Pakistan’s Wars An Alternative History by Tariq Rahman is a critical study of the wars Pakistan fought decision-makers of the war.

In the beginning, the writer explains that wars are not good for any country because the repercussions leave the country in circumstance from which it becomes difficult to rise which motivate countries to avoid wars.

But Pakistan went to war in the very year of her independence and fought many wars-mostly against India-in the 75 years of her independence out of which three wars were fought for Kashmir. There was also a major civil war that resulted in the creation of Bangladesh, and she also fought liberation war on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border from 2005 onwards.

In the second chapter, the writer explains that why the military took risky decisions to go to war wars and how it developed belief the at Pakistan army is superior then to Indian army and India is the historical enemy of Pakistan and how and the why dominates over the civilian government especially over the decisions to go to war. Moreover, his paper argues that the decision to go to wars were made by the clique mainly consisting of military officers not by the representatives of the country as in the case of other countries like India where such decisions are taken by the civilian government.

In the next chapter, the very first war of Pakistan, the 1947-48 war, is discussed which was fought on the assumption that non-state actors would be useful for liberating Kashmir. The decision-makers were the highest civilian authorities who acted like a clique and decisions were taken without any cost-benefit analysis which developed differences between the military with the government on the matter of Kashmir which forced the military to dominate decisions like wars.

Chapter 4 explains the war of 1965, the second war on Kashmir, how decision-makers the history of 1947 the war without learning anything from the past, and how once again she failed to achieve her purpose of the liberation of Kashmir and bore a great loss of precious lives, military equipment, and infrastructure. It is called the operation by the state as the president was part of the decision-making clique but in reality, it was the decision of the few.

The next two chapters cover the 1971 war in which the writer explains the role of military generals in the war and the role of the politicians in sharing power and how India play her part in the war. Which elements prevent the peaceful transfer of power and what are the real reasons behind this war? The cost of this war is incalculable then why the military and politicians delayed the date of National Assembly session and how the mistrust was created the between and the West wing. The paper explains the facts at great length and also to contributes the experience of civil and military people of both sides in these chapters.

The Kargil war of 1999 is discussed the chapter 7, in this chapter writer discussed the experiences of troops stationed on the world’s highest battlefield. The writer also explained the whole incident at great length and again try to prove that the decision to go to war was made by a clique.

In the next three chapters, the writer tried to sum up the incident low-intensity-warfare focusing on guerrilla operations taking place in Indian-administrated Kashmir as well as the border area of Pakistan with Afghanistan and the gender experience of war that how women go through this difficult situation and what was the experience of men facing the era of warfare.

 In the last chapter, the writer tried to: first, sum up his findings about the dysfunctional decision-making about most of Pakistan’s wars to suggest that they exhibit excessive risk-taking and, so far, are initiated by cliques mostly of army officers. Second, to suggest that, now that India and Pakistan both have nuclear weapons, which can cause irreversible harm to this part of the world, such decision-making is more dangerous than it ever was. And finally, he gave some suggestions for solving the Kashmir issue and achieving peace in South Asia.

I would it is a worth reading book because the writer conducted many interviews and quoted many authentic references but read it carefully because it did not explain the role of India and other external factors in the wars and low-intensity warfare. It is good for those who want to study critically the role of military in decision-making in wars.

M. Ahmad is a writer currently pursuing his studies at the National Defence University (NDU), Islamabad, Pakistan. His interests include politics, policy, culture, and Islam.