Washington Post foreign correspondent Pamela Constable sat down with IFES President & CEO Bill Sweeney to talk about her latest book PLAYING WITH FIRE: Pakistan at War with Itself. Covering “the A’s” in Pakistan — Army, Allah and America, or anti-America, for many — Constable gave audience members a glimpse into her experiences in one of the most puzzling countries on the planet.

Due to a lack of stable government leadership, Pakistan finds itself moving closer and closer to extremism as a society. Touching on the many moving parts that contribute to this shift, Constable reiterated the importance of education again and again. The numbers speak for themselves — in this nuclear-armed nation, just over half of men and a third of women are literate.

Her third book, Constable outlined a country rich in diversity and the many groups moving in and out of power. But she offered no policy recommendations, as Fire is not about legislation. According to Constable, her book is all about the people. It is about flood and terrorism survivors, ruling class, working class, intelligentsia, the institutions — including the courts, the army, the parliament — and ultimately, how the country’s failure to live up to its founding promise is driving the society toward extremism.

As Constable fielded questions from the Web and audience members, an online viewer asked what could be done to improve American relations with Pakistan and decrease the general anti-American sentiment amongst Pakistanis. With no hesitation, Constable said the answer was, “Plane tickets. Plane tickets. Plane tickets.” She believes the disconnect between America and Pakistan stems from literal distance. With little to no foreign exchange programs connecting the nations, “it is easy to hate someone from a distance,” she said.

Constable has reported extensively from Pakistan, Afghanistan, India and Iraq since 1998. Her book is available in stores now.

The event can be watched online next week.