The recent conflict between Pakistan and India has drawn global attention. The rising tensions between the two nuclear-armed neighbours, both furnished with cutting-edge conventional and non-conventional military competences, have elevated serious apprehensions, especially given their combined share of a substantial portion of the world's population — 20.8 per cent.

It is vital to highlight that such a war begins as a consequence of failure of diplomatic channels and multilateral efforts; erosion of meaningful negotiations; and inability of regional and international actors to mediate, combined with rising jingoism and hardened narratives.

Pakistan and India are both members of regional organisations such as SCO and SAARC, which were established to encourage discourse, economic cooperation and regional stability. Though, in spite of their shared platforms, bilateral tensions have often overshadowed the potential of these forums. Both the UN and the Commonwealth have largely been unsuccessful in their role as neutral mediators, as their efforts remained limited to encouraging dialogue without applying any real pressure on India, the aggressor, to engage in meaningful conflict resolution.

It is a fact that in high-stakes conflicts, the pure realist perspective often dominates where national interest, power and survival take preference over moral or ideological considerations. In such scenarios, the pursuit of state interests is not only expected but necessary.

However, in Pakistan's case, where we face a significantly larger and more powerful........

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