Understanding Pakistan’s Security Crisis: The Research Behind the Headlines (2017–2026)

As Pakistan and Afghanistan move toward open conflict, the foundations for understanding this crisis were laid well before the current escalation in 2026. As events accelerate, I wanted to share a chronological guide to my research on Pakistan’s evolving security landscape — for those looking for deeper context behind the headlines. This body of work spans nearly a decade, from the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan’s (TTP) early organizational shifts through the current open war.

2017: Tracking the Earliest Shifts

“Militant Rivalries Extend to Female Recruitment in Pakistan”

CTC Perspectives, Combating Terrorism Center at West Point (with Sara Mahmood), 2017

Discusses TTP’s early pivot toward women as a recruitment audience. As inter-group competition between TTP and Islamic State Khorasan intensified, this piece identified a shift: TTP’s first deliberate attempts to court female supporters, driven by organizational pressure and rivalry dynamics. Published before TTP’s Sunnat-e-Khaula magazine even launched, this analysis flagged a trend that I traced through to its full evolution in my co-authored 2025 article on TTP’s gender-messaging strategies.