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Pakistan's gateway dilemma

41 1
10.11.2025

The Geographical Pivot of History and Democratic Ideals and Reality are two great scholarly writings by Sir Halford Mackinder, who is considered one of the founding fathers of both geopolitics and geostrategy. The former was written a decade before the commencement of WWI, and the latter appeared in the same year as the Versailles Conference. The first gave us the Heartland Theory, and the second expanded it to connect it with moral, political and institutional questions.

Considering that Pakistan lies on the periphery of Mackinder's Heartland, I would like to describe the challenges Pakistan faces as it tries to balance in the struggle between the sea powers and the land powers to dominate the Heartland. Doing this, I would also like to propose that Mackinder's Heartland Theory is very much relevant, and the technological advancement and growth of air power have not rendered the theory meaningless, as some scholars of international relations consider. Advancement of technology has contributed to the collapse of time and distance, but the crisis of the room, the geographical space, and the pivot of history remains very much relevant. Heartland and its importance are very much relevant.

Mackinder's Heartland is the vast interior of Eurasia (Central Asia, Russia, and part of Eastern Europe), being landlocked and protected by natural barriers (ice to the north and mountains and deserts to the south). The sea powers always found it difficult to invade the Heartland, and they still do, but the land powers, such as France and Germany, could project their power overland. Napoleon and Hitler both ventured into the Heartland with big........

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