509 | The New World Order: Pakistan's Rise as a "Middle Power" | Faisal Aftab | TBT episode artwork

EPISODE · Apr 9, 2026 · 1H 38M

509 | The New World Order: Pakistan's Rise as a "Middle Power" | Faisal Aftab | TBT

from Thought Behind Things · host Syed Muzamil Hasan Zaidi

In this highly anticipated episode, Faisal Aftab returns to the show to break down the rapidly shifting geopolitical and geo-economic landscape. We explore the massive global transition happening between the old military-industrial complex and the rising financial-technology complex. Faisal explains the concept of a new "middle power" emerging between the major empires, potentially aligning countries like Pakistan, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia into a powerful new bloc.We also dive deep into Pakistan's economic future. We discuss how the aggressive push for digital payments and cashless systems will eventually force the undocumented "black economy" into the tax net, potentially unlocking massive GDP growth similar to India's trajectory post-demonetization. Finally, we explore the critical concept of AI sovereignty and discuss "Sky 47," a state-of-the-art sovereign cloud data center being built right here in Pakistan.

Episode metadata supplied by the publisher feed · Published Apr 9, 2026

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509 | The New World Order: Pakistan's Rise as a "Middle Power" | Faisal Aftab | TBT

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