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Owen Bennett-Jones examines how the government in Tehran outwitted the United States in Iraq, which resulted in Tehran having more influence in Baghdad than Washington.

He also examines how Islamabad pulled off much the same trick in relation to Afghanistan. But whilst Iran was under US sanctions, Pakistan secured its objectives in Afghanistan whilst simultaneously receiving billions of dollars worth of US aid. As one retired Pakistan intelligence chief bragged – the US was helping secure its own defeat.

Owen highlights the occasions on which Pakistan (despite many denials) acknowledged that it did have a relationship with the Afghan Taliban. He looks at the nature of that relationship and explains how Pakistan felt it had little choice. Islamabad always realised that Western forces would leave Afghanistan and that it had to prepare for the situation after the withdrawal.

He speaks to Pakistani and US critics of Pakistan’s policy and asks whether the Pakistani strategy will backfire. It may now be enjoying a degree of control in Afghanistan, but how great is the threat from an emboldened Pakistani Taliban which wants power in Pakistan itself. And most of all how come the most powerful country on earth was outwitted by two regional powers, first Iran and then Pakistan.

(Photo: A man holds a national flag of Pakistan as he walks along a street in Islamabad. Credit: Aamir Qureshi/AFP/Getty Images)