It is overtly evident that hybrid pressure is being applied against Pakistan. The harder question is why it works. The answer is uncomfortable! Hybrid warfare exploits and accentuates fault lines that already exist within a state. It rarely manufactures them from nothing. Understanding Pakistan's exposure, and what it can do about it, begins at home.

The pattern is not new. The severance of East Pakistan in 1971 remains the classic illustration. Internal discord was deepened, diplomatic isolation induced, information operations and economic pressure applied, and a sub-conventional campaign launched alongside lawfare. Together, these produced demoralisation, and only then was the military instrument used for the final blow. Strands of the same approach were visible in the Baloch insurgency of the 1970s and in the American sanctions of the 1990s. The lesson is that force often comes last, after the will to resist has already been weakened.

Three weaknesses stand out. The first is political. When parochial interests take precedence over national ones, the state cannot........

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