🇵🇰 | A Feudal, Fragile State That Keeps Getting Foreign Policy Right
I haven’t had a moment to breathe lately. I’ve been in Dubai; a city whose heat and ambition leave little room for reflection. But even in the desert haze of hyper-modernity, some themes press through. And perhaps none more than this: the sheer tactical genius of Pakistan’s foreign policy in recent months.
Let me be clear. Pakistan is not a strategic power. It is a fractured, feudal, low-HDI state with deep structural issues. It’s trapped in cycles of elite capture and ideological rigidity. But it is also, to my astonishment, among the most tactically agile states on the planet. It punches far above its weight, not because it has a clear long-term vision, but because it dances well in chaos.
Where India plays the heavy-set civilizational power; bound increasingly to the West and the Israel playbook, Pakistan has played the margins, the hedges, the emotional currents. And it has played them well.
Ever since the Pahalgam conflict, Pakistan’s diplomacy has rarely been wrong-footed. Its tactical instincts are near-perfect. In moments of geopolitical flux, from Qatar to Kathmandu, Pakistan has found ways to remain relevant, nimble, and central. Not liked, not admired but impossible to ignore.
This post is not a celebration. It’s a recognition. A state can be deeply dysfunctional internally, yet highly functional externally. And in a world of waning superpowers and rising regional blocs, that matters.