The shifting global order has created new challenges for developing countries, and Pakistan is no exception. For us, it is becoming an increasingly difficult balancing act between financial dependence and neighbourly responsibilities, between safeguarding defence and ensuring market access, and now between restraint and response, as we find ourselves sandwiched between aggression from both our eastern and western fronts. With the latest Gulf war, in which we are witnessing all gloves coming off, it has become even clearer that the so-called ‘rules-based’ international order is fading. Stronger countries are openly using both economic integration and sheer brute force as instruments of power, and the subtleties of foreign policy from earlier decades now seem a distant memory. In this maze, we also appear to have lost our own yardstick that separates prudence from fear, diplomacy from responsibility, and principles from price.

Many would say that while all this sounds compelling in discussion, the real question remains: what options do we actually have, and how should Pakistan conduct itself in these uniquely difficult circumstances? The answers are indeed difficult to find and........

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