India, May 21 -- One takeaway from the recent India-Pakistan military confrontation following the Pahalgam terrorist attack is that the policy of multi-alignment has inherent limitations during conflicts and wars. The more I think about the utility of multi-alignment, I am convinced that while multi-alignment offers several benefits and serves as an excellent strategy during peacetime, its usefulness is inherently limited in times of conflict or war. Put differently, and somewhat bluntly, does multi-alignment or the absence of specific, strong and committed strategic partnerships compromise our ability to respond effectively to externally induced national security challenges?

In an unstable and chaotic international system, states tend t...