If there is one thing that the last few years have served to highlight, it’s how fragile peace (or at least the absence of active kinetic action) can be. Early May has already seen a series of cross-border strikes exchanged between two nuclear powers, India and Pakistan, and the world is now waiting to see if an agreed ceasefire will hold.I’ve been working on an episode on an episode on Pakistan since late 2024 to go along with my original video on India ( • Indian Defence Strategy – Forces, Pot… ) and had intended to release it later in 2025. Given the circumstances though, I thought it would be worthwhile to bring the release forward and I hope it can provide some useful context. it will probably be some time yet before there is enough reliable evidence out there to confidently parse what happened with the recent strikes and draw any lessons learned. When I think that can be done, I’ll consider a follow up video. Until then, I hope you find this big picture view of one of the world’s nuclear powers valuable.