Correspondence, Misunderstanding Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Area?
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Authors
Marten, Kimberly
Johnson, Thomas H.
Mason, M. Chris
Subjects
Advisors
Date of Issue
2009
Date
Winter 2008/09
Publisher
Language
Abstract
In “No Sign until the Burst of Fire: Understanding the Pakistan-Afghanistan Frontier,”
Thomas Johnson and Chris Mason argue that Pashtun tribal identities explain the lure
of the Taliban and the shortcomings of the initial U.S. approach to the war in Afghanistan.
1 They carry this argument too far, however, and engage in cultural reductionism
by portraying the Pashtun tribal code as the determining factor behind politics and
preferences in Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Area (FATA). Johnson and
Mason make the following errors: (1) treating Pashtun identity as if it were set in stone;
(2) failing to consider that today’s radical Islamists rely on different sources of support
than did the mullahs (Islamic religious leaders) who led jihads against the British Empire;
and (3) misinterpreting the role of the ofªcial maliks (tribal and village leaders) in
the FATA.
Type
Article
Description
Series/Report No
Department
National Security Affairs
Organization
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NPS Report Number
Sponsors
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Format
Citation
International Security, Vol. 33, No. 3 (Winter 2008/09), pp. 180–189
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This publication is a work of the U.S. Government as defined in Title 17, United States Code, Section 101. Copyright protection is not available for this work in the United States.