The strongman and the war on terror

The resignation of Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf is a sign of how the "war on terror" is changing.

Mr Musharraf was once the lynchpin of Pakistan's alliance with the United States in President George Bush's war, but the days of a single strongman laying down and executing the policy are gone.

Instead, a longer-term reliance on the emergence of democratic institutions to offer an alternative to extremism is taking place.