Introduction
Pakistan has been an important U.S. partner since the events of September 11, assisting in the hunt for al Qaeda and Taliban leaders on its western frontier regions. Despite its contributions, some within the U.S. assert that Pakistan needs to do more, especially in light of continuing American military aid. Given these factors and the upcoming elections in USA, Pakistan-USA relations have been the focus of intense scrutiny by the two governments, their peoples, and the media. Further, Pakistan’s nuclear program and its ongoing tensions with its neighbor Afghanistan also pose unique challenges to the bilateral strategic relationship.
Insurgencies like those in Iraq and Afghanistan are likely to be a feature of the global security environment for the foreseeable future. The Pentagon recently commissioned a report to study the ongoing insurgency and recommend a strategy to combat it. The RAND Corporation is a nonprofit institution that helps improve policy and decision-making through research and analysis. For 60 years, the RAND Corporation has pursued its nonprofit mission by conducting research on important and complicated problems. Initially, RAND (the name of which was derived from a contraction of the term research and development) focused on issues of national security. Eventually, RAND expanded its intellectual reserves to offer insight into other areas, such as business, education, health, law, and science........more

The prospect of proliferation of nuclear technology remains a major cause of concern and an issue of great global debate, dividing countries into nuclear haves and have-nots. When the US went on a quest to seek nuclear supremacy in the world, and even carried live demo on human population without much remorse, perhaps it had never even imagined that half a century later countries such as ours which are always underestimated in the first world military powers’ calculus could ever attain a similar status. In fact the four years gap until the Soviet tests in 1949, proved to be one of global military and technological superiority and supremacy for the US, which brought about strategic notions as lethal and catastrophic as the massive retaliation. The increased moralistic debate which ensued in the US after the Japanese catastrophe resulted on the one hand in the Baruch Plan which sought a global and comprehensive disarmament through the establishment of an international nuclear bank that in 1957 emerged as the IAEA; and on the other hand to make atomic energy more humane, the very famous Atoms for Peace program.......more

The West has many stereotypes and misconceptions about Islam that are due to the media, prejudice, and ignorance (Smith, 1999). A Muslim in the west is often looked down upon as an “extremist”, “terrorist”, or “fundamentalist.” Stereotypes about Islam are not new to the Western culture; it can be traced back 1400 years. At that time, Islam and Christianity were involved in the Crusades. Islam spread quickly to the West and its nature of quick acceptability was threatening to the Christian Church and the ruling class. The Western elites, mainly the governments and the churches, then became highly involved in negative propaganda against Islam. As a result, not only were battles fought against Islam, but also a war of words was initiated to make sure that Islam would not have any converts or sympathizers in the West. These feelings that the West had long ago still remain in the West today (Hassan, 1995). John of Damascus who sanctified himself as a saint in both the Eastern and Western churches said that Islamic beliefs are sacrilegious and Muslims are nothing short an of evil predecessor of the Antichrist (Armour, 2002)......more