in advance who the new ISI chief and Vice Chief of Army Staff would be along with when the announcements would be made. We brought you exclusive photos of the reclusive general likely to be Musharraf’s successor and even told you his golf handicap.
If the last few weeks have been any indicator, things in Pakistan are bound to heat up. Stay tuned and stay informed.
