The killing of Osama bin Laden spotlighted Pakistan’s unpredictable political dynamics, which are often driven by conspiracy theory, paranoia, and a sense of betrayal. As the late Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto famously declared, there is “always the story behind the story.” In The Pakistan Cauldron, James Farwell explains what makes Pakistani politics tick and reveals how key Pakistani political players have inconsistently employed the principles of strategic communication to advance their agendas and undercut their enemies. Pakistan is an enigma to many. Only by understanding the complex forces that shape Pakistani leaders can their shifting political agendas be uncovered and how they, in turn, affect American and the West.

James P. Farwell is an expert in strategic communication and has advised the Department of Defense, U.S. Special Operations Command, and the U.S. Strategic Command on the Middle East, Africa, and Pakistan. He has written commentaries for the International Institute for Strategic Studies, the Middle East Institute, the National Interest, IO Journal, and Defence IQ. A graduate of Tulane and the University of Cambridge (England), Farwell is also an attorney and a national and international political consultant. He is a Senior Research Scholar in Strategic Studies at the Munk School, Center for Global Security, University of Toronto.