Following the fall of the Taliban government in Afghanistan in late 2001, members of the former regime and Al-Qaeda found refuge in Waziristan. Waziristan is a tribal area in Pakistan located along the border with Afghanistan whose majority ethnic Pashtun population has menaced every occupying power since Alexander the Great. The formidable terrain coupled with the fierce independent character of the Pashtun tribes has made Waziristan a difficult area for outsiders to subdue. Taliban and Al-Qaeda elements use this tribal area as a sanctuary and staging area for attacks against international and government forces in Afghanistan. Waziristan is especially important to the U.S. due to the belief that sympathetic tribesmen may be sheltering Osama bin Ladin and his key lieutenants. Due to the fact that Waziristan is part of a sovereign country that has forbidden the permanent presence of U.S. troops, the U.S. cannot directly influence this area with overt, uniformed military forces. Despite this challenge, the U.S. is not the first country to try to influence events in Waziristan. When developing the best course of action to accomplish its goals in Waziristan, the U.S. can look to the British colonial experience to help guide its actions. The British dealt extensively with Waziristan from 1849-1947. Despite the passage of time, the most important factors (i.e., political, military, geographical, and ethnographical, etc.) that influenced the British colonial experience have not changed significantly and are still relevant today.

When developing the best course of action to accomplish its goals in Waziristan, the U.S. can look to the British colonial experience to help guide its actions. The British dealt extensively with Waziristan from 1849-1947. This monograph concludes that the U.S. must accomplish its goals in Waziristan through interagency operations. The U.S. should shape the environment as discreetly as possible and let the Pakistani government deny and disrupt Al-Qaeda and Taliban activities in Waziristan. The British colonial experience demonstrated overt military operations do not guarantee any success in Waziristan and will likely increase the chance of unleashing events that could remove Musharraf and possibly place nuclear weapons into the hands of Islamic extremists or military hardliners. Musharraf is not a model democratic leader, but he is better than the alternatives in Pakistan; the U.S. should not do anything to imperil his hold on power. The possible consequences of his removal outweigh any benefit that unilateral or overt military operations might achieve, perhaps even the capture of killing Osama bin Ladin.

A career soldier with on-the-ground experience presents a gripping history of the imperial British experience in Waziristan, a remote area of Pakistan. Distills the hard-earned British experience and offers some potentially useful lessons for the West and its current troubles in the same region--once described as the "epicenter of terrorism" and reputedly the hiding place of Osama bin Laden.

Britain's often rather ad hoc approach to colonial expansion in the nineteenth century resulted in a variety of imaginative solutions designed to exert control over an increasingly diverse number of territories. One such instrument of government was the political officer. Created initially by the East India Company to manage relations with the princely rulers of the Indian States, political offers developed into a mechanism by which the government could manage its remoter territories through relations with local power brokers; the policy of 'indirect rule'. By the beginning of the twentieth century, political officers were providing a low-key, affordable method of exercising British control over 'native' populations throughout the empire, from India to Africa, Asia to Middle East. In this study, the role of the political officer on the Western Frontier of India between 1877-1947 is examined in detail, providing an account of the personalities and mechanisms of colonial influence/tribal control in what remains one of the most unstable regions in the world today. It charts the successes, failures, dangers and attractions of a system of power by proxy and examines how, working alone in one of the most dangerous and lawless corners of the Empire, political officers strove to implement the Crown's policies across the North-West Frontier and Baluchistan through a mixture of conflict and collaboration with indigenous tribal society. In charting their progress, the book provides a degree of historical context for those engaging in ambitious military operations in the same region, seeking to increasingly rely on the support of tribal chiefs, warlords and former enemies in order for new administrations to function. As such this book provides not only a fascinating account of key historical events in Anglo-Indian colonial history, but also provides a telling insight and background into an increasingly seductive aspect of contemporary political and military strategy.

This book explains how colonial legacies and the postcolonial state of Pakistan negatively influenced the socio-political and cultural dynamics and the security situation in Pakistan’s Pashtun ‘tribal’ areas, formerly known as the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). It offers a local perspective on peace and conflict resolution in Pakistan’s Pashtun ‘tribal’ region. Discussing the history and background of the former-FATA region, the role of Pashtun conflict resolution mechanism of Jirga, and the persistence of colonial-era Frontier Crimes Regulations (FCR) in the region, the author argues that the persistence of colonial legacies in the Pashtun ‘tribal’ areas, especially the FCR, coupled with the overarching influence of the military on security policy has negatively impacted the security situation in the region. By focusing on the Jirga and Jirga-based Lashkars (or Pashtun militias), the book demonstrates how Pashtuns have engaged in their own initiatives to handle the rise of militancy in their region. Moreover, the book contends that, even after the introduction of constitutional reforms and FATA’s merger with the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, little has changed in the region, especially regarding the treatment of ‘tribal’ Pashtuns as equal citizens of Pakistan. This book explains, in detail, why indigenous methods of peace and conflict resolution, such as the Jirga, could play "some" role towards long-term peace in the South Asian region. Historically and contextually informed with a focus on North-West Pakistan, this book will be of interest to academics researching South Asian Studies, International Relations, Peace and Conflict Studies, terrorism, and traditional justice and restorative forms of peace-making.

World War I directly and indirectly caused events and social and political trends which defined the history of the world for the rest of the century, including the Russian Revolution and the rise of communism to the Great Crash of 1929 which lead to the Great Depression and the rise of Hitler and Nazi Germany. It marked a turning point in world history as the end of the historical era of European dominance and the ushering in of a period which accelerated demands for freedom and autonomy in colonial settings. India played a significant role in the war and in the Allied victory on the battlefield. This book explores India’s involvement in the Great War and the way the war impacted upon the country from a variety of different viewpoints including case studies focusing on key individuals who played vital roles in the war. The long and short term impacts of the war on different locations in India are also explored in the chapters which offer an analysis of the importance of the war on India while commemorating the sacrifices which were made. A new, innovative and multidisciplinary examination of India and World War I, this book presents a select number of case studies showing the intimate relationship of the global war and its social, political and economic impacts on the Indian subcontinent. It will be of interest to academics in the field of War Studies, Colonial and Imperial History and South Asian and Modern Indian History.

Since 9/11, the international narrative on Pakistan has painted a picture of a country that is a “safe haven” for terrorists and a “state sponsor of terrorism” that plays a “double game” as it pretends to fight militant Islamist extremists while nurturing them in its “backyard.” This discourse came to prominence in January 2018 when US President Donald Trump famously tweeted that his country had “foolishly” provided military aid to Pakistan since 2001, in return for which Pakistan had given “safe haven to the terrorists [they] hunt in Afghanistan.” This book questions this dominant narrative by showing how the great powers—the United States, the United Kingdom, China, India, Saudi Arabia, and Iran—have directly caused the emergence of a militant ecosystem in Pakistan. Drawing on interviews with journalists, diplomats, academics, military officers, and government officials, it argues that it is Pakistanis who have borne the brunt of terrorist violence, especially since 9/11. The book uses the English School of International Relations’ concept of great power responsibility to explore how powerful states could help fight militancy in Pakistan holistically. It highlights the Pakistani military’s effort to rehabilitate young militants, and posits that international society must support not only “hard” counterterrorism through military aid, but also “soft” counterterrorism such as rehabilitation to address the root causes of radicalisation. With the Trump administration’s suspension of military aid to Pakistan, this timely book offers guidance for policymakers in both the West and Asia on how best to approach Pakistan’s security quagmire.