Southeast Asia and the Middle East: Islam, Movement and the longue durée Edited by E ric T agliacozzo

Southeast Asia and the Middle East: Islam, Movement and the longue durée Edited by E ric T agliacozzo

Abstract

bo o k re vie w s Invariably in a work of this scope and ambition, there are areas which require further development. The regional dimensions of politics in Bangladesh and Pakistan are largely neglected, except with regard to the vexed issue of the ‘Punjabization’ of the latter. More could have been said especially regarding the troubled development of Balochistan. Water issues and disputes are referred to in passing, but it would have been useful to have provided the reader with some understanding of the contemporary and future consequences of climate change for these countries’ political and human development. Most striking of all from an author who was Ambassador to each country, at the crucial moments of the fall of the Ershad and Nawaz Sharif governments, the text is largely silent with respect to the American influence on their political development. One does not have to buy into Pakistani conspiracy theories that developments are frequently decided in Washington. Nevertheless, there is little acknowledgement in the text of the leverage at key moments with respect both to Indo–Pakistan relations, pressures for political realignment, the Benazir Bhutto–Musharraf 2007 rapprochement for example, and finally US influence on Pakistan’s security responses in