Pakistan's borders have long been a source of volatility and instability, posing significant challenges both domestically and regionally. This is largely due to a confluence of historical, geopolitical, and security factors that have converged to create an environment rife with tensions and conflicts.
Firstly, Pakistan's borders with India and Afghanistan have been flashpoints of contention since the country's inception in 1947. The unresolved territorial disputes over Kashmir and other border areas have fueled decades of hostility and intermittent military clashes between Pakistan and India. This longstanding rivalry has forced Pakistan to maintain a heavy military presence along the Line of Control (LoC) and Working Boundary, diverting crucial resources away from economic and social development.
Compounding this is the porous and highly permeable border with Afghanistan, which has allowed the free movement of militants, weapons, and illicit trade. The Afghan Taliban's rise to power in 2021 and the ongoing instability in Afghanistan have only exacerbated this problem, with Pakistan facing a surge in cross-border attacks from terrorist groups operating in the region. This has necessitated intensive security operations and heightened vigilance along the Durand Line, the disputed border between the two countries.
Pakistan's northwestern tribal areas, in particular, have been a hub of militant activity, with groups like the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and the Haqqani Network using the rugged terrain to plan and execute attacks inside Pakistan. The military's efforts to clear these areas of terrorist presence have been met with fierce resistance, leading to protracted conflicts that have claimed thousands of lives and displaced countless civilians.
Beyond the security challenges, Pakistan's borders also have significant economic and social implications. The informal cross-border trade, often involving the smuggling of goods, fuels corruption and deprives the government of much-needed tax revenue. This, in turn, undermines Pakistan's economic development and hampers its ability to provide essential services to its citizens.
Moreover, the border regions are home to marginalized ethnic and religious minorities, such as the Baloch and the Pashtuns, who have long felt neglected by the central government. The perception of governmental neglect and heavy-handed security measures have contributed to the rise of separatist sentiments and insurgencies in these areas, further destabilizing Pakistan's borders.
In recent years, Pakistan has taken steps to address these challenges, including the construction of fencing along the Afghan border, the establishment of integrated border management systems, and the implementation of development projects in the tribal areas. However, the deep-rooted nature of the problems and the complex geopolitical dynamics
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGQ6QAQqd-w
Firstly, Pakistan's borders with India and Afghanistan have been flashpoints of contention since the country's inception in 1947. The unresolved territorial disputes over Kashmir and other border areas have fueled decades of hostility and intermittent military clashes between Pakistan and India. This longstanding rivalry has forced Pakistan to maintain a heavy military presence along the Line of Control (LoC) and Working Boundary, diverting crucial resources away from economic and social development.
Compounding this is the porous and highly permeable border with Afghanistan, which has allowed the free movement of militants, weapons, and illicit trade. The Afghan Taliban's rise to power in 2021 and the ongoing instability in Afghanistan have only exacerbated this problem, with Pakistan facing a surge in cross-border attacks from terrorist groups operating in the region. This has necessitated intensive security operations and heightened vigilance along the Durand Line, the disputed border between the two countries.
Pakistan's northwestern tribal areas, in particular, have been a hub of militant activity, with groups like the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and the Haqqani Network using the rugged terrain to plan and execute attacks inside Pakistan. The military's efforts to clear these areas of terrorist presence have been met with fierce resistance, leading to protracted conflicts that have claimed thousands of lives and displaced countless civilians.
Beyond the security challenges, Pakistan's borders also have significant economic and social implications. The informal cross-border trade, often involving the smuggling of goods, fuels corruption and deprives the government of much-needed tax revenue. This, in turn, undermines Pakistan's economic development and hampers its ability to provide essential services to its citizens.
Moreover, the border regions are home to marginalized ethnic and religious minorities, such as the Baloch and the Pashtuns, who have long felt neglected by the central government. The perception of governmental neglect and heavy-handed security measures have contributed to the rise of separatist sentiments and insurgencies in these areas, further destabilizing Pakistan's borders.
In recent years, Pakistan has taken steps to address these challenges, including the construction of fencing along the Afghan border, the establishment of integrated border management systems, and the implementation of development projects in the tribal areas. However, the deep-rooted nature of the problems and the complex geopolitical dynamics
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGQ6QAQqd-w
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00:00Pakistan, a large country in South Asia that on paper doesn't look like that hard of a starting
00:05position to be in, but make no mistake, if real life was like a game of Sid Meier's Civilization,
00:10then playing Pakistan would be one of the most difficult civs in the entire game to win as,
00:15because their starting position is absolute hot garbage. And here's why.
00:21Pakistan's political borders don't really make a lot of sense when you study them a bit more
00:25closely. If we switch map styles to a topographic map, you can see that none of Pakistan's borders
00:30really follow any clear geographic boundaries, like rivers or mountains. And when we switch to
00:35an ethnic map, you can also see that Pakistan's borders don't really appear to follow any clear
00:40ethnic divisions either. What Pakistan's borders do follow, instead, is the religious border between
00:46the majority Muslim and majority Hindu areas of the Indian subcontinent. And that's not by accident.
00:53It was designed that way from the beginning on purpose. And like most messy border problems
00:58across the world, it's all the fault of the British. A long time ago, the entire Indian
01:04subcontinent was ruled by the British, but in 1947, they decided to let it all go and grant
01:10independence. But when they did, they decided to partition the colony of India into two separate,
01:16newly independent states. A majority Hindu country that became India, and a majority
01:21Muslim country that became Pakistan. The two were separated exclusively based upon the borders of
01:27the majority Muslim and the majority Hindu areas in the empire, without any regard to natural
01:32geographic boundaries. And this has created hosts of problems for both countries. In the case of
01:38Pakistan, this created a long border with India from the Arabian Sea through the salt marshes of
01:44the Ran of Kutch, the vast inhospitable Tar Desert, the fertile plains of the Punjab, and up through
01:51the high mountains of the hotly contested province of Kashmir. Most of this border is recognized and
01:57accepted by both Pakistan and India until it gets to the Kashmir area, which is a territory claimed
02:02entirely by both of them. They've both fought multiple wars against each other for control over
02:08the whole thing, and as it stands now on the ground, the line of each other's actual de facto control
02:14across the province looks like this. Which is effectively the border between them, even though
02:18nobody actually recognizes it as such. This line was created upon the ceasefire line that concluded
02:24the 1971 war between them. But there was one incredibly stupid problem with it. It doesn't
02:31extend across the entire province, it literally abruptly just ends right here. Which left a lot
02:38of vague uncertainties as to who exactly controlled what beyond it towards China. The reason that the
02:44line ended where it did was because it was at the foothills of the colossal Karakoram mountain range.
02:50So all of the land beyond it was just extremely inhospitable and effectively impassable glaciers.
02:57The UN just assumed that neither side would really care about it, but care they did. Beginning in
03:031984, both sides realized that there was an active geographic hole in their de facto border that the
03:09other side could take advantage of. And so they both attempted to plug it up with thousands of
03:14troops trying to outmaneuver the other in order to secure the strategic high ground and mountain
03:19passes that led into each other's sides. The high altitude combat 6,000 meters up above sea level
03:26took place here in the Siachen Glacier area, and the elements claimed the lives of thousands of men
03:32from both sides. By the end of the conflict in 2003, India had secured the high ground in the
03:38area and control over the main passes through, which gives them the geographic advantage in the
03:43area to this day. India is, without a doubt, Pakistan's biggest rival on the world stage,
03:49and the whole border between the two is considered to be one of the most dangerous places in the
03:54entire world. And if all-out war ever were to break out between them, Pakistan has really weak
04:01geographic armor for defenses across the entire line. As the situation in Kashmir stands today,
04:07the Indian military occupies a line that's only 83 kilometers away from the center of the Pakistani
04:14capital, Islamabad. If Pakistan could control all of Kashmir, it would push the Indian lines
04:19far away from the capital city and establish a massively significant mountain shield that the
04:25Indian army would struggle to punch through to get there. This is partially why Kashmir is of
04:30such massive strategic value to Pakistan. But as it is now, the Indian army controls most of it and
04:36is within striking distance of the capital. The only big mountains that Pakistan controls along
04:42the Indian border that could be used for defense are all located in the far north of the country,
04:47far away from all of Pakistan's major population and economic centers, which means that any Indian
04:54advance could just simply ignore them. The Indus river is one of the biggest rivers in the world
04:59and would make a great defensive line, but unfortunately it runs roughly through the
05:03middle of the country, which means that falling back behind it would mean surrendering half of
05:08the country by that point. The system of Indus tributary rivers that runs through the Punjab
05:13province are somewhat defensible, but even still, the Indian army could punch through all of these
05:19highlighted areas without ever having to cross a river. And that includes some of Pakistan's
05:24most major population centers, like Lahore, Faisalabad, Hyderabad, and the capital Islamabad.
05:30Further complicating things is that Pakistan is a relatively easy country to blockade.
05:34She only has a narrow stretch of coastline here in the south on the Arabian sea, and only a handful
05:40of significant ports on it that if eliminated, can effectively transform Pakistan into a landlocked
05:45state. The port of Karachi alone handles 60% of all of Pakistan's cargo, owing to its strategic
05:53location near the Strait of Hormuz. Or it can trade routes in the world where 25% of all the
05:59world's oil passes through. This heavy reliance on a single city for supplies makes Pakistan
06:05exceptionally vulnerable. If just Karachi can be blockaded or captured, that immediately halts
06:1160% of Pakistan's cargo and supplies from getting inside of the country. But the border with India
06:17and the over-reliance on a single port are not the only crappy border situations that Pakistan
06:22has to deal with. There is another, and it's another British-created mess here with Afghanistan.
06:29The British also created this border back in 1893 as the boundary between British India and
06:35Afghanistan, and Pakistan simply inherited the mess for themselves upon independence in 1947.
06:41The main problem with it is that it divides the ethnic territory of the Pashtun people between
06:45Afghanistan and Pakistan, which is awkward because the Pashtuns are the largest ethnic group inside
06:52of Afghanistan, and they largely rule that country. So the Pashtuns of Afghanistan have long desired
06:59to be reunited with the rest of the ethnic Pashtuns across the border in Pakistan, and Afghanistan
07:05often lays claim to an extended border that stretches this deep into Pakistan to cover it.
07:10As recently as 2017, the President of Afghanistan has stated that Afghanistan will never recognize
07:17the border with Pakistan as it stands today. When Pakistan joined the United Nations in 1947,
07:24there was only a single country who voted against them joining it, and it wasn't India. It was
07:29Afghanistan. So because of these messy borders left over by the British, Pakistan faces enemies
07:34on both of her flanks who openly claim territory that Pakistan also claims or controls. This means
07:41that the prospect of a two-front war against both parties if they ever allied with one another
07:46against Pakistan is a very real possibility. Therefore, it has always been within Pakistan's
07:53best interests to seek influence in Afghanistan and attempt to pacify their government by any means
07:59necessary in order to keep this from happening. It also doesn't help though that the border runs
08:04right through the middle of the extremely mountainous part of the Pashtun tribal lands,
08:09which makes the border extremely difficult to govern, police, and control for both countries.
08:14Drug smugglers, terrorist groups like the Taliban, and other seedy individuals routinely cross it
08:20between both sides, which also makes this border one of the most violent and unstable places in the
08:26entire world, meaning that Pakistan has two inherently unstable borders on either side.
08:32This only leaves Pakistan borders with two other countries, Iran and China. The border with Iran
08:39is through the sparsely inhabited arid province of Balochistan, which like the Pashtuns, cuts the
08:44Baloch people between Pakistan, Iran, and Afghanistan. Unlike the Pashtuns though, the Baloch
08:50don't have an independent state of their own, so they can't pose an existential threat to Pakistan
08:55in the same way that the Pashtuns of Afghanistan do. Iran and Pakistan cooperate to an extent on
09:02squashing Baloch separatism in their respective zones of control, but a working alliance between
09:06the two is severely complicated by Iran's Shia government and Pakistan's Sunni government.
09:12This leaves only China as a potential geographic ally for Pakistan in the region, and sure enough,
09:18China is without a doubt Pakistan's closest ally on the world stage. The geography of Pakistan
09:25is more challenging and difficult than most, but with strong leadership,
09:30shrewd alliances, and careful diplomacy, even a difficult situation like this can be made manageable.
09:36Now, difficult situations come in all different shapes and sizes.
09:41There's macro-difficult situations like Pakistan's