Pakistan and America have been gripped together in a deadly embrace for decades. For half a century American presidents from both parties pursued narrow short-term interests in Pakistan. This myopia actually backfired in the long term, helping to destabilize the political landscape and radicalizing the population, setting the stage for the global jihad we face today.Bruce Riedel, one of America’s foremost authorities on U.S. security and South Asia,sketches the history of U.S.-Pakistani relations from partitioning of the subcontinentin 1947 up through the present day. It is muddled story, meandering through periodsof friendship and enmity. Riedel deftly interprets the tortuous path of relationsbetween two very different nations that remain, in many ways, stuck with each other.The Preface to the paperback provides an inside account of the discovery ofOsama bin Laden’s Abbottabad hideout that led to the al Qaeda leader’s demise.Accusations of Pakistani complicity in harboring bin Laden once again dramatizedthe ambivalence and distrust existing between two nations that purport to be allies.Riedel discusses what it all means for the war on terror and the future of U.S.-Pakistani relations.Praise for the hardcover edition of Deadly Embrace”Mr. Riedel, who has advised no fewer than four American presidents, knows power from the inside—something he is keen to share with the reader…. His book provides a useful account of the dysfunctional relationship between Pakistan and America.”— The Economist”Bruce Riedel has produced an excellent volume that is both analytically sharp and cogently written. It will engage both specialists and the interested public. Essential reading.”—Peter Bergen, author of Holy War, Inc. and The Osama bin Laden I Know”Riedel lucidly provides an overview of the last thirty years of Pakistan’s internal politics, its relationship with the United States, as well as the various insurgent and terrorist groups with which it has had close association. The book is informed by his own experiences over most of this period as an intelligence analyst for the U.S. government. As usual with Bruce, it is brilliant, and quite sobering—yet hardly without hope.”—Foreign Policy

Pakistan and the United States have been locked in a deadly embrace for decades. Successive American presidents from both parties have pursued narrow short-term interests in the South Asian nation, and many of the resulting policies proved counterproductive in the long term, contributing to political instability and a radicalized public. This background has helped set the stage for the global jihad confronting much of the world today.In Deadly Embrace, Bruce Riedel explores the forces behind these developments, explaining how and why the history of Pakistan-U.S. relations has unfolded as it has. He explains what the United States can do now to repair the damage and how it can avoid making similar mistakes in dealing with extremist forces in Pakistan and beyond.Riedel is one of America’s foremost authorities on U.S. security, South Asia, and terrorism, and he helped to craft President Obama’s 2009 speech referring to the Pakistan-Afghanistan borderlands as the “most dangerous region of the world.” He follows up The Search for al Qaeda, his influential 2008 analysis of the terror network’s ideology and leadership, with a sober, authoritative, and sometimes alarming look at the history, importance, and current role of Pakistan, epicenter of the global jihad movement, beginning with the history of U.S.-Pakistan relations since the partitioning of the subcontinent in 1947.The relationship between Pakistan and America is a fascinating yet muddled story, meandering through periods of friendship and enmity, symbiosis and distrust: it’s no wonder that people in both nations are confused. Deadly Embrace explains how the United States, on several occasions, actually helped the foes of democracy in Pakistan and aided in the development of the very enemies it is now fighting in the region. The book seeks to unravel this paradox, revealing and interpreting the tortuous path of relations between two very different nations, which remain, in many ways, stuck with each other.