Evolving World Order and Pakistan

In Blog
March 29, 2021
Safiah Niamat
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The Western World has come to appreciate why, “may you live in interesting times” is a Chinese curse. The world is experiencing a dramatic shift in its geo-political and geo-economic order, under the influence of China, to which the West refers to as a “disorder”. The question of concern is whether this evolution is an

The Western World has come to appreciate why, “may you live in interesting times” is a Chinese curse. The world is experiencing a dramatic shift in its geo-political and geo-economic order, under the influence of China, to which the West refers to as a “disorder”. The question of concern is whether this evolution is an approach towards order or disorder from the lens of Pakistan.

In the international system, new global alliances are being forged with the prospects of peace and war both palpably evident. In the context of Pakistan’s interest, there are three major historical transformations globally and regionally.

First is the inexhaustible shift in global balance of economic and political power from West to East. A number of policy institutions have projected that China shall catch-up with US as the world’s biggest economy before the end of this decade. The second major transformation is the Central Asian regional connectivity where Pakistan is emerging as a hub because of its geo-strategic location and its role in stabilizing the region. As seen today, Gwadar is considered to be the connectivity hub in South Asia which allows China to connect with Central Asia. In this evolution of a greater South-Asia, Pakistan has already provided land route to Central Asian world via Afghanistan and is now planning to add the third-world countries into CPEC as a gesture of joint working group on International cooperation of CPEC. The third major transformation in Pakistan’s neighborhood is India. India being a great diverse country under the regime of Mr. Modi is facing great backlash from the international community on its Hindutva approach. According to political activist, Arundhati Roy, the regime of Mr. Modi where RSS is the state, and an architecture of fascism is being erected in India. This plays a vital role in Pakistan’s global diplomatic offensive strategy when pressurizing India to negotiate with Pakistan on long-standing disputes.

Pakistan, in the connectivity of Central Asian States and in giving access to China via Gwadar port is playing a major role in the evolving world order. Accordingly, two contrasting visions for the region in which Pakistan is located can be seen. There is a vision of Chinese up-rising in geo-economics, in connectivity via Belton Road Initiative over which 117 countries have signed. In the strengthened friendly relations with China, Pakistan plays a major role in CPEC, the pivot of Belton Road Initiative and has a Silk Road link with China. The other vision is of geo-politics where we see the region in terms of cold-war mentality, containment and confrontation. The West remains embroiled in a continuous struggle to retain its dominance by shifting its concerns from Central Asian regions, as it is seen leaving Afghanistan, and aligning with Japan, South-Korea and India. Pakistan stands at the pivot of this evolving world order.

Pakistan has already suffered the consequence of what happened after 9/11 and a better way to move forward would be for Pakistan to have a more inclusive approach alongside pandemic, climate change and other issues. The whole new world is opening-up in front of Pakistan and its proactive policies must focus on keeping its own house in order. It has the ability to establish neutral standpoint which it has proved via its dealings with Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Iran, China and the US. Although this may feel like salt on wound, but US understands very well that Pakistan has natural strategic benefit from China and no ill-will against the western world. Moreover, US is looking for friends in the region and knows that the road to peace in Afghanistan lies through Islamabad.

Another aspect shows the hyper-evolution of technology disrupting the world order, since its access is limited to some countries only. Technology is also changing the nature of war. Even countries with small economic output are seen dominating via technology, whether it is Israel or Scandinavian countries. Pakistan has some pockets of excellence in technology with new emerging companies. The nation must put its focus and investment here, otherwise, it may find no home in the future. The future shall see geo-technological space driving most of the geo-political alliances then created. Therefore, Pakistan must successfully establish itself in the geo-economic, geo-political and geo-technological spheres simultaneously.