Pakistan Under American Pressure

Rehabilitated by the September 11 attacks, will the Pakistani president, General Pervez Musharraf, be a victim of the war against terrorism? Five years after having chosen the United States rather than the Taliban in Afghanistan, the Pakistani head of state appears ever more torn between American demands to do more against al-Qaeda and the Taliban on the one hand, and between the realities of the policy of ambiguity he has followed with respect to Islamist extremists on the other. Far from being weakened by Pakistan's turnaround after September 11, 2001, the latter have continued to prosper in an environment that is very largely favorable to them.

Francoise Chipaux wonders whether Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf - pressured from within by an ever-bolder Islamist movement and from without by the Americans - will survive the war on terrorism.

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