'This study challenges much of the received wisdom. It takes us through a thicket of complexities and ambiguities with clarity, insight and more than a few surprises. We encounter American misperceptions and counterproductive actions; and an illuminating assessment of the Taliban and Al Qaeda - well rooted in the daunting complications in Afghanistan and Pakistan's border regions, before ... Read moreand after 9/11. This analysis is timely and careful, and will be impossible to ignore.'-Professor James Manor, School of Advanced Study, University of London 'This book will be an important contribution to publications on contemporary Pakistan as a theoretical and contextual discussion of a country that remains only poorly understood by social scientists. It explores issues of central importance to the study of Pakistan, including, especially, in-depth discussions of the rise of Jihadi Islam, the impact of the Afghan war on politics, religion and society, the role of emergent forms of ethnic identity in moments of violent conflict in present-day Pakistan, and the nature of violence in the country more generally.'-Dr Magnus Marsden, SOAS, University of London, author of Living Islam: Muslim Religious Experience in Pakistan's NW Frontier Show Less