Wow. So much emphasis on religious $hite in just one sentence.
This is what's wrong with us. We use too much religion in our analysis and not enough brains.
Sorry to see from someone who actually is living in a relatively much more tolerant society.
not a religious analysis/statement (just qualifiers to make a detailed point); but a way to say; not a Muslim majority country next to a western country (histroically white/christian, or jewish/israel)
if pakistan were next to them (such as turkey is next to greek, and indonesia is next to australia, or the arab world in general next to israel) pakistan couldn't do half the things it has done.
pakistan is in a unique place, where it is next to india; which historically the west didn't really care about militarily, and the british divided up the raj, so they didn't fully take sides
all this is to say, Pakistan got a pass, and that allowed pakistan to develop strategic weapons ... long story short, pakistan unique place in the world, and unique foe, allowed it to get away with alot of military developments, because the major powers didn't care
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also,
in global power politics; the second half of the 20th century until the 90's was dominated by the cold war, and with India in the non-aligned camp ... de-facto soviet camp (by the west logic, if not with us against us , and with Pakistan toeing the western line somewhat, it gave Pakistan even more space)
america/europe/soviet union were ultimately euro-centric with the exceptions of the mid-east wars, korean and vietnam wars
also the minor wars in latin america and africa were cold war battlefields
pakistan was not too big like communist china and not too small like many latin american, african, and asian nations that were just consumed by the cold war, and this finally continued to its isolation/independence