Graham Usher

Graham Usher, a writer and journalist based in Islamabad, is the author of Dispatches From Palestine: The Rise and Fall of the Oslo Peace Process (Pluto).

Obama in Afghanistan: Careful What You Wish For

July 20, 2008

He says Afghanistan is the war America should be fighting. But on this much-ballyhooed listening tour, will he be hearing anything he doesn't already know?
Getting Pakistan Wrong

June 26, 2008

The US military's aggressive confrontation with the Taliban and its Al Qaeda cohorts in Pakistan is only making matters worse.
Bhutto's Tangled Legacy

February 21, 2008

Will the PPP revive her power-sharing deal with Musharraf or join with Nawaz Sharif to re-establish constitutional rule?

2007

Benazir Bhutto: A Death Foretold

December 28, 2007

For all her pro-American rhetoric, many in Benazir Bhutto's party held America responsible for the "judicial murder" of her father. Will Bhutto's assassination have a like impact?
Trappings of Democracy in Pakistan

November 15, 2007

As hopes fade for the rule of law in Pakistan, the Bush Administration signals it will settle for just the trappings of democracy. People are braced for disaster.
Musharraf's Emergency

November 8, 2007

If the United States is so keen on spreading democracy and fighting radical Islamists, why does it continue to back a leader who has suspended the Constitution and gone to war with legal activists?
Benazir Bhutto's Defining Moment

October 29, 2007

She alone can mobilize Pakistan's poor with promises of democracy, development and free, fair elections. But does she have the power to ward off US meddling and stop Pakistan's slide into chaos?
Red Mosque: Endgame for Musharraf?

July 19, 2007

In the violent aftermath of the storming of Islamabad's Red Mosque, the military-mullah alliance that kept Pervez Musharraf in power is unraveling, the Taliban is ascendant, and hopes for stability are fading.
Pakistan's Shaky Dictatorship

April 5, 2007

Only reform can halt the growth of violent Islamization in Pakistan, which threatens to topple the current government.

2006

Mumbai's Casualties

July 27, 2006

The grisly commuter train bombings in Mumbai on July 11 both endangered the India/Pakistan peace process and underscored its fragility.
Mumbai's Other Casualty

July 19, 2006

The fragile peace process between India and Pakistan fell apart after last week's grisly commuter train bombings.
Challenging Musharraf

February 23, 2006

Massive protests over the Muhammad cartoons add to the growing sense that Pakistani President-General Pervez Musharraf is losing control.
The Hamas Triumph

February 2, 2006

What if the West responded to Hamas's victory not with sanctions but with a commitment to resume negotiations from where they left off in 2000?