History seldom remembers nations that existed in comfort. It remembers those that contended—with empires, with ideas, with existential threats. The presence of a formidable enemy is not merely a geopolitical burden; it is a civilizational necessity. Without such an adversary, nations drift. With one, they awaken.
A powerful enemy serves as a mirror, a warning, and a spur. It reminds a nation that its survival, dignity, and sovereignty are not guaranteed by geography or sentiment, but must be earned and defended—daily, strategically, and across generations. The proximity of danger compels discipline. It summons ingenuity. It binds societies in a shared purpose: the defence and advancement of national existence.
In the presence of such a threat, states are compelled to innovate—to build resilient economies, to strengthen political institutions, to sharpen their military doctrines, and to invest in scientific and technological self-reliance. The very notion of greatness is redefined through the lens of this competition. Geopolitical strategy ceases to be a luxury of peacetime and becomes a condition for survival.
There is no clearer evidence of this dynamic than in the histories of the world’s most powerful nations. The Roman Republic was sculpted by its long duel with Carthage. The Soviet Union’s race with the United States catalyzed not only a military-industrial complex but a sprawling scientific infrastructure. China’s contemporary rise, in many ways, has been animated by its perception of containment and rivalry with the West. And Israel, encircled by hostile neighbours, has transformed adversity into innovation and vigilance.
A nation that does not feel the heat of a rival’s breath is prone to illusion. It overestimates its virtues and underestimates its vulnerabilities. It speaks of peace as if it were permanent, and of progress as if it were self-sustaining. Without a strategic competitor, a nation’s elites lose their edge, its public discourse grows sentimental, and its institutions atrophy in the haze of presumed stability.
In such circumstances, a curious imperative arises: if a nation lacks a worthy enemy, it may need to invent one—not out of paranoia, but out of the understanding that friction is the precondition of strength. This invention is not about warmongering; it is about setting high benchmarks for national performance. A hypothetical adversary can help orient policy, sharpen planning, and focus the collective imagination toward challenges that are not yet immediate but deeply plausible.
This brings us to India’s current dilemma. For decades, it has viewed Pakistan as its principal antagonist. But this rivalry, once rooted in parity, has become a mismatch. Pakistan, crippled by economic ruin, internal instability, and strategic myopia, no longer qualifies as a meaningful adversary. To persist in seeing it as one is to trap India in a theatre that no longer commands history’s attention.
India’s future will not be determined by what happens in Islamabad, but by how it chooses to engage with Beijing, Washington, and the larger, shifting architecture of global power. China’s ambitions along the Himalayas and in the Indian Ocean demand more than reactive postures. The technological dominance of the United States and the uncertain terms of global trade and data sovereignty pose deeper questions about India's economic strategy and institutional preparedness. These are not imaginary challenges—they are real, rising, and redefining the world.
India must, therefore, reframe its strategic lens. The test of national maturity is not merely how it handles enemies of the past, but how it identifies the rivalries of the future. A truly sovereign nation does not fear its enemies—it studies them, learns from them, and surpasses them. And in that ascent, the enemy—real or conceptual—becomes not a threat, but a catalyst.
Greatness, after all, is not achieved in a vacuum. It emerges through resistance, competition, and the unyielding resolve to face those who could defeat you—and to ensure that they never do.
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