Pakistan, Aug. 6 -- The twelve-day war between Iran and Israel expanded far beyond a regional collision as it shattered the norms of governance, demonstrated discriminatory enforcement of laws, and showcased a growing norm of pre-emptive aggression. Such clashes do not remain confined to their immediate battle zones; their aftermath lingers and tests the strategic limits and response of neighbouring states. To Pakistan, the Iran-Israel saga translates into an increasingly fluid and unpredictable geopolitical landscape and speculative discourse of who might be 'next'.

Israel's policy of using preemptive airstrikes to neutralise alleged nuclear threats is neither new nor secret. For example, Israel targeted Iraq's Osirak reactor in 1981 an...