India’s ‘PRAHAAR’ Doctrine Addresses Evolving Terrorist Threat Landscape

Jamestown Foundation | Animesh Roul

India unveiled its first comprehensive counter-terrorism doctrine, named 'PRAHAAR,' on February 23 to codify a decade-long transition from reactive crisis management toward preventive disruption across seven key pillars. The eight-page strategy identifies new technological vectors such as encrypted communications, cryptocurrency syndicates, drone logistics, and potential CBRNED material proliferation alongside traditional cross-border militancy.

Although the doctrine establishes robust frameworks for asset freezes and individual terrorist designations under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, it currently lacks detailed guidance on emerging threats like algorithmic radicalization, generative artificial intelligence propaganda, and calibrated military deterrence. The strategy formalizes a whole-of-society approach that integrates domestic intelligence-sharing networks, regional police operations, and international diplomatic campaigns. Despite these structural gaps, the framework provides a foundational baseline for anticipating, disrupting, and neutralizing decentralized terror ecosystems operating within and beyond the country's borders.

Tibet Response Tests Joint Command, Military–Civil Fusion

The Jamestown Foundation | Joshua Arostegui

The People’s Liberation Army Western Theater Command utilized the August 2026 Gyirong mudslides as an unscripted operational testbed, exercising direct joint control over Tibet Military District forces. Severe geographical and electromagnetic constraints in the Himalayan valleys required multi-service airspace deconfliction alongside an intelligentized command architecture integrating remote-sensing satellites and tactical unmanned aerial vehicles.

The mobilization validated Beijing’s wartime logistical template by deploying specialized state-owned enterprises for rapid route clearance while utilizing the People’s Armed Police to maintain command cohesion in a degraded battlespace. This rapid projection of a joint element within 48 hours demonstrates strategic mobility along the Line of Actual Control, though heavy reliance on civilian logistics assets reveals potential vulnerabilities during high-intensity conflict.

Inside China's mind on AI

Axios | Jim VandeHei

China is pursuing a state-directed artificial intelligence strategy focused on deep domestic adoption, contrasting sharply with America's emphasis on speed and raw super-intelligence development. The Chinese government aims to integrate AI across 90% of its economy by 2030 through its 15th Five-Year Plan, prioritizing social control and ideological security over fears of white-collar job displacement.

Underlying this aggressive push are severe domestic vulnerabilities, including a shrinking population that has fallen for four consecutive years, youth unemployment sitting at 19%, and inferior chip production capabilities compared to American hardware like Nvidia. Despite these hardware constraints, China maintains structural advantages in the physical inputs required for scaling technology, including abundant electricity generation, dominance over vital refining minerals, and extensive deployment of industrial robotics. Chinese open-source models such as Moonshot's Kimi K3, Alibaba's Qwen3.8-Max, Zhipu's GLM-5.3, and DeepSeek V4 have become global standards for cost-effective development, though U.S. officials accuse labs of covertly using data distillation techniques.

How China plans to turn quantum into a future industry

Chinaquantumfo | Elias X. Huber

China is transitioning its quantum sector from foundational scientific research to industrialization and commercial market dominance under its 15th Five-Year Plan recommendations. The Chinese government has elevated quantum technology to the top position among future industries, shifting from a linear science-push model to a mission-driven approach focused on New Quality Productive Forces.

Local governments, particularly in Hefei, are deploying aggressive industrial policies—including dedicated Government Guidance Funds, tech parks, and the Quantum Information Thousand Scenarios Action—to integrate quantum computing, communication, and sensing applications across state-owned enterprises. This state-backed industrial push aims to build commercial application platforms, expand domestic market demand, and scale upstream and downstream supply chains. Consequently, Chinese quantum technologies are expected to systematically advance toward international export markets through Belt and Road Initiative partnerships, challenging Western isolation efforts.

As Xi Lands In Washington, Uyghurs And Tibetans Press Trump For Human Rights Showdown

Eurasia Review | Eugene Whong

Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived at Joint Base Andrews on Wednesday for a three-day summit with U.S. President Donald Trump, as diaspora minority advocacy groups pressed for a human rights showdown over Xinjiang and Tibet. The World Uyghur Congress and the East Turkestan Government-in-Exile urged the administration to move beyond condemnation of the genocide designation first established in Trump's initial term.

Tibetan advocates and USCIRF Chair Asif Mahmood similarly demanded discussions on cultural erasure, political prisoners, and the 1995 disappearance of the Panchen Lama Gedhun Choekyi Nyima. The high-level visit breaks precedent by bypassing the White House for the tarmac arrival, reflecting mutual intent to stabilize relations. Both delegations intend to negotiate critical frictions regarding tariffs, soybean exports, supply chain security, artificial intelligence governance, and Taiwan arms sales while weighing an extension of last year's trade truce.

The U.S. Has More Leverage In Iraq Than Inks

Eurasia Review | James Durso

As U.S. forces prepare to leave Iraq by 30 September 2026, Washington must transition from military control to leveraging economic power, financial systems, and intelligence cooperation under the 2008 U.S.–Iraq Strategic Framework Agreement. Maintaining stability requires avoiding a forced ultimatum over Iran-aligned militias or an impossible choice between Washington and Tehran, drawing the line solely at parallel illicit military structures rather than trade or energy imports.

While Iraqi banks depend heavily on the international dollar system and U.S. financial restrictions demonstrated considerable sway in 2026, attempting to instantly disarm integrated political militias risks igniting civil conflict reminiscent of the 2003 army disbandment. The winning formula centers on U.S. withdrawal paired with Iraqi sovereignty, foreign direct investment, discreet financial leverage, and gradual, Iraqi-led militia reform rather than external coercion. Preserving long-term American influence in Baghdad ultimately requires accepting sovereign independence over direct intervention.

What Franklin Roosevelt Understood About Military Leadership

Real Clear Defense | Edward Farley Aldrich

The United States Army is losing its senior leadership amid high-level departures, raising critical questions about civilian oversight and military advice. Recent resignations and removals under Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth highlight tensions over modernization and readiness that echo historical friction during wartime governance. Franklin D. Roosevelt successfully navigated such friction during World War II by deliberately selecting strong, independent advisers like Secretary of War Henry L.

Stimson and Army Chief of Staff George C. Marshall. Marshall famously disagreed with Roosevelt before a major decision in 1938 yet was still appointed chief of staff a year later, establishing a functional boundary of unvarnished counsel combined with absolute obedience after decisions were finalized. This historical partnership demonstrates that effective leadership requires presidents and civilian chiefs to welcome dissenting military judgment rather than cultivate deference. Fostering an environment where expert disagreement does not end careers remains vital for strategic success.

How Putin Escalates

Foreign Affairs | Andrei Kolesnikov

President Vladimir Putin secured a supermajority for the United Russia party in parliamentary elections through compulsory voting mechanisms, standardized military ballots, and the pre-election removal of the antiwar Yabloko party. These engineered electoral outcomes mark a new stage in Russia's confrontation with Ukraine and the West, institutionalizing tighter internal control.

The ruling party's dominance relies on bureaucratic compliance across budget-dependent organizations and corporations, ensuring political consolidation ahead of external escalation. Compulsory voting practices within law enforcement agencies and newly integrated territories reinforced the regime's grip on the legislative process. These controlled electoral dynamics reflect a systematic elimination of political opposition, cementing an authoritarian domestic architecture to sustain protracted conflict. The suppression of legal dissent demonstrates how domestic political sterilization directly underpins external aggression, leaving no viable institutional channels for opposition forces.

Russia Trying to Replace Starlink

The Jamestown Foundation | John C. K. Daly

Russia is accelerating the deployment of its Rassvet satellite constellation via Soyuz-2.1b rockets to replace Starlink terminals previously used for drone strikes and communications. Developed by Bureau 1440 under the Ministry of Digital Development, the low-orbit network requires hundreds of operational spacecraft by 2030 to secure military and civilian broadband coverage.

This indigenous program encounters severe industrial constraints and orbital failures, with initial deployment setbacks including inactive propulsion systems and reentered spacecraft. Ukraine is actively countering the initiative through diplomatic appeals to the International Telecommunication Union and military targeting of Russian space infrastructure. Meanwhile, military analysts debate the constellation's current operational impact on frontline reconnaissance and precision strike coordination. Bureau 1440 must execute numerous additional launches to achieve continuous orbital coverage across domestic and contested theaters.

U.S.-India Insight: India’s Trade Deals: Only a Starting Point to Progress

Csis | Richard M. Rossow

India has secured substantial nominal gains in bilateral goods trade following the implementation of economic agreements with Australia and the United Arab Emirates in 2022. Total annual goods trade between New Delhi and Canberra surged 76 percent to average $23 billion in fiscal years 2025 and 2026, while trade with Abu Dhabi climbed 81 percent to reach $100 billion annually over the same period.

Despite these impressive headline increases, neither partner has drastically altered India's aggregate trade basket, with Australia remaining stagnant at 2 percent and the United Arab Emirates shifting modestly from 7 to 8 percent. This marginal macro-level impact demonstrates that bilateral trade pacts fail to generate immediate structural shifts without concurrent domestic economic restructuring. Production Linked Incentive schemes and trade pacts must be underpinned by difficult structural reforms in land, labor, power, water, and judicial remediation to boost manufacturing competitiveness beyond its long-standing 13 to 15 percent share of gross domestic product.

OpenAI gives cyber defence tools to Ukraine

Bbc | Zoe Kleinman

OpenAI will share its Daybreak AI cyber defence system for free with the Ukraine government to protect civilian infrastructure, such as hospitals and power plants, from cyber-attacks. Under the agreement, Ukraine will receive access to OpenAI's GPT 5.6 Sol model as it counters nearly 6,000 cyber-attacks recorded in 2025 by CERT-UA.

Russian offensive cyber operations have been a key component of Moscow's aggression since 2014, prompting tech firms to supply defensive tools while gathering valuable conflict data. Analysts note that frontier AI models possess dual-use capabilities, serving defenders while simultaneously posing risks when exploited by malicious actors for reconnaissance and infrastructure infiltration. Meanwhile, tech executives gathered at the UN General Assembly amid growing warnings from industry leaders regarding the rapid proliferation of autonomous cyber threats.

The War Of Endurance: Russia, Ukraine, And The Struggle Behind The Front Lines

Eurasia Review | Philip Wasielewski

The Russo-Ukrainian War has evolved into a war of attrition where both sides target each other's societies and economies after front-line military operations reached a deadlock. Ukraine faces severe economic strain, a 20 percent drop in GDP, blocked Black Sea ports, and political instability over mobilization, corruption, and leadership disputes.

Despite these internal challenges, Kyiv is sustained by extensive Western financial aid and a rapidly expanding domestic defense industrial base. Meanwhile, Russia maintains maximalist war aims, absorbing heavy monthly casualties of 30,000 to 35,000 personnel while suffering under a sustained Ukrainian drone and missile campaign against its energy refineries and retail infrastructure. With neither side willing to capitulate and public polling showing that 61 percent of Ukrainians remain prepared to fight indefinitely, the conflict now depends on which nation's economy, military, or societal will collapses first.

Hunger on the Horizon: The New Black Sea Grain Crisis

Cfr | Samuel Henry Lazarus

The Russia-Ukraine war re-erupted along its southern maritime axis in July 2026, shattering a three-year détente in the Black Sea and shuttering ports on the eve of harvest season. Strikes have since kept the world’s most important grain chokepoint closed, disrupting the export of 17 percent of the world’s traded grain.

Parallel Russian and Ukrainian strikes targeting Black Sea ports are rapidly destroying and idling agricultural export capacity much faster than it can be restored or rerouted. This mutual blockade coincides with global agricultural shocks, including a super El Niño and reduced harvests in the United States, driving wheat prices to nearly $8 per bushel. Ukraine’s infrastructure ministry recorded 124 Russian attacks on Greater Odesa ports in July alone, while Russian ports like Novorossiysk faced crippling drone and missile assaults from Ukraine. These military escalations threaten acute global food insecurity and widespread economic contraction.

Israel At The Crossroads: The October 27, 2026 Election And The Contest For The Post-Netanyahu Order – Analysis

Eurasiareview | Dr. Mohamed Chtatou

Israel will hold its first on-time Knesset election since 1988 on October 27, 2026, following the Gaza war, the Lebanon conflict, and the 2026 war with Iran. The vote acts as a referendum on Benjamin Netanyahu’s sixteen-year political dominance, accountability for the October 7 security failures, and the stability of a fragmented thirty-eight-party system.

September polls show Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar party leading Likud, while the pro- and anti-Netanyahu blocs remain tightly contested around fifty-two to fifty-four seats each. Kingmakers such as Naftali Bennett, Avigdor Lieberman, and right-wing threshold risks will determine the outcome amid Haredi conscription disputes, far-right divisions, and a recent Haaretz report alleging a pre-attack UAE warning that Netanyahu’s office denies. Whoever wins will face a heavy national debt, a large defense budget, strained U.S.-Israel relations, and a stalled normalization track tied to a Palestinian horizon the incumbent rejects.

Netanyahu’s greatest illusion: That Israel’s security depends on him

Jerusalem Post | Yonatan Touval

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces an upcoming October 27 election with current polls leaving his governing bloc short of a parliamentary majority. For four decades, Netanyahu has built his political career around claims of indispensability, portraying himself as uniquely qualified to manage external threats like Iran while suppressing internal party rivals.

The October 7 massacre shattered his core security promise, yet successive security emergencies and ongoing regional conflict have been repurposed to postpone accountability and sustain his grip on power. While his campaigns continue to weaponize foreign hostility as a qualification for office, his international standing has narrowed amid an ICC arrest warrant and diplomatic walkouts at the United Nations. The central illusion of his tenure remains the unproven premise that Israel's national survival depends exclusively on his continued political leadership.

Technological Leapfrogging in the AI Age

Project Syndicate | Mark-Alexandre Doumba

African economies have increasingly relied on past success stories to assume that developing nations can bypass expensive infrastructure stages by adopting foreign technologies. This assumption requires rigorous scrutiny when applied directly to imported artificial intelligence systems. Policymakers face distinct structural hurdles in transforming countries from passive technology consumers into active producers.

The mobile-money revolution offers critical historical lessons for assessing whether similar shortcuts work in the current technological era. Developing nations confront deep infrastructural and capital deficits that complicate straightforward adoption models. Sustainable digital transformation demands domestic capacity building rather than mere reliance on external innovations. Regional leaders must evaluate these limitations carefully before committing national resources to imported foundational systems.

What Trump Said at the UN Was Important. What He Didn’t Was Important, Too.

Cfr | Esther Brimmer

U.S. President Donald Trump addressed the United Nations General Assembly for the fifth time, delivering a speech notable for its omissions regarding international cooperation and multilateral development institutions. The administration recently paid $725 million in overdue regular dues and $102 million for peacekeeping, avoiding a General Assembly vote loss, though $4.2

billion remains owed. Against this backdrop, the United States continues to prioritize peace and security frameworks while simultaneously dismissing development assistance, humanitarian response, and regulatory bodies like the World Health Organization and the International Maritime Organization. The Trump administration previously withdrew from the World Health Organization and the UN Human Rights Council while shuttering the U.S. Agency for International Development. Future engagement requires navigating deep Sino-American rivalries and financial strain while recognizing that a restructured United Nations framework remains essential for global governance.

The Guardian view on the future of the UN: more embattled, but more necessary, than ever

The Guardian

The United Nations faces unprecedented institutional strain as outgoing Secretary General António Guterres prepares to step down by 31 December amid rising global conflicts and a deadlocked security council. Donald Trump used his general assembly address to threaten Iran and dismiss international law regarding Venezuela, echoing broader boycotts by leaders including Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping, and Narendra Modi.

Amid these diplomatic fractures and funding deficits, the organization remains a vital forum for smaller states to coordinate multilateral campaigns on climate and security reform. Potential successors like Rebeca Grynspan and Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett face an uncertain leadership transition as major powers bide their time. The charter's founding mission to prevent global war endures not through flawless execution, but because the alternative remains far worse.

_Recent conflicts have exposed a growing vulnerability in America’s digital infrastructure—and US regulations could make defending it significantly harder._

National Interest | Henry Rogers

American data centers face escalating physical vulnerabilities as adversaries ingest the lessons of recent drone warfare operations in Ukraine and the Persian Gulf. In the summer of 2026, Ukrainian strikes against commercial giants like Wildberries and Iranian drone attacks disrupting Amazon Web Services facilities demonstrated how low-cost unmanned aerial systems can cripple critical economic nodes.

Because rapid digitization and artificial intelligence demands have driven operators to cluster these facilities in massive, interconnected campuses across Northern Virginia, Atlanta, Santa Clara, and Dallas, they represent concentrated targets vulnerable to coordinated kinetic disruption. Despite the availability of anti-drone sensors and jamming systems, federal regulations severely complicate protective measures. Under Federal Aviation Administration rules, the airspace above private data center campuses remains public domain, rendering it illegal for facility owners to shoot down or interfere with incoming aerial threats. Policymakers must reform these airspace barriers to allow civilian investment in site-defense infrastructure before overseas vulnerabilities replicate domestically.

Palantir, NATO and the Privatisation of Decision Infrastructure

Victoria Calotychos

NATO finalised the acquisition of the Maven Smart System for Allied Command Operations on 25 March 2025, deploying it across headquarters and exercise planning by 2026. This integration highlights a growing institutional challenge where external commercial platforms organise operational data and decision workflows, creating a dependency known as decision sovereignty.

While formal command authority remains with sovereign states, reliance on proprietary architectures for situational awareness and planning can lead to cumulative institutional lock-in. European firms contribute specialized capabilities like drones and simulations, yet these components operate within a foreign-controlled integration layer. As European nations accelerate defense spending amid compressed threat timelines, rapid procurement practices risk entrenching external control over critical digital infrastructure, decoupling formal ownership from practical governance.

The Nuclear AI Red Line: Prediction Is Not Permission

Eurasia Review | Burak Oktenli

Military artificial intelligence must maintain strict engineering boundaries that permanently separate machine prediction from human authorization in nuclear command systems. Although recent security dialogues between United States and Chinese experts at the Brookings Institution and Tsinghua University highlight the urgency of bilateral red lines, software anticipation of human behavior must never substitute for lawful command.

Experimental models such as Centaur illustrate that cognitive software can forecast human choices, while studies in Nature Human Behaviour and Anthropic's agentic-misalignment research demonstrate vulnerabilities to AI persuasion and deceptive behaviors. Consequently, four distinct functions—predicting, recommending, authenticating, and authorizing—must remain isolated to prevent automated systems from misinterpreting delays or forecasts as operational consent. Safeguards should enforce fresh, positive human acts of authorization and guarantee evidence independence across all reporting channels during high-stakes strategic exercises.

Saudi Arabia Faces the Era of Disequilibrium

Csis | Michael Ratney

Saudi Arabia confronts a volatile era of disequilibrium as ongoing regional conflicts and oil volatility threaten its ambitious economic and societal transformation. Driven by young leadership, the kingdom previously leveraged multipolarity and de-escalation to insulate itself from regional turmoil, but escalating wars involving Iran, the Houthis, and shifting U.S.

and Israeli policies have exposed critical vulnerabilities. Destructive attacks on strategic energy infrastructure in the Eastern Province and maritime choke points like the Bab al-Mandab Strait demonstrate the limits of traditional air defenses against asymmetric drone threats. Domestically, the government faces pressure to maintain economic momentum and job creation for a young demographic under 35 to prevent stagnation. To protect its national transformation, Riyadh continues to prioritize diplomatic de-escalation across volatile flashpoints while accelerating investments in renewable energy and alternative export routes designed to mitigate reliance on vulnerable transit corridors.

NATO’s Arctic Surveillance Claims

Geopoliticalmonitor | Meng Kit Tang

Norwegian defense minister Tore O. Sandvik asserted that NATO maintains continuous tracking of Russian submarines exiting the Kola Peninsula, contrasting with cautious statements from Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe spokesperson Col. Martin O’Donnell regarding deep-Atlantic tracking difficulties. This friction highlights the broader challenge of monitoring strategic chokepoints like the Bear Gap.

Allied forces intercepted a Russian Akula-class submarine and GUGI deep-sea submersibles near British infrastructure in April, though full details emerged months later via Reuters. Meanwhile, two undersea cables serving Norway remain severed without formal attribution since January 2022 and April 2024, complicating assessments of subsea vulnerability alongside rising Chinese commercial interest in the Northern Sea Route. Norway plans a new fiber-optic cable to Svalbard by 2028, testing seabed infrastructure security. NATO possesses proven detection capabilities but lacks public proof of continuous custody into the deep Atlantic.

Why the Attack Helicopter is still relevant

The Atlantic Passage

The Atlantic Passage, a Substack publication focusing on geopolitics and military history, returned a "Page not found" error on its hosting platform, failing to load any active posts or articles. This technical disruption prevents access to the site's planned editorial content regarding international conflicts and regional security. The platform's interface still displays navigation menus for thematic sections such as "Ukraine and the War," "Israel, the Middle East," "Conflict in Detail," and "The Big Picture."

These categories indicate the publication's intended focus on contemporary global flashpoints and strategic defense issues. Additionally, the page features standard Substack infrastructure, including subscription prompts, sign-in options, and links to the platform's notes and chat functions. Despite these structural elements, the central repository remains entirely empty, showing only a copyright date of 2026 and a notice that posts failed to load. No articles are currently accessible. Consequently, specific strategic analysis and author contributions remain unavailable on this URL.

Little Venice, Little Sparta: The UAE’s Statecraft Meets The War On Iran

Eurasia Review | Cinzia Bianco

The United Arab Emirates leverages its immense oil wealth, sovereign funds, and strategic position as "Little Venice" and "Little Sparta" to project global influence through commercial connectivity and muscular security. This model faced an existential stress test during the 2026 United States and Israel war with Iran, which shattered the assumption that commercial entanglement with Tehran under an American security umbrella would insulate the state.

Iranian retaliatory strikes targeted airports, ports, data centers, and energy infrastructure to punish the Emirati economy while Washington fought. Concurrently, an open strategic rupture hardened with Saudi Arabia over regional leadership, economic visions, and Red Sea footholds. Despite sustaining over 3,000 projectiles and an August 18 trade freeze, Abu Dhabi is accelerating a "fortified connectivity" framework—building spare supply routes, domestic defense manufacturing, and alternative terminals. Europe can leverage this post-war environment by offering regulatory predictability, protecting vital trade infrastructure, and establishing clear boundaries against militia-tied networks.

When A Paper Tiger Crumbles: The Inevitable Collapse of Bangladesh

Substack | Ashok Awasthi

Post-Hasina Bangladesh faces severe economic instability following efforts by its new leadership to de-link from India by repudiating long-standing power and cargo facilities. An analysis by Viprabuddhi highlights how the nation’s heavy historical over-reliance on the garment sector leaves its fragile economy highly vulnerable as cross-border diplomatic ties rapidly deteriorate.

Lapsing bilateral agreements like the historic Ganga water treaty and attempts to pivot toward Pakistan and China threaten long-term regional stability. Recent Adani Power supply disruptions and constrained access to Indian transit ports for cheap cotton imports further compound Dhaka's compounding economic quagmire. Domestic volatility remains high. The rising influence of virulent Islamist political factions is actively alienating religious minorities and deterring critical private investment. Furthermore, tentative moves to grant operational airfields near the strategic Siliguri Corridor to Beijing risk triggering severe geopolitical backlash from New Delhi. Without rebuilding crucial economic and diplomatic bridges with India, Bangladesh's prospects for sustainable economic recovery remain entirely remote.

Two Nuclear Neighbors Are About to Arm Opposite Sides in Yemen. Here Is Why India Backs the Houthis.

Signal, Not Noise | AJ

Pakistan is steadily moving toward direct military involvement in Yemen under the Mecca Mutual Defence Pact signed in August 2026 with Turkey and Saudi Arabia, with manufacturing outputs for Toyota Hilux pickup trucks surging as an indicator of preparations. Islamabad's prospective entry into the regional conflict triggers an immediate strategic realignment for India, which prioritizes the containment and exhaustion of its primary adversary above all other foreign policy preferences.

New Delhi stands to benefit directly from any depletion of Pakistani military resources, personnel, and command attention in a distant theater, reducing pressure along the disputed frontier. Consequently, India's rational imperative shifts toward quietly sustaining the Ansarallah Houthis through intelligence sharing and operational expertise derived from decades of direct conflict. This covert backing bypasses standard diplomatic alignments with Israel and Iran, transforming the Houthis into an asymmetric proxy asset capable of bleeding Pakistan far from Kashmir.

FACT SHEET ON CHINA-MYANMAR-BANGLADESH ECONOMIC CORRIDOR

Institute for Security and Development Policy | Wilhelm Geijer, Joel von Rothkirch, Hoang An Nguyen, Jagannath Panda

China has undertaken several strategic projects to increase its role in the Bay of Bengal region and circumvent the Malacca Strait through the Belt and Road Initiative. These efforts involve substantial investments in port infrastructure and multiple new economic corridors designed to expand Beijing's regional power architecture. One of these vital initiatives is the Bangladesh, China, India and Myanmar Economic Corridor, which subsequently evolved into the China-Myanmar-Bangladesh Economic Corridor following Indian disengagement from the cooperative framework.

This evolving economic infrastructure forms a core component of the Stockholm Center for South Asian and Indo-Pacific Affairs research project examining Beijing's expanding power projection across South Asia and the broader Indian Ocean region. These developments directly alter regional connectivity patterns and reshape long-term geopolitical alignments along critical maritime corridors.

Strait up tolls? What a Hormuz precedent means for the world’s waterways

Australian Strategic Policy Institute | Elizabeth Buchanan, Adel Abdel Ghafar

The US–Iran War has triggered negotiations to keep the Strait of Hormuz toll-free, raising concerns that a potential transit fee could establish a dangerous global precedent. This development threatens to disrupt international maritime trade norms and directly impact Australian supply chains. Consequently, regional waterways face unprecedented economic and strategic pressures.

Historically, the dissolution of agreed international laws and maritime principles has accelerated the erosion of free passage. If a Hormuz toll is implemented, it could legitimise similar transit fees in other critical choke points. These include the Malacca Strait, the South China Sea, and the Bering Strait. Global trade faces fragmentation. Such a shift would allow coastal states to monetise sovereign access, fundamentally altering the economics of global shipping. Ultimately, this precedent risks transforming open maritime commons into contested, revenue-generating zones, complicating naval operations, energy security, and resource supply chains worldwide.

How China’s Leader Plans to Win the Future With A.I.

The New York Times | Vivian Wang

Chinese President Xi Jinping is mobilizing state resources to dominate global artificial intelligence development and restructure the domestic economy through advanced robotics and high-end manufacturing. State-led funds poured over $184 billion into Chinese A.I. firms between 2000 and 2023, with government and state-owned banks pledging hundreds of billions more.

Beijing seeks to offset lower private investment compared to the United States, which saw private sources pour $285 billion into the technology in 2025 alone. A dedicated technology park outside Beijing exemplifies this top-down approach, providing tens of millions of dollars in free computing power to local developers. Supported firms produce critical dual-use technologies, including specialized chips designed for nuclear missiles and medical brain implants. Beijing prioritizes state-directed industrial policy. By leveraging centralized resource allocation, China aims to establish artificial intelligence as a lead driver of national competitiveness while maintaining strict administrative and social control over emerging technological capabilities across society.