Zarif Aminyar
There are moments in geopolitics when inaction becomes a decision. The Pakistan–Afghanistan war is one of them. As Islamabad launches strikes over allegations that Kabul harbors the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), and Afghanistan retaliates in defense of its sovereignty, South Asia is witnessing the unraveling of a doctrine decades in the making. Pakistan’s pursuit of “strategic depth”, the belief that influence over Afghanistan would secure its western flank and counterbalance India , is collapsing under the weight of militant blowback. Yet the more consequential question may not concern Islamabad at all. It concerns New Delhi. But the question to ask is that why is India behaving like a peripheral observer in a crisis unfolding in its own strategic backyard?
For years, Indian policymakers criticized Pakistan’s Afghan policy as reckless. A reckless policy to New Delhi is characterized as dangerous flirtation with militant proxies that would eventually destabilize the region. That critique now appears vindicated. But vindication without action is geopolitically meaningless. It is important to state that looking at the history, great powers do not merely wait for adversaries’ strategies to fail; they shape what comes next but instead, India appears trapped between aspiration and hesitation. It seeks recognition as a global actor, a voice of the Global South, a counterweight in the Indo-Pacific, a rising economic power yet hesitates to assert itself decisively in continental South Asia. The contradiction is glaring.