Fighting to the End: The Pakistan Army's Way of War 1st Edition

by C. Christine Fair (Author)

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ISBN-13: 978-0199892709

ISBN-10: 0199892709

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Since Pakistan was founded in 1947, its army has dominated the state. The military establishment has locked the country in an enduring rivalry with India, with the primary aim of wresting Kashmir from it. To that end, Pakistan initiated three wars over Kashmir-in 1947, 1965, and 1999-and
failed to win any of them. Today, the army continues to prosecute this dangerous policy by employing non-state actors under the security of its ever-expanding nuclear umbrella. It has sustained a proxy war in Kashmir since 1989 using Islamist militants, as well as supporting non-Islamist
insurgencies throughout India and a country-wide Islamist terror campaign that have brought the two countries to the brink of war on several occasions. In addition to these territorial revisionist goals, the Pakistani army has committed itself to resisting India's slow but inevitable rise on the
global stage.

Despite Pakistan's efforts to coerce India, it has achieved only modest successes at best. Even though India vivisected Pakistan in 1971, Pakistan continues to see itself as India's equal and demands the world do the same. The dangerous methods that the army uses to enforce this self-perception have
brought international opprobrium upon Pakistan and its army. And in recent years, their erstwhile proxies have turned their guns on the Pakistani state itself.

Why does the army persist in pursuing these revisionist policies that have come to imperil the very viability of the state itself, from which the army feeds? In Fighting to the End, C. Christine Fair argues that the answer lies, at least partially, in the strategic culture of the army. Through an
unprecedented analysis of decades' worth of the army's own defense publications, she concludes that from the army's distorted view of history, it is victorious as long as it can resist India's purported drive for regional hegemony as well as the territorial status quo. Simply put, acquiescence means
defeat. Fighting to the End convincingly shows that because the army is unlikely to abandon these preferences, Pakistan will remain a destabilizing force in world politics for the foreseeable future.

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Editorial Reviews

Review

"In this painstakingly developed and brilliantly argued book, one of America's leading South Asia scholars examines Pakistan's chronic insecurities and grand ideological ambitions that generate high levels of conflict for itself, the region, and the world. Using extensive primary and secondary
sources, Christine Fair shows conclusively that Pakistan is insecure not only for its inability to obtain Kashmir, but due to a civilizational notion that it ought to be a co-equal with India and that it should employ all means, including Jihadist violence, to obtain strategic parity with its larger
neighbor. Her findings have far-reaching consequences and immense policy implications." --T.V. Paul, McGill University, and author of The Warrior State

"Provocative and essential: this book will make you think seriously about one of the world's newest danger points." --Stephen P. Cohen, Brookings Institution, and author of Shooting for a Century

"Pakistan is at an historical crossroads yet again. It needs to clearly define its future by ending the ambivalence about good and bad militancy. Either it becomes a successful democratic entity with a thriving economy or it heads into debilitating internal and external conflict. Fair's penetrating
critique of its mid-level military narratives, often charged with Islamist dogma, is a must-read for both civilian and military leaders, as they seek a course correction in their domestic governance and relations with friends and foes." --Shuja Nawaz, Director, South Asia Center, Atlantic Council,
and author of Crossed Swords

"Pakistan's dominant institution, the army, has embraced an anti-Indian Islamo-nationalism that alone can explain some of its less professional institutional decisions. In her well-researched book, Fair analyzes the ideological underpinnings of the Pakistan army's strategic culture. It is a valuable
addition to the literature on the subject with original material often overlooked by scholars in the past." --Husain Haqqani, former Pakistan ambassador to the US, and author of Magnificent Delusions

"In this book, Fair combines a deep knowledge of South Asia with insights from international relations theory. It provides a compelling assessment of Pakistan's strategic behavior focused on the preferences of the most important institution in the country -- the Pakistani Army. The book is a
must-read for anyone interested in understanding the security environment in this important region of the world." --S. Paul Kapur, U.S. Naval Postgraduate School

" Dr. Christine Fair, in this scholarly and well researched masterpiece of Pakistan's defense literature, brings out the strategic culture of the Pakistan army... This book is a must read for all policy planners in India and the United States. This would help them shed many of their illusions and
accept realities howsoever uncomfortable." --Maulimuses

"Professor C. Christine Fair, a security studies expert at Georgetown University, has produced a formidably comprehensive evaluation of what keeps the Pakistan army ticking, to what end and through what means... Professor Fair's solidly academic account should have no difficulty finding its way to
the top of the charts and the hands of both the Pakistani and non-Pakistani civil and military planners, where it rightly belongs." --Daily Times

"Fair, a well-known American scholar of the subcontinent, offers powerful insights into the sources of the army's dominance and examines the prospects for a potential change in the coming years... By poring over its official publications, examining its self-beliefs and tracking its evolution as an
institution, Fair comes to some definitive conclusions that compel all those who have business to do with Pakistan to rethink their assumptions." --The Indian Express

"Fair's excellent scholarship makes it amply clear how dangerous Pakistan's deep-rooted contradictions and convictions are." --Live Mint

"Fighting to the End breaks new ground in scholarship on Pakistan. It provides revealing insights in to why Pakistan is hell bent on pursuing such strategic policies which hurt it the most." --Indian Defence Review

"Fighting to the End is an exhaustive, illuminating and empirically rich work. It is a valuable book because the author carefully interprets the role Pakistan plays in its region, which has broader international ramifications. For these reasons, this volume is likely to become an indispensable read
not only for students and academics interested in deepening their understanding of Pakistan, but also for policymakers in Europe and the US alike." --Commonwealth & Comparative Politics

" ... a very well researched and insightful book that draws upon on years of interaction with the Pakistani military, and a deep immersion in the professional literature by which it educates its officer class." --Mike Markowitz, StrategyPage

"Christine Fair's incredibly well-researched book, the product of decades of engagement with Pakistan, pulls no punches. She analyses the role of the Pakistani army in the internal politics of Pakistan, but unlike Ayesha Siddiqa's similarly excellent work Military Inc.: Inside Pakistan's Military
Economy (Pluto Press, 2007), she concentrates on the international dimensions of the policies pursued by the Pakistani army and the implications that this has for regional and international security." --Political Studies Review

"This work is a thought provoking contribution to the study of Pakistan's security dilemmas, providing interesting narratives, though partially selective in its arguments. Moreover, the book proves a cogent and well-referenced source of information on Pakistan's strategic culture. It is a critical
study on the history of the Pakistan-India confrontation and to be recommended to scholars, researchers, and students of politics, history, international relations, security, and war studies."
-Pacific Affairs

About the Author

C. Christine Fair is an Assistant Professor in the Security Studies Program within Georgetown University's Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service. She previously served as a senior political scientist with the RAND Corporation, a political officer with the United Nations Assistance Mission to
Afghanistan in Kabul, and a senior research associate in the Center for Conflict Analysis and Prevention at the United States Institute of Peace.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Oxford University Press; 1st edition (May 27, 2014)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 368 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0199892709
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0199892709
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.53 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 9.3 x 1.3 x 6.5 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #2,360,329 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #605 in Military Sciences
- #1,826 in Non-US Legal Systems (Books)
- #1,888 in Comparative Politics

Customer Reviews:
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C. Christine Fair

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C. Christine Fair obtained her PhD from the University of Chicago, Department of South Asian Languages and Civilizations in 2004 and an MA from the Harris School of Public Policy in 1997. Prior to joining the Security Studies Program (SSP) within Georgetown University's Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, she served as a senior political scientist with the RAND Corporation, a political officer to the United Nations Assistance Mission to Afghanistan in Kabul, and a senior research associate in USIP's Center for Conflict Analysis and Prevention. Her research focuses upon political and military affairs in South Asia.

Her most recent book is titled Fighting to the End: The Pakistan Army's Way of War (forthcoming 2014, OUP).

In addition, she has authored, co-authored and co-edited several books including Cops as Counterinsurgents: Policing Insurgencies edited with Sumit Ganguly (forthcoming 2014, OUP); Cuisines of the Axis of Evil and Other Irritating States (Lyons Press, 2008); Treading Softly on Sacred Ground: Counterinsurgency Operations on Sacred Space edited with Sumit Ganguly (OUP, 2008); The Madrassah Challenge: Militancy and Religious Education in Pakistan (USIP, 2008); Fortifying Pakistan: The Role of U.S. Internal Security Assistance (USIP, 2006); among others and has written numerous peer-reviewed articles covering a range of security issues in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Iran, and Sri Lanka.

She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, Women in International Security, International Studies Association, the American Political Science Association and the American Institute of Pakistan Studies. (She resigned her membership in protest from the International Institute of Strategic Studies because she did not support the lack of diversity in the organization's activities.)

She serves on the editorial board of Current History, Small Wars and Insurgencies, Asia Policy, Studies in Conflict and Terrorism. She is also a senior fellow with the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point. Her publications are available at www.christinefair.net.

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Kalankit Haseena

Belabored but significant

Reviewed in the United States on May 20, 2020

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The book shows in detail the ideological madness behind Pakistan's national identity. The chapter on Afghanistan was tedious and diverted attention from the Indo-Pak conflict. The other chapters, however, were informative. To be sure, this subject needs the attention of a criminal psychologist. Let us hope one continues the work inaugurated by Christine Fair.

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Jonathan Baum

Informative and wothwhile

Reviewed in the United States on August 9, 2015

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In this thoughtful survey of Pakistan's strategic culture, Professor Fair demonstrates that county's legitimate security concerns, but also that they are married to a revisionist anti-Indian and Islamo-nationalistic ideology. This world view permeates not only the armed forces but civil society as well, creating a nation that seems to be permanently at war which, in turn, allows the paramountcy of the army in Pakistan which, in fairness, is one of the very few competent and uncorrupted organizations there. Fair takes a historical viewpoint, tracing the rise of this culture back to pre-independence and partition days, especially in the role of the "one-nation theory." Pakistan's emphasis on armed strength, jihad and lack of flexibility in issues such as Kashmir makes it certain that the country will remain militaristic, poor and source of instability in South Asia for the foreseeable future. If this troubled region interests you, this book is a must-read, in spite of the fact that it's a bit of a slog.

10 people found this helpful

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SRR

Comprehensive view of today's Pakistan

Reviewed in the United States on November 9, 2014

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This book gives a very comprehensive view of Pakistan today. Thank you, C. Christine Fair for writing this book, since it needed to be written! This books should be compulsory reading material for those dealing with Pakistan so they have a strong footing in history and facts.

There are several insights in this book. Examples: Even though the army has never won a war, its definition of “victory” as the ability to challenge India; the enormous resources the military consumes is almost never talked about in the media; the ability of Pakistan to play one world power against another to get aid; the analysis on persistent revisionism; the military’s inability manage the country any better than the civilians when it is in power; the inability of US to manage long term vs short term goals; the lack of insight and history of most of the US officials dealing with Pakistan and their potential susceptibility to guilt.

Details on the British role in splitting India into two before they left is not addressed in any detail to complete the history. The role Saudi Arabia plays in Pakistan’s radicalization is mentioned only in passing. How Pakistanis are seen by their “brother” Muslims in the middle east, and how most Pakistanis lack a realization of their own duplicity aren’t addressed in any detail. But those are not the focus of the scope of this book. There is also a lot of repetition, but it is not unusual in a scholarly work, and it is left to the reader to grab the points and skip over the repetition. The worst case situation of a nuclear war is mentioned in passing giving pause for thought.

The author rightly wonders that with such revisionism (and redefinition of defeat), if the world would stand by and watch when what is considered real defeat by Pakistan army is meted out to it at some point. Some comparison to the German military after WW-I (“we were not defeated”) and why the Allies ended the WW-II in Germany they way they did would have brought some historical perspective here.

What Pakistan needs is a focus on the welfare of the civilians, and not the entrenched affluence of the military and the affluent civilian “leaders.” That won’t become a reality till the people demand the military not be a major consumer of the nation’s resources. The author does a very good job of exploring the potential for such change.

One more editorial pass (e.g., use of “principle” instead of “principal” in a few places) and removing/reorganizing to reduce repetition, and to make the summary/conclusions more succinct and punchy would have improved the book. It is something for which the reader has to mentally compensate. In summary, it is a 'must read' book for any South Asia watcher.

9 people found this helpful

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Sohrabrostam

Cursed to live beside an Inimical neighbor.

Reviewed in the United States on February 8, 2015

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Fantastic. Possibly the best book on this thorny subject that is out there. flawless blending of data, logic and years of qualitiative expertise on the subject. Flows beautifully. Fair correctly observes that starting with the Poonch invasion in September 1947, terror has been a state instrument for Pakistan since inception. Over time this pernicious agenda has expanded to include not only taking back Kashmir but also destabilizing India.

The ending is quite depressing (it has the virtue of being 110% true). Pakistan judges victory very differently, it see winning by simply 'resisting' - a very low and tough standard to beat.

It is a sad confirmation that for the foresseable future, Indians will have to live with a paranoid, confused neighbor bent on being antagonistic...

5 people found this helpful

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Amruth Puttappa

Must Read to Understand Pakistani Army

Reviewed in the United States on October 27, 2014

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An Excellent book and very well researched. This book is painstakingly well researched and author has spent considerable amount to effort to write this book. After reading this book I completely understand the behavior of Pakistani Army and its various war strategies.

The thing that stands out is that Author takes direct references from Pakistani Army Greenbook.

This is a eye-opener for me as I used to get perplexed with the way Pakistani Army use to react.

8 people found this helpful

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spacetraveller

Well researched

Reviewed in the United States on August 28, 2015

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The book is based on meticulous research and is indeed a masterpiece on a subject of immense importance to South Asia. The book in fact reflects the results of taking two divergent paths by two nations born at the same time. Pakistan,s leaders have a myopic world view and their policies over the years have created a monster which is impossible to uncreate. Christine has studied the minds of the military leaders and written a book which is a deep study of these decadent and medieval leaders trying to pull back a people who are keen to join the social and political main stream. Recommend reading for leaders in India and Pakistan if they wish to first understand the mind sets which has led to the present impasse between the two nations.

2 people found this helpful

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ronbon

great book

Reviewed in the United States on November 10, 2014

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Great book which puts forward a persuasive argument about one of the least understood institutions in the subcontinent-the Pakistan Army

8 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Outsider

Excellent and depressing

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 30, 2019

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Excellent analysis and well referenced. The author's understanding of the subcontinent, its culture and historical background is equally impressive.

I think the US government has finally taken heed and is now done with Pakistan.

Pakistan is a state which, appears to have as its overriding purpose, more than the peace and prosperity of its own people, opposition to India. Without this opposition, it can no longer justify its own existence. (Which betrays deep down its own unconscious conviction that it doesn't really have a right to exist in the first place. But don't expect the Pakistanis to acknowledge that. )

The purpose of Pakistan's nuclear weapons is to provide an umbrella under which jihadist groups (which Pakistan has cultivated almost like another branch of the armed services) can operate with relative impunity, to the detriment of both India and Afghanistan and to internationalize the Kashmir dispute, as witness Imran Khan's recent rant at the UN. (Despite his threat of nuclear disaster, no one took him seriously, so there is hope that the days of Pakistan wringing out concessions from the West are over. )

This state of affairs is unlikely to change for the foreseeable future. India can weather it better in that it has virtually sealed its border with Pakistan to keep out jihadists. The tragedy of Afghanistan will alas continue.

2 people found this helpful

GNGY

Essential Read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 20, 2019

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A very interesting read and an essential read for people who are interested in South East Asia. Sets the stage for them to understand present state of affairs and the reason they are the way they are today

One person found this helpful

SXZ

Difficult read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 8, 2020

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This is written like a Phd project but with a simple thesis which is not original. The same arguments are repeated a bit too often without any additional information - and the style of writing is not very readable either. I am afraid I left it halfway unread.

2 people found this helpful

Prashant Patel

History

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 26, 2021

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Brilliant book. A must to read for anyone who has roots from India.

Mr. Gouresh Suresh Kumtha

Brilliant research by Dr. Christine

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 24, 2016

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Brilliant research by Dr. Christine. its an eye opener

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