Roman Herzog was the President of Germany in the mid-1990s and, as the first destination of his out-of-area visits, chose Pakistan. The hosts proposed the Institute of Strategic Studies as the venue for his public talk, but he preferred the National Library because the strategic connection sounded too militaristic. Granted, some of the best and most devious minds in this field—Machiavelli and Chanakya—never wore a uniform, but it’s true that defence thinkers have dominated the evolution of strategic thought. One of our former army chiefs, when elucidating perfectly sound depth and defiance aspects of strategy, was mocked—because after shedding their immunity, all of them are.

The irony of strategy is that the inventor of the most practised model in history is a relatively unknown figure. André Beaufre, a French general and strategist, developed the concept of Piecemeal Strategy: take down only a bit of your target, not to alarm the next enemy—and then restart after a decent pause. Death by a thousand cuts was its primitive form, effectively used by smaller states and private militias. According to Liddell Hart, one of the best military historians, Britain eliminated its rivals with the help of a few willing allies, then dispensed the same treatment to them—one at a time. Like all things British, this concept was given a politically correct name: The Balance of Power.

The Soviet Union took nearly a century to inch its way to the Amu Darya (the Oxus). The US and Israel have pursued this doctrine in the Middle East for a long time—and with spectacular success. The latest manoeuvres in the Levant demonstrate how nimbly it has been done.

Assad’s regime in Syria was toppled. Since it had forcefully kept the country together, its fall was considered just deserts—and even cheered. Erdoğan, the quintessential self-server, though fully aware that the fall of the Alawites was detrimental to the Palestinian struggle, supported it for some measly gains. A few eyebrows were raised, but only because the new marionette in Damascus, Ahmad al-Sharaa, had a dubious past. (Isn’t that an asset for a hitman?) In the meantime, Iran had been practically........

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