Although most of the topics discussed are the usual ones but Shamshad has thrown light on these issues from a strategic angle like a statesman he is. Also, some pretty amazing things have been highlighted so it is a fruitful endeavour to study the book.
Tried to read it but the difficult jargons used by the author made it very difficult for me to understand the contents of the books. However, this books expounds on almost every aspect of pakistan, from pre partition to post partition. This book explains, how to succeed in diplomacy is a question simply answered, though the answer is more easily stated than practiced: “maintain armed forces larger and heavier than those of your rival and well adapted to the service of your political purposes, and conclude alliances with other powers against your potential enemy, taking care to keep him isolated. But avoid allies far stronger or far weaker than yourself for the former will seek to rule you and the latter will bring you to ruin by proving liability in war and a constant drain on your resources in peace. One powerful and trustworthy ally is worth a dozen feeble and fickle allies. If history is any lesson, things never remain static. They keep changing as the world and its dynamics do, not magically, not providentially but by the inevitable process of change that is always inherent in the rise and fall of power. And historically, the rise and fall of power mostly followed long wars. The twelve year-long war in Afghanistan is about to end. The process of change, it seems, is about to begin. The Afghan endgame would perhaps be the beginning of the change…But what kind of change do we expect at the end of this long war?”
“Again, if history is any lesson, at the end of the Napoleonic Wars, the World War I and World War II, it was the victors in each war that installed a peace to preserve the gains they had made. Do we have any idea who at the end of the Afghan war is going to be the victor? Not chaos, one hopes. An ominous uncertainty still looms large on the horizon, leaving us with no reason to be euphoric about the post-2014 scenario. Academic inquiry has to be objective enough not to leave the readers’ minds with unanswered questions. This book is not intended to fill any void in academic minds but is only a modest attempt by a practitioner of diplomacy and international relations, who spent his professional lifetime in dealing with relations between and among states, to contribute to a more focused and clearer understanding of the domestic as well as global perspectives.”
Tried to read it but the difficult jargons used by the author made it very difficult for me to understand the contents of the books. However, this books expounds on almost every aspect of pakistan, from pre partition to post partition.