The Defiant Border

The Defiant Border explores why the Afghan-Pakistan borderlands have remained largely independent of state controls from the colonial period into the twenty-first century. This book looks at local Pashtun tribes'' modes for evading first British colonial then Pakistani governance; the ongoing border dispute between Pakistan and Afghanistan; and continuing interest in the region from Indian US British and Soviet actors. It reveals active attempts by first British then Pakistani agents to integrate the tribal region ranging from development initiatives to violent suppression. The Defiant Border also considers the area''s influence on relations between Pakistan Afghanistan and India as well as its role in the United States'' increasingly global Cold War policies. Ultimately the book considers how a region so peripheral to major centers of power has had such an impact on political choices throughout the eras of empire decolonization and superpower competition up to the so-called ''war on terror''.