Everyone is hunting chokepoints now. Washington warns allies against depending on China while looking for ways to exploit their dependence on the American market, technology and dollar. Beijing answers with rare earths. Iran eyes the Strait of Hormuz. A recent Foreign Affairs essay by Henry Farrell, Abraham Newman and Yeling Tan calls the result a chokepoint trap: each state’s effort to make itself safer makes others feel less safe, and since restraint invites victimhood, the likeliest outcome is a fragmented, volatile world.

Artificial intelligence is the biggest chokepoint stack ever built. Niall Ferguson, Lisa Klaassen and Eric Schmidt argue that America and China have become AI empires, with dominion over the models, chips, minerals and capital everyone else needs. Pax Silica, the US-led coalition on chips and critical minerals, was launched last December, and India joined in February.

Countries like Pakistan are often seen as ‘takers’ in the global order. While this may be true in an economic sense, it is an inaccurate description of the state itself. Empires depend on scarce inputs and demand allegiance, yet Pakistan holds more cards than it plays. Strategically, it is uniquely positioned at the crossroads of South Asia, the Gulf, Central Asia and China. As a nuclear-armed state, it has also secured mutual defence agreements with Saudi Arabia and Türkiye. Furthermore, its resource potential is growing; the first mineral shipment under a US memorandum moved in October 2025, alongside its vast hydropower capabilities and a young, dynamic market. Finally, Pakistan maintains a strong diplomatic record, having argued for years that machines should not decide who lives or dies.

It remains to be seen how Pakistan plays the situation. Data Vault Pakistan runs a........

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