Today, India and Pakistan have the geopolitical opportunity for their rise

 Pravin Sawhney

There are numerous reasons why India and Pakistan should talk and not go the way of the US and Iran in West Asia where the possibility of the resumption of war is increasing by the day--a war that may go beyond the region.

Of course, the comparison of the two situations appears incongruous. After all, the war in West Asia is about the defeat of the US, which would translate into the sharp decline of the world order that the US created after its spectacular win in World War II. For example, if the six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) nations were to assess that the US bases on their soil had become their vulnerability rather than their strength, it would slowly be the end of the petro dollars which have sustained the US dollar as the world’s reverse currency. Moreover, the removal of the US bases from their territory would have a domino effect on the US military bases around the globe. Thus, over time, the US would no longer be the global hegemon with majority of global north nations (especially western Europe) seeking their own defence and defence industrial base.