The era of predictable global security is over. The transition from unipolarity to multipolarity is a gathering storm, dissolving long-held assumptions about stability, cooperation and the distinction between war and peace. What is taking shape is a volatile order driven by constant competition and multidimensional coercion. Modern security challenges are borderless, simultaneous and deeply interconnected across military, economic, technological and social spheres. Great-power competition is no longer episodic; it is structural. It rewards states that adapt and exploits those that fail to do so. Pakistan’s core challenge is not managing crises but enduring realignments that progressively convert external turbulence into internal pressures.

Sustainable national security requires shifting from reactive, threat-driven responses to strategic resilience, grounded in economic stability, institutional coherence and adaptive governance. This enables the state to absorb shocks, manage uncertainty and maintain strategic autonomy. Given Pakistan’s strategic importance, understanding how external pressures translate into internal vulnerabilities is essential for developing strategic foresight and framing policies that safeguard the country’s stability while contributing to broader regional security. This is not an alarmist argument, but an exercise in strategic foresight based on informed perception.

Emerging dark clouds at the global security horizon signal an evolving syndrome. The shift from a post–Cold War unipolar order to a fragmented multipolar system has created a global security landscape defined by uncertainty, weakened norms and poor conflict management. Globalization spreads crises faster than borders can contain them, leaving the international system reactive and transactional.........

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