Pakistan's Ethnic Fault Line

"To American eyes the struggle raging in Pakistan with the Taliban is about religious fanaticism," writes Selig Harrison of the Center for International Policy in today's Washington Post. "But in Pakistan it is about an explosive fusion of Islamist zeal and simmering ethnic tensions that have been exacerbated by U.S. pressures for military action against the Taliban and its al-Qaeda allies. Understanding the ethnic dimension of the conflict is the key to a successful strategy for separating the Taliban from al-Qaeda and stabilizing multiethnic Pakistan politically."  Harrison's research and writing on the ethnic dimensions of the conflict in Pakistan is supported by Ploughshares Fund.

(photo: BBC World Service)