War has moved beyond the traditional domains of land, air, and sea to cyberspace and outer space, with AI being integrated into military systems and operations. This has created new vulnerabilities for states. Conventional deterrence strategies that establish the threat of retaliation in conventional and strategic domains are not effective enough to deter cyberattacks, attacks on space-based assets, and malicious use of AI.
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In 1961, President Eisenhower, in his farewell address, warned against the increasing influence of the US military industrial complex (MIC) beyond the country’s essential defense needs. President Eisenhower, who served as commander of Allied forces during World War-II stated, “In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.”
In evolving warfare, quantitative numbers do not provide an effective measurement of a country’s capabilities. The real metric is how well these capacities are linked and aligned across domains. India is slowly adapting to this reality, as its recent developments in defence are more focused on network-centric operations, such as surveillance, air defence, unmanned systems, electronic warfare and command-and-control architecture.
The 18th BRICS Summit to be held in New Delhi on 12-13 September is a challenging time for the grouping. BRICS used to be mainly about economic cooperation but has now expanded to also include political coordination and global governance. Its expansion has increased its global weight while deepening geopolitical divisions. The Iran-Israel-US clash has brought the cleavages to the fore, challenging India’s capacity to forge consensus among the growing diversity of its members.
In an era marked by a changing geopolitical landscape, alliances, energy insecurity, as well as the persistent requirement for a global energy transition to cleaner forms of energy, nuclear energy is gaining great importance in national development strategies of various countries around the world.
The existing Confidence building Measures (CBMs) between India and Pakistan are no longer sufficient to control the future of arms control in South Asia, considering the threats posed by the emerging technologies. These CBMs were designed to maintain strategic stability in South Asia characterized by single role delivery systems.
The lunar South Pole has emerged as a major focus of international space exploration due to its scientific potential. In view of this, Pakistan has also decided to send its own scientific mission there. The country’s first indigenous lunar rover, “Jinnah-1,” will head to the Moon’s South Pole in 2029 aboard China’s Chang’e-8 mission.
The global trend in Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) operations is moving towards stealthy, discrete and agile platforms. As India – the largest importer of major arms globally for its military modernization – disrupts and threatens the fragile stability of regional security architecture of South Asia.
Deterrence relies on military capability, but its effect is psychological. Nuclear weapons, missile defences, alliances and conventional forces shape how an adversary assesses the risks and costs of aggression. Bernard Brodie placed credible retaliation at the centre of nuclear deterrence, arguing that military power in the nuclear age should prevent war rather than win it.
During the May 2025 crisis, the confrontation between India and Pakistan had remain limited to land and air domains, while in the naval domain it was only limited to signaling and positioning and not an active combat. During the start of conflict, India deployed its naval aircraft carrier INS Vikrant for four days in the Arabian Sea but later moved it back to its base in Karnataka.
