Strategic Duos: Prospects of Islamic NATO – By: Qazi Suhail Akhunzada
The emerging defence coalitions and strategic Alliances are the symbolic show of unity, visualizing the Muslim world to move on shoulder to shoulder in the days ahead, pointing the ray of hope at the end of tunnel though not in the middle. International media labels it with the acronym of Islamic NATO.
Gone are the days of singing the everlasting songs of Phoenix from the mythical book of Arabia,”One thousand and One Nights” —–Ashes to Phoenix and Phoenix to Ashes. In the recorded behaviour of the Middle Eastern diplomatic moves, various politico-military and politico- diplomatic attempts have been made to thwart the perceived threat of Israeli expansionism. To highlight them, Arab League,1960; Organization of Islamic Conference 1969, together with Iran linked militant networks. All these remained futile. In the current landscape, the growing Zionist aggressive threat is giving no room for such organizational and political failure across Muslim world. Israeli massive strikes on Hamas on 9 September, 2025 further clarified these black writings on the white walls.
There are multiple reasons behind this urge for Muslim unity. The foremost among them is John Herz’s security dilemma, having rooted in the Israeli’s pursuit of security. The latest evidence are worth mentioning in this regard: Attack on Iran, Qatar and unremitting genocide of Muslims in Gaza, which revives 10th cutury Jews agenda of cleaning Palestine from Muslims and making their children roosted kabab. The only legal, political and organizational option left is a ‘unified military bloc’. The philosophy behind these alliances goes; “Peace through Strength”. Otherwise, the influence of security in the Muslim world is at stake at the hands of Zionist expansionism.
The emergence of “Cross Country Domain Deterrence” such as Strategic Mutual Defence Agreement (SDMA) and echoes of Pak– Turkey- Saudi strategic nexus clearly signals the turning of oil resources from curse into opportunity and Muslim ideology in a brotherhood. The existing ‘complementing competencies’ of the Muslim world can be materialized if the challenges are addressed via visionary national and regional outreach.
Within the compass of subsequent paragraphs, the driving ills are discussed under the broader head: long term existing tragic flaws, together with pragmatic panaceas to avert the bitter history to be revived. Scholars have used different lenses in order to surface the reason behind the political and organizational failure of Muslims in the Arabian peninsula. To mention one of them, Nawaf Obaid in his book “The Failure of Muslim Brotherhood in the Arab World” sheds light on historical, political, ideological and geopolitical reasons behind the political and organizational failure of the Muslim world. This discussion deals with these root causes as tragic flaws, pushing Muslim nations into a tragic trap.
The four tragic flaws are inked as instinctive hate resulting in sectarian rift; lust for power leading to unilateral sheikhdoms; confronting national interests thwarting unified Muslim posture; and major power patronage, breeding domestic constraints.
‘Instinctive hate’, the flaw of immemorial, breeds sectarian rifts which in turn stymies the Muslim nations to be unified under the ‘blessed’ banner of Muslim Ummah. The failure of previous attempts is attributed to this long rooted flaw. The inaction of Arab league or decaying Arab nationalism are the notable cases to mention in regard with unfortunate division in suffered Muslim society. Engrossed in this menace, the present initiatives cannot abstain themselves away from the echoes of this schism. Yemen crisis— tug of war between Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Iran—manifest the impact of this instinctive flaw existing in the Muslim world. These crises, originating from instinct, have an indirect impact on the alliances among the Muslim countries. In order to formulate a streamlined mechanism, the Muslim leaderships must purgate their instinct from Karbala Trap.
The second flaw is ‘lust for power’. This gives rise to a rather palace centric agenda than all out approach. The failure of previous pacts and pledges is greatly accredited to such derisive flaws in Muslim nationhood. The decaying Arab nationalism became a victim to this monarchic legacy that prevailed in the Arab world. Such policies have a long lasting bearing on the materialization of strategic Alliances. The lack of regional inclusivity, arising out of this flaw, affects the mechanism of strategic alliances at the base, hence making future prospects grim, that it gives priority to confronting national interest.
Next to craze for castles, divergences of interest, rooted in geography, are the leading hindrances in the path of making a shield against the spoilers. Here, an example can be made of Turkey and the kingdom of Saudi Arabia in Libya. Such differences of interest prove to be a glass ceiling for the alliance like Pakk- Turkey- Saudi strategic alliance,turning them from influencer to onlooker. The conflicting interests between these nations have been impacting the alliances of unity in the past and the future of these conflicts is also correlated with these conflicting national interests.
Major power patronage creates domestic constraints; it disallows the formulation of proper mechanisms regarding the political and organizational unity of Muslim nation. American patronage is a notable case to mention. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is dependent on The US vis a vis oil refineries and defence sector. Turkey greatly relies on the US as far as her aeronautics is concerned. Pakistan, once a non NATO ally, has a roller coaster and cyclical clientelistic interaction with the US. These realities have been hindering the path to unity across the Muslim world. It is this power patronage that provides grounds for Andrew Hewood to call the oil resource rather a curse than a leverage.
International scholars opine about it as a major power shift in the recorded behaviour of diplomacy. While interacting with Mosha Davis, Eran Lahav from middle eastern desk at Davis Institute sheds light on strategic implications of this trilateral pact. Given the objective of collective defence, this pact increases challenges for India and Israel in the realm of technology, surveillance, armed struggle and cyberwarfare.
The future of these alliances against the single enemy depends on the principles of operation and mechanism and how the Muslim world manages to come out of such tragic traps. Pakistan ranked 12th strongest military as per Global Fire Power Index, 2025. Being a nuclear country and Israel’s ideological arch rival, Islamic Republic of Pakistan can play an important and decisive role through different means such as promoting detente between Saudi Arabia and Iran to lessen shia- sunni sabre rattling,playing convincing role in using leverage of ‘reliable competencies’ in the Muslim world, introducing proper mechanisms and principles of operation vis- a-vis new alliances in the region in order to avert the rehearsal of Phoenix song from becoming tragi-comedy on the stage like the bygone thousand nights.
Qazi Suhail Akhunzada
MA English، MA IR
CSS aspirant
Ex V. lecturer English GDC Chitral lower
