Bangladesh, April 22 -- Despite over two decades of the Global War on Terror standing as one of the most consequential undertakings of the 21st century, the structural conditions sustaining militancy remain largely unaddressed, as international engagement has predominantly targeted individual organizations rather than the entrenched institutional arrangements enabling extremist persistence. Pakistan exemplifies this structural entrenchment, where militancy is best understood not as a collection of discrete groups, but as a cohesive ecosystem shaped by historical legacies, ideological currents, and deliberate policy choices — one deeply embedded within the broader architecture of statecraft.

This can be conceptualized as an organic ...