Talking with Michael Kugelman on Pakistan

Pakistan has had a notably tough year - a political ousting, major floods, economic downturns. And Michael was the best person l could to talk about them.

In the broader scheme of geopolitical issues, you’d be forgiven for thinking that Pakistan-specific ones don’t dominate the headlines.

Don’t get me wrong, Pakistan sits in a very volatile part of the world - Central Asia, next to the now Taliban-controlled Afghanistan on one side, a disputed territory in the form of Kashmir on another, and the other ‘Stan nations’ heavily to the north, which up until recently were under Russia’s unquestionable sphere influence.

But since Russia’s actions over Ukraine, this has changed, and we even saw rare clashes between Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan.