Pakistan does not often make international headlines, but on the occasions in which it does it is portrayed extremely negatively and as a failing state. Variously, Pakistan is blamed in the press for harbouring al-Qaeda terrorists, tensions with India, the training of fighters in Afghanistan, and for exporting nuclear technology. Although often grounded in fact, most reports are written in unnecessarily alarmist fashion, as demonstrated in the aftermath of terrorist attacks.

Pakistan is too important, especially in the wake of the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, for alarmist views of the situation to distort a more sober understanding of the dynamics of the country's politics and their implications for Western policy. This background briefing paper attempts to redress the balance.