Sarah Paine

And part of good strategy is recognizing some problems it's not feasible to solve.

And then we all have scarce resources.

You can't do everything.

Focus on those things where you think you can solve.

And

But if the great powers align, things can happen, and the story's even better than that, that sure, there are a few big powers, but the small and medium powers, if you add them all up, they are far, the aggregate, their aggregate wealth exceeds any one great power.

So if the smaller powers agree on what they're up to, then the big powers have to pay attention, and that's a positive thing.

Well, our primary enemy was pretty much the Soviet Union for the duration of the Cold War.

I mean, China was a problem, but the Soviets were the big problem.

And so India and Pakistan never fit that bill.

And so it had to do with whatever the problem of the day was.

And Pakistan had a very critical location.

And so we needed it for a whole bunch of things.

And you can see how that works.

So while you need them, you pay a lot of money to them.

And presumably the money's worth it for them for the hassles of dealing with a difficult tenant.

So that's how...

It worked.

But nowadays, the relationship with India is changing.

In fact, it has changed because their big buddy, Russia, is, well, after the end of the Cold War, instead of being the big friend, it was the big nuisance, not so much for India but for everybody else.