Bhutto Assassination Imperils Pakistan's Stability—and Global Nuclear Security
Benazir Bhutto once called Pakistan "the most dangerous country on earth." Conditions in that chaotic country now threaten to spin out of control. How will this affect the rest of the world?
by John Ross Schroeder
In 1947 the nation of Pakistan was born in the wake of the Indian subcontinent's independence from Britain. It was carved out of northwestern India in a bid to prevent a bloody civil war between Hindus and Muslims. Up to a quarter of India's population was Muslim.
Author Andrew Boyd summed up the troublesome situation in this embryonic new nation: "About 8 million Muslims fled from India to Pakistan and about 8 million Hindus and Sikhs fled from Pakistan to India; half a million people were killed" (An Atlas of World Affairs, 10th ed., p. 164, emphasis added throughout).
The problem's historical roots
Periodic tensions and border skirmishes with India have characterized Pakistan's 60-year history. Control of the northern province of Kashmir has been a bone of contention throughout that whole period.
Eventually India built up a substantial armory of nuclear weapons, primarily in fear of Pakistan's intentions, and then the latter nation felt it had little choice but to counter with its own atomic arsenal. Here we have a basic root cause.
All present problems usually have a history and the stores of thermonuclear weaponry, particularly in Pakistan, are a current cause for grave concern for the whole Western world.
In 1999 Pakistan's inner tensions and domestic difficulties resulted in a military dictatorship headed by Gen. Pervez Musharraf. Then in the aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001, Pakistan became an ally of America in the war against terrorism—a particularly important development because of its strategic border with Afghanistan.
