Pakistan and the new great game of Risk

 

In the last few decades of the 20th century, the go-to geopolitical board game for many teenagers was Risk. It is like playing the Great Game, as the 19th-century contest for Central Asia was known.

The Great Game was a rivalry between the 19th-century British and Russian empires over influence in Central Asia, primarily in Afghanistan, Persia, and Tibet. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Game

It is time for an update. Why does the game not include nuclear-armed Pakistan? The case for Pakistan’s elevation to the Risk board has no moral dimension. Its semi-feudal military-led political class has misruled for much of the country’s existence.

The wildly popular opposition leader, Imran Khan is in prison.

https://englundmacro.blogspot.com/2026/08/10-juli-iran-has-demanded-us-30y-japan.html

The Mecca Joint Defence Agreement, as the new pact is known, is the latest in a diplomatic pas de deux by Pakistan’s de facto leader, Field Marshal Asim Munir,


https://englundmacro.blogspot.com/2026/03/pakistans-fredsmaklare.html

and his civilian sidekick, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.

Pakistan’s officials say the dilemma is always whether to nurture a democracy or the state. Munir believes the latter is the right course.

Förtydligande: Om man inför demokrati nu vinner muslimerna, som i Iran. typ. Huvudstaden heter Islamabad och Pakistan är den del av Indien som muslimerna fick när Indien delades efter VK 2.

Alec Russell Financial Times 14 August 2026

https://www.ft.com/content/a9573d72-7bb2-462f-83d7-c0fe36f8c98d?syn-25a6b1a6=1

Alec Russell is the FT's foreign editor

For decades, Pakistan’s military has been the country’s most vital institution

https://englundmacro.blogspot.com/2024/03/for-decades-pakistans-military-has-been.html


Say what you like about Mussolini, he made the trains run on time. That was the famous last excuse for Fascism, conveying the idea that while dictatorship might not be very nice, at least it got things done.

But did Mussolini really do it? Did Il Duce, in his 20 years of absolute power, really manage to make the railway service meet its timetable? The answer is no.

https://englundmacro.blogspot.com/2026/08/7-juli-marknaden-battre-fascism.html





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