The World's Most Dangerous Country

Many countries can stake a claim to deserving the title of the world’s most dangerous country.  However, when it comes to the country that is currently causing the most danger for the rest of the world. Pakistan stakes a strong claim to the title.  On one hand, Pakistan is deeply riven by internal ethnic, religious and political differences that have made this country of 182 million one of the most unstable places in the world.  Additionally, Pakistan is located at the center of one of the most volatile regions on the planet and the country has serious disputes with most of its neighbors, including its giant neighbor to the west, India.  Finally, unlike most other countries that suffer from deep internal divisions and a location amid widespread unrest, Pakistan is a nuclear power that possesses a large and expanding arsenal of nuclear weapons.  As a result, Pakistan has earned the right to be described as the world’s most dangerous country. 

Pakistan’s most immediate problems stems from the deeply divided nature of the country, with serious ethnic, religion and political divisions preventing the country from achieving a degree of unity and stability.  For example, Pakistan is home to dozens of ethnic groups, with no ethnic group comprising more than 43% (the Punjabis) of the country’s population and with five ethnic groups having a population of more than 13 million inside Pakistan.  Likewise, deep religious divisions exist, despite the fact that nearly 98% of the population is Muslim.  This is due to strong tensions between the country’s Sunni majority and its Shiite and Ahmadi minorities that has led to thousands of deaths in religious strife in recent years.  Add to this mix the fact that Pakistan is home to a large number of radical militant groups such as the Taliban and the Lashkar-e-Taiba groups, and it is clear that achieving unity and stability in Pakistan is nearly impossible for any central government.  Unfortunately, Pakistan’s governments have been relatively powerless in recent decades and have struggled to exert control over all areas of the country.  As such, Pakistan is in the mess that is in today as a result of all of these factors.

While Pakistan’s internal divisions and lack of political and economic stability alone make it a dangerous country, the fact that Pakistan is located in the midst of a very volatile region add to the danger that the country poses to the world.  First and foremost, Pakistan’s difficult relations with its giant neighbor, India, have made the front line between the two countries one of the world’s most dangerous flashpoints.  This is most evident along the line of control in the region of Kashmir, where both countries have placed large-scale military forces that face off with one another in a region where clashes between them are quite common.  Pakistan also has a very difficult relationship with another of its neighbors, Afghanistan, a country that has an even higher level of volatility than Pakistan.  Too often, the unrest in one country has spilled across the border into the other, and as long as Afghanistan remains volatile, there is little hope for stability in areas of Pakistan near to the Afghan border.  Altogether, Central and South Asia will remain a highly volatile region for the foreseeable future and Pakistan’s sits directly in the middle of all of this violence and unrest.

Pakistan’s internal divisions and its location in a highly volatile region are enough to cause the country to be a major source of unrest.  However, it is the fact that, while Pakistan suffers from these major internal and external threats, the country also possesses the world’s sixth-largest arsenal of nuclear weapons that make it the world’s most dangerous country.  Moreover, Pakistan’s role in helping to develop nuclear programs in North Korea, Iran and Libya in the 1970s and 1980s raises fears that rogue officials could help other countries or militant groups to develop their own nuclear weapons, or even obtain a nuclear weapon from Pakistan.  Given the state of unrest inside Pakistan, many experts warn that the country’s nuclear facilities are far from safe.  As India’s military capabilities are expected to far outstrip those of Pakistan in the coming years thanks to India’s rapid economic expansion, Pakistan is likely to increasingly rely on its nuclear arsenal in order to offset India’s domination of the region in terms of conventional military power.  As it expands its nuclear program, the risk that nuclear weapons, or nuclear technology, falls into the wrong hands will grow.  This, combined with Pakistan’s internal unrest and dangerous location, makes it the world’s most dangerous country.