I n a prescient article forewarning what would become the most crucial issue in determining the Canadian mission’s success in Afghanistan, Stewart Bell made a persuasive case in 2004 for Pakistan as “the world’s most dangerous country.” Four years later, in January 2008, following the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, an Economist editorial argued that democracy offered the best chance for bringing stability to what the magazine called “the world’s most dangerous place.” In our analysis, Pakistan belongs to a group of second-tier countries, which though not being outright failures, are particularly vulnerable in certain aspects of “stateness.” Our fragility rankings have ranked Pakistan as one of the top 20 fragile states in the world in most years during the past two decades. Most analysts believe that the country’s political and security situation has now been severely worsened by the floods

Pakistan – after the flooding