Washington’s New Chessboard: How President Trump and Pakistan’s Generals Are Rewriting the Great Game

Washington’s New Chessboard: How President Trump and Pakistan’s Generals Are Rewriting the Great Game

 

As the Trump administration returns to power in Washington, a familiar regional pattern is re-emerging, one that sees Pakistan’s powerful military establishment once again serving as a crucial lever in America’s wider geopolitical design.

At the surface, renewed U.S.–Pakistan engagement seems aimed at stabilising Afghanistan and countering terrorism. Yet beneath the diplomatic language, a far more ambitious plan appears to be unfolding, one in which President Donald Trump’s White House, backed by Israeli intelligence cooperation, is seeking to weaken Iran’s clerical regime as part of a larger effort to constrain Russia and China’s expanding influence across Eurasia.

And once again, Pakistan, driven by its economic desperation and geopolitical vulnerability, finds itself at the center of this grand strategy.

A New Trump Doctrine: Containing the Eurasian Bloc

In his second term, President Trump has made no secret of his goal to reverse what he calls the “strategic drift” of the Biden years. His administration’s approach is transactional and direct: align with strong regional players to achieve quick results, rather than relying on multilateral diplomacy.

Iran, Russia, and China, bound increasingly by energy, infrastructure, and defence cooperation, form the core of the Eurasian axis that Washington now views as its principal challenge. For the Trump administration, dismantling this network begins with Iran, the weakest but most disruptive link. Tehran’s growing ties with Moscow in Ukraine, its military support for Russia, and its Belt and Road partnerships with Beijing have elevated it from a regional irritant to a geopolitical hinge.

Weaken Iran, the logic goes, and the balance tips against both Moscow and Beijing.

But Trump, ever the pragmatist, is unlikely to commit American forces to another Middle Eastern war. Instead, his team appears to be reviving a strategy of indirect destabilization, using regional actors, intelligence partnerships, and economic levers to achieve results without direct confrontation.

Pakistan’s Generals: The Familiar Proxies

This is where Pakistan re-enters the stage. Long seen as a double-edged ally, Pakistan’s military elite have historically served as Washington’s instrument of regional influence,  from the anti-Soviet jihad of the 1980s to the post-9/11 counterterrorism alliance.

Recent developments suggest that history is repeating itself. In early 2025, Pakistan’s Chief of Army Staff visited Washington and held extended meetings with President Trump and key members of his national security team. Official communiqués spoke of “mutual security cooperation” and “regional stability,” but the substance of the talks, according to multiple diplomatic observers,  went far beyond counterterrorism.

Trump’s advisers see Pakistan as a “doorway” into three critical theaters: Afghanistan, Iran, and China’s western frontier. By quietly reactivating coordination with Rawalpindi, Washington gains regional reach without boots on the ground — while Pakistan’s generals gain political relevance and potential economic relief.

Debt, Leverage, and Pakistan’s Calculated Pivot

Pakistan’s military-led establishment is not acting out of ideological alignment but out of financial necessity. The country faces one of its worst economic crises in decades, burdened by over $29 billion in debt to China, much of it tied to the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a flagship of Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative.

CPEC, once celebrated as Pakistan’s route to prosperity, has become a fiscal trap. The projects have generated limited economic returns while saddling Islamabad with unsustainable repayments. As relations with Beijing cool and the IMF tightens conditions, Pakistan’s generals appear to be eyeing Washington once again as a potential escape route.

By cooperating with the Trump administration’s strategic aims,  whether through intelligence sharing, regional coordination, or tacit alignment against Iran, Pakistan hopes to secure financial leniency, IMF flexibility, or even discreet Western restructuring support.

In essence, Pakistan is betting that geopolitical utility can translate into economic rescue.

The Afghan Pressure Point

The first visible sign of this renewed alignment is emerging along the Pakistan–Afghanistan border, where tensions have sharply escalated in recent months. Pakistani airstrikes and ground operations, justified as counterterrorism measures against Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) elements, have reignited hostility with Kabul’s Taliban government.

While these clashes may appear local, they serve a broader purpose. An unstable Afghanistan undermines Chinese infrastructure projects, obstructs Russian re-entry into Central Asia, and diverts Iranian focus eastward, creating pressure on all three of Washington’s principal adversaries without direct U.S. involvement.

Parallel to this, the Bagram Airbase, long dormant since America’s 2021 withdrawal, has become the subject of renewed logistical interest. Satellite images and local reports suggest quiet refurbishments in the surrounding areas. Whether for surveillance, contingency operations, or intelligence sharing with regional partners, Bagram remains the ideal node for overseeing a triangle of pressure encompassing Tehran, Kabul, and Islamabad.

Trump’s Direct Diplomacy and Pakistan’s Gamble

President Trump’s foreign policy style favors personal rapport with powerful individuals, especially generals who can deliver results without political gridlock. His one-on-one diplomacy with Pakistan’s army leadership fits this pattern perfectly.

For Trump, Pakistan represents a low-cost, high-leverage partner capable of executing complex regional objectives — a means of asserting American presence in South and Central Asia while avoiding prolonged entanglements. For Pakistan’s generals, alignment with Trump offers immediate benefits: potential economic concessions, international legitimacy, and leverage over domestic politics.

Yet this partnership is fraught with risk. Pakistan’s pivot away from Beijing could provoke economic retaliation, while renewed involvement in U.S.-led regional maneuvers could entangle Islamabad in conflicts it cannot control.

The New Great Game, Replayed

As events unfold, the outlines of a new Great Game are becoming visible,  one did not define by territory but by influence and economic survival. The Trump administration’s calculus appears to be this: use Pakistan to generate controlled instability around Afghanistan and Iran, constraining China and Russia’s regional momentum without direct confrontation.

Pakistan, desperate for financial breathing room, seems willing to play along. But as history has shown,  from the Soviet war to the War on Terror, Pakistan’s short-term bargains with Washington have often come at devastating long-term costs.

If this new alignment deepens, Islamabad risks trading one dependency for another, swapping Beijing’s loans for Washington’s conditions, and once again placing itself at the center of a global confrontation not of its making.

Conclusion

President Trump’s return to power has revived a strategy of power politics that prioritizes deals over doctrines and generals over diplomats. Pakistan, as ever, stands at the intersection of great power ambitions, indispensable to all, trusted by none.

For Washington, Pakistan is a convenient lever against Iran, Russia, and China. For Islamabad, it is a gamble for economic survival. But for the region, from Kabul to Tehran,  it may mark the beginning of yet another cycle of instability, scripted far from the battlefields where its consequences will unfold.

 

 

Ashraf Ghani Went to GHQ, The Taliban Made GHQ Come to the Table

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