IISS Voices

 As Pakistan prepares for a military offensive in Waziristan, here are the stark figures: four major terrorist attacks in the country in eight days have killed 120 people. They have raised fears in some quarters for the stability of the Pakistani state. But Professor Anatol Lieven, speaking on 12 October at the IISS, said that, while the attacks were obviously dreadful and tragic, it was important to distinguish between terrorism and the greater existential threat of insurgency – such as the Taliban rebellion that the Pakistan army had fought recently in Swat and other districts of the country’s North-West Frontier Province (NWFP).

 

Professor Lieven, the Chair of International Relations and Terrorism Studies at King’s College London, echoed recent statements by the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that militants were challenging the Pakistan government’s authority but were unlikely to overthrow it.

 

However, he was less sanguine than Secretary Clinton about the security of Pakistan’s arsenal. Referring to Saturday’s Taliban raid on the army HQ in the capital of Punjab province, he said: ‘I hope the attack in Rawalpindi will be a wake-up call to the Pakistani security forces to increase the security of their nukes.’

 

Professor Lieven was speaking at the IISS having spent several weeks this summer interviewing locals in Islamabad, Peshawar, Swat and Buner.