Geopolitics
The Mecca Pact and the India Question
Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Turkey have signed an agreement treating an attack on one as an attack on all. What it changes between Pakistan and India.
Geopolitics
Dispatch
Everyone Wants Reform. Nobody Wants to Pay for It.
Pakistan knows exactly what needs fixing. The question is who is willing to lose power to do it.
Latest Analysis
Dispatch
Shabir Ahmed and the Limits of Deportation
The Home Secretary has told Parliament what her own amendment cannot achieve. The powers that can protect the public in this case are British, and they are already law.
Geopolitics
A Treaty Violation, a State Going Rogue, and the Authority of International Law
Pakistan has won in The Hague and behaved by the book. India has lost in The Hague and rejected the verdict. What may not survive the encounter is the credibility of international law itself.
Military & Security
What May 2025 Actually Cost
India absorbed between $2.3bn and $5.3bn in realised costs. Pakistan between $160m and $420m. When forward procurement is added, India's twelve-month bill rises to $42–50 billion. The numbers, sourced and counted.
Strategic Assessment Paper
Access the report →
The Cost of Watching Everyone
The argument in one line: the only thing that ever really limited tyranny was the cost of watching everyone, and artificial intelligence has just removed…
Stay Ahead of the Story
Analysis, briefings, and intelligence from The Pakistan Playbook. Delivered to your inbox.