The politics of subordination is about dominating others by whatever means. Speaking at Davos 2026, Canada’s Prime Minister, Mark Carney, admitted that international law is applied with varying rigour depending on geopolitics, and that major power-holders in reality face few limits or constraints.

The consequences have been vicious: a genocide in Palestine, the kidnapping and assassination of national leaders, economic warfare, and now an illegal war launched by Israel and the United States against Iran.

As a middle power, the upending of the rules-based order and a weakened Iran leave Pakistan vulnerable to Israeli and Indian aggression on both its western and eastern borders. “The middle powers must act together, because if we’re not at the table, we’re on the menu.” Looking beyond the Islamabad talks, for Pakistan and the region, it is a moment to make a choice: more subordination or sovereignty with dignity?

Trump’s disruption has compelled “a powerful reset”. Some, like Canada, are bravely forging new alliances. Others, such as the former Director of the US National Counterterrorism Center, Joe Kent, fear more trouble lies ahead, with countries like Turkey in the crosshairs, which will destabilise the Muslim world and the global economy. Strong alliances are essential to safeguard against looming crises and conflict. It is a time to reassess challenges, alliances, and capabilities.

At the core of this upending is the consolidation of Pax Zionismus, the Greater Israel project. Supported by the US, EU, UK, and networked through the Abraham Accords states and India, Israel is militarily, technologically, and economically dismantling and dominating regional rivals by balkanising and occupying their territories. Israel’s “hexagon of alliances” aims to encircle key Muslim states, trade routes, and energy corridors. It extends to embracing Taliban Afghanistan and non-state Baloch separatists to destabilise Pakistan. To manage the fallout, Pakistan needs to adopt a fresh strategic vision internally, across its foreign and defence policies, and harness the will to implement it.

What is happening is not inevitable. The source of our subordination is within. Muslim rulers have deliberately prevented Muslim solidarity from being actualised through bodies such as the OIC. It is an abject failure not to mobilise a trading bloc of 2.1 billion people across 57 states to effectively resist bullying, the weaponisation of economics, and lawfare, and to create an alternative, inclusive global order. Had these resources been organised to implement collective action effectively, the Gaza genocide could have been resisted. Instead, we got complicity.

Besides the obvious coercion (Venezuela, Cuba) and economic warfare (sanctions on Iran), the Epstein files, Abraham Accords, Board of Peace, foreign bases, and the Gaza genocide are all instruments of subordination that have also exposed the Zionist reach in the Muslim world. Simply by tracing money, Francesca Albanese’s report From Economy of Occupation to Economy of Genocide (July 2025), has highlighted Muslim complicity in the Gaza genocide—a ruthless pursuit of profit over humanity and principle.

For Pakistan to be a reliable global partner, it must prioritise resilient governance and consistency in principle and policy to consolidate power

For Pakistan to be a reliable global partner, it must prioritise resilient governance and consistency in principle and policy to consolidate power

Not a single Muslim state has had the moral courage to recognise Hamas as a democratically elected movement with the legal right to resist occupation by whatever means necessary. It is total subordination.

Cracks in the Muslim Zionist bloc are surfacing. A Saudi Shura Council member, Ahmed Altuwajri, criticised the UAE as “Israel’s Trojan horse”. The UAE is reportedly executing brutal wars of extraction by supporting non-state actors in Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, Libya, Ethiopia, and Somaliland to redraw boundaries that better serve Pax Zionismus.

It is supporting Modi’s Hindutva against “brotherly” Pakistan’s principled stance against ethnic cleansing, India’s illegal occupation of Kashmiri Muslims, and its role in supporting terrorism on Pakistan’s western border. The “Abu Dhabi secrets” exposed the UAE’s nefarious financing to demonise Muslim communities living in the West, spreading Islamophobia and investing in far-right actors to target the Muslim diaspora. It is brazen complicity.

Subordination and complicity have exposed domestic vulnerabilities. Foreign military bases on Arab territory—the so-called “ring of steel”—have proven to be the United States’ frontline in the Muslim world, extensions of US and Israeli military machinery, including access to airspace to attack Iran. These bases have turned out to be a security guarantee for Israel and a risk for host countries and the region.

As Qatar came to realise with great humiliation during the Israeli attack (September 2025), when transactions clash with Zionist interests, Zionism wins. Arab investments worth nearly USD 2 trillion could not save them when it mattered. The lesson: investments do not purchase respect or solidarity; respect only comes with consistent commitment to principles.

On the Arab-Muslim street, there is widespread discontent and resentment towards Muslim ruling elites and their politics. It is “obscene”, as the Muslim scholar Abou El Fadl decried, how Muslim rulers defer to Trump and will remain Western puppets until they unite. Political analysts such as the Saudi Saad Al Faqih have criticised the Arabs for effectively becoming occupied territories serving as protective shields for Washington and Tel Aviv. Chatham House’s Bilal Y. Saab cautioned the Gulf: “a moment to finally recognise that relying on an external security partner, no matter how close and powerful, may not be as effective as fortifying the collective home front. It won’t be perfect, but the only way to reap the benefits is to fully try it.”

There are other lessons for Pakistan and the region. The war against Iran highlights the changing nature of conflict. States are no longer the dominant players; Dr Andreas Krieg advises viewing the world as a “massive network of networks”—public and private intermediaries and a global system of flows of capital, energy, data, people, and ideas—with critical choke points such as the Strait of Hormuz.

In this world, companies are “partners” and accomplices in war and genocide. “It is often small and middle powers that play an important outsourced role when they come together, build alliances, and create consensus”—a role that Pakistan is already playing, promoting peace negotiations between the US and Iran, developing the Pak-Saudi Strategic Defence Pact, and pursuing wider integration.

Pax Zionismus demands a collective response based on the restoration of international law and order, which, for middle powers serves as a shield for protection and a framework for security.

For Pakistan to be a reliable global partner, it must prioritise resilient governance and consistency in principle and policy to consolidate power. To project power, it must strengthen its sovereignty and autonomy by investing in economic, trade, and defence “coalitions that work—issue by issue, with partners who share enough common ground to act together” (Prime Minister Carney).

Successful alliance-building demands a willingness to pool sovereignty around a shared vision. How can our two defining and principled stands on Palestine and Kashmir align with our “brotherly” Muslim states accommodating Indian aggression and complicity in the Gaza genocide?

How “safe” are UAE investments in our strategic sectors when the UAE and other “normalisers” are so deeply entrenched in Zionist security, defence, intelligence, and trade frameworks? How can Iran be excluded from a regional defence pact without reinforcing divisions across the Muslim world and impacting security on our western border? What are the strategic red lines?

Without addressing these and related challenges and dilemmas, meaningful strategic alignment cannot be secured. The Gaza genocide, albeit at a very high cost in human life and suffering, has moved the Arab-Muslim street to reject subordination and division—the discontent seeding a potential Arab Spring. For Pakistan, as a strategic power, there is only one choice that befits its history and promise: to ensure a sovereign, dignified, and prosperous life for all.

© The Friday Times