Kishore Mahbubani, Allen Lane, New Delhi, 2018, 105 pp., INR 499 (Hardback), ISBN 978-0-241-31286-5

The basic goal of states in an anarchical international system is survival. One of the best ways to ensure survival is to maximize security through self-help. States engage in self-help in a panoply of ways, like military modernization and arms build-ups. Pakistan’s collaboration with the menagerie of non-state actors can be seen as a self-help strategy for countering a conventionally superior India, while at the same time pursuing vital domestic and foreign security objectives.