Although the Ukraine crisis has given a new lease of life to the west and has helped in uniting the divided EU and NATO, and both the US and EU are taking punitive steps to pressurize Russia to step back, they have yet to prove whether they can stand up to the challenge and turn the tide.

While comparing Turkey with Pakistan, the latter has the further advantage of being a nuclear power. Pakistan and Turkey possess almost the same geostrategic advantages. Why, then, Pakistan has failed to project its power and safeguard its national interests?

Putin instead of taking physical action to block the NATO encroachment adopted a conciliatory policy with the west. He even collaborated with the US in its war on terror and didn’t object to the growing influence in Central Asia.

The Irony is that Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during his election campaign, to gain votes from the extremist groups, promoted extremist remarks and made promises with them to convert India into a pure Hindu state, and convert all non-Hindus to Hinduism or kick them out of India.

The economic base of a country is a real determinant of national security expenditures, thus national security gets a larger amount with a rapidly growing size of the economic base, even at a constant or decreasing percentage share.

In order for the economy to emerge stronger out of its current industrialization phase, energy policies must reflect thorough planning for sustainability and effective resource management, along with a formula to reduce the trade deficit and limit borrowing.

Russia’s invasion constitutes the third time in a decade after the 2017-2021 Gulf crisis and the 2014 Russian annexation of Crimea that autocratic states have sought to ignore international law and brutally impose their will on a neighbor.

The grand strategic convergence between Russia and Pakistan in Central Asia will immensely strengthen the SCO’s capabilities, which will, in turn, empower their shared visions for Eurasia, especially in its Heartland, writes Andrew Korybko, a Moscow-based American political analyst.

Pakistan's membership of the American-sponsored military pacts is well known. That India was also aligned during the Cold War period is generally ignored. During the 1962 Sino-Indian War Nehru requested the United States to bomb China (Galbraith, 1969).

It would be fair to say that PML, PPP, and JUI-F are playing a finite game to remove Imran khan from the government and possibly from the political arena. On the other hand, Imran Khan is playing the infinite game of changing the country with his concept of “Naya Pakistan”.

The parliament has been rendered ineffective and irrelevant since 1977, however, Benazir Bhutto tried to revive it after her 1988 electoral victory. Despite the evil influence of Zardari, she went down fighting. A similar No-Confidence move was tried against her by PML-N and the President.

We must realize that internal destabilization is always a prelude to external security threats, so evident under the prevailing scenario. Our internal fault lines are very tactfully exploited by the vested interests, creating a two-front war scenario for the security forces to handle.