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.
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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.
Pakistan-India’s crises, since 1998, demonstrate compelling evidence that nuclear weapons have not prevented small scale conflicts in South Asia. Most importantly, the May 2025 crisis evolved into the most serious military standoff since the 1971 war, in which for the first time, both countries exchanged missile strikes against each other’s counterforce targets across the international borders.
The Makkah Joint Defence Agreement between Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Türkiye marks an important shift in regional security cooperation. The three countries have agreed to support one another without defining a permanent threat. Each state will retain its existing alliances, partnerships, and foreign-policy priorities.
The state’s monopoly could not achieve Indian space aspirations, so the government expanded space for private companies. The entire space value chain was opened to private players in 2020 by establishing the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe). It acts as a bridge between ISRO and private space companies. Furthermore, it authorizes private satellite builds, launches, and space-based applications. It also facilitates the sharing of government-controlled space facilities.
The Triangle of Power: Rebalancing the New World Order is one of the earliest attempts by a sitting head of…
Debate continues over whether China is willing to supply Pakistan with its fifth-generation J-35 stealth fighter. Skeptics contend that Beijing is unlikely to export one of its most advanced combat aircraft while the People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) is still expanding its own fleet.
On Aug 7, Pakistan, Turkiye, and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) signed a mutual defense agreement, committing the three nations to treat “an armed attack against one as an attack against all”. The significance of the Mecca defense pact can be gauged from the fact that this trilateral defense pact brings together a leading oil-exporting nation- KSA- NATO’s second-largest army-Ankara, and the only Muslim nuclear-armed state- Pakistan, spanning the three countries across the Middle East, South Asia, and Europe.
For most of the Space Age, orbit was the exclusive province of superpowers, the US and USSR, during the Cold War era. Now, it has become a marketplace with many commercial actors. “Third Space Age” is characterized by the commercialization of space after the invention of reusable rockets and mega-constellations.
The decision by India to place the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) in abeyance has transformed the treaty from a water-sharing agreement into a test of strategic stability in South Asia. The treaty, once seen as a technical document to deal with the management of shared rivers, is now more influenced by geopolitical rivalry, loss of political trust, and growing securitisation of water.
