India: SBN’s Emerging Network Of Terror In Assam

Eurasia Review | Deepak Kumar Nayak

Assam Police Special Task Force arrested five suspected Shahzad Bhatti Network operatives across Nalbari, Dhubri, Chirang, Barpeta, and Hailakandi districts between May and August 2026, uncovering a Pakistan-linked hybrid criminal-terrorist enterprise in northeastern India. Authorities seized mobile phones, Aadhaar cards, and bank passbooks detailing online recruitment and encrypted communication channels linked to Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence.

The arrests extend SBN's reach beyond its core hubs in Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Delhi, and Punjab into a sensitive border state. Assam serves as a crucial logistical transit corridor. Operating via a compartmentalized "need-to-know" cell model, SBN recruits youth through social media platforms using small payments for reconnaissance, weapons transport, and sleeper cell setup. A concurrent nationwide operation on August 12, 2026, resulted in 253 detentions across 14 states alongside recoveries of improvised explosive devices and Pakistan Ordnance Factory-marked grenades, highlighting the network's expanding cross-border support structure.

India: New Front At Kangpokpi, Manipur

Eurasia Review | Afsara Shaheen

Kangpokpi District in Manipur has emerged as a major operational flashpoint in 2026, opening an escalating Naga-Kuki ethnic front alongside the ongoing Meitei-Kuki conflict. The South Asia Terrorism Portal recorded 19 fatalities in the hill district this year, including 18 civilians killed in ambushes, abductions, and reciprocal village burnings.

This escalation threatens critical transport corridors. Recent attacks involve Kuki groups like the KNF-P alongside rival Naga formations NSCN-IM and ZUF-K. Security forces have logged 78 arms recovery incidents since May 2023, confiscating M16 rifles, mortars, wireless sets, and bulletproof vests across the Koubru Hill range. Operational drivers stem from the 2016 district partition, intra-Naga insurgent rivalries, and localized disputes over land and poppy cultivation. Active crossfire now disrupts National Highway 2, threatening vital interstate supply lines between Manipur and Nagaland. Without immediate road protection, local clashes risk solidifying into an unmanageable three-way war.

See Nepali Rescue Workers Testing Aid Delivery by Drone

The New York Times | Atul LokeText by Anupreeta Das

Nepalese emergency personnel and private operators in Devighat successfully tested heavy-lift cargo drones to deliver critical relief across the Trishuli River following severe flooding and landslides across Nepal. Recent catastrophic storms isolated approximately 10,000 households, left over 2,500 people missing, and destroyed more than 35 bridges while damaging 25 miles of key roadways.

Widespread infrastructure collapse abruptly severed conventional ground transportation links, leaving thousands without essential food and medical supplies. To overcome terrain barriers, teams deployed a multirotor drone capable of carrying up to 220 pounds, successfully hovering to offload a 130-pound payload of supplies within three-minute flight cycles. Speed is critical. While smaller unmanned aerial vehicles already distribute rations to remote areas, scaling larger payload drones provides a rapid aerial bridge while international assistance arrives. Nepalese Finance Minister Swarnim Wagle estimated that infrastructure reconstruction costs could exceed $4 billion, prompting requests for foreign portable bridges to restore ground connectivity.

The Quiet Stabilizer: How China Managed The Hormuz Oil Shock, And What It Means For Everyone Else

Eurasia Review | Gergely Salát

China managed to stabilize global oil markets following the February 2026 closure of the Strait of Hormuz by cutting crude imports by 40.6% to 7.12 million barrels per day in June. This steep reduction absorbed supply shocks after Brent crude spiked to $144 per barrel, preventing anticipated price surges to $200.

Four-fifths of this import collapse reflected forgone inventory accumulation rather than actual demand loss. Beijing directed refiners to slash export quotas, reduced petrochemical yields, and capped domestic fuel prices without tapping its strategic reserves. Beijing relied on long-term preparations. Since 2003, when President Hu Jintao identified the Malacca Dilemma, China accumulated nearly 1.4 billion barrels of crude reserves while rapidly expanding transport electrification and alternative energy supplies. These combined measures provided Beijing with immense market leverage and demonstrated that import dependence alone does not equal strategic vulnerability during major maritime chokepoint crises.

A Warning by a Retired Green Beret: Taiwan’s ‘Porcupine Strategy’ to Stop China Has No Quills on the Inside

National Security Journal | Stephen D. Cook

Taiwan’s current defense doctrine relies dangerously on standoff platforms like Harpoon anti-ship missiles and High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems while ignoring the internal human resistance infrastructure required to survive a complete maritime blockade by China. Without contiguous land borders to allow NATO-style resupply, the island risks rapid paralysis once Chinese precision strikes destroy centralized military infrastructure and energy grids.

To prevent rapid collapse, defense planners must operationalize the Resistance Operating Concept by establishing a decentralized civil-military underground, clandestine auxiliary networks, and dispersed guerrilla forces before hostilities commence. Geography makes post-invasion resupply impossible. Pre-positioning encrypted radios, Javelin missiles, and medical supplies inside thousands of urban and mountain caches offers the only realistic counter to blockade-induced attrition. Utilizing Section 1202 of the National Defense Authorization Act, low-visibility Special Operations Forces Liaison Elements can train Taiwanese cadres in clandestine tradecraft without triggering premature regional escalation.

A looming threat: U.S. military’s reliance on Chinese batteries

Washington Post

U.S. military forces face severe battlefield supply chain and cyber vulnerabilities due to widespread reliance on Chinese-manufactured commercial batteries and portable power stations. Commercial off-the-shelf equipment produced by Chinese firms like Jackery routinely powers tactical devices, tactical communications gear, and command nodes across distributed military units. Dependence on foreign energy storage creates direct operational vulnerabilities during high-intensity conflict.

Chinese supply chain dominance allows Beijing to restrict critical lithium-battery exports, severing vital tactical power in contested theaters. Modern military hardware requires continuous power. Beyond supply disruptions, networked management firmware in commercial power banks introduces potential hardware backdoors, malicious firmware exploits, and signals intelligence risks for deployed expeditionary forces. The Department of Defense currently lacks sufficient domestic industrial capacity to rapidly replace foreign-built battery systems at scale. Establishing secure, domestic energy distribution architectures is essential to eliminating foreign dependencies and safeguarding tactical electronic infrastructure during peer adversary combat operations.

China’s robot beat Bolt – then it hit the wall

Asia Times | Y Tony Yang

Tiangong Ultra, a humanoid robot built by Beijing’s X-Humanoid, set a record by sprinting 100 meters in 8.64 seconds at the 2026 World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing before crashing into a track barrier. The collision highlighted acute operational reliability gaps despite rapid mechanical performance gains. China faces mounting pressure to transition peak laboratory efficacy into workplace effectiveness as its over-60 demographic expands toward 400 million people by 2035.

To offset labor shortages, Chinese industrial facilities installed 295,000 industrial robots in 2024, expanding national stock past two million units. Domestic suppliers now command 57 percent of the domestic market. Organizers released 2,500 hours of task data from 10,000 contest scenarios to accelerate practical adoption, fueling commercial hype that propelled manufacturer Unitree to a 50 billion dollar market valuation in Shanghai. Geopolitical friction is accelerating. On July 28, the US Federal Communications Commission placed foreign-made advanced robotics on its Covered List, blocking sales of new Chinese models due to data privacy risks.

The Next China Shock Will Hit Defence

RUSI | Andreas Urbanski

China is positioning itself to dominate future machine-led warfare by fusing artificial intelligence with mass industrial robotics production. In 2024, Chinese factories installed 295,000 industrial robots, dwarfing American and European manufacturing additions combined. Demographic contraction across major powers accelerates this transition toward mass-produced autonomous combat platforms. Beijing controls 90 to 98 percent of global permanent magnets required for military actuators and drone motors, creating severe supply chain vulnerabilities for NATO defense contractors.

Meanwhile, low-cost open-weight Chinese AI models like Alibaba's Qwen family are rapidly eroding the American software lead while functioning efficiently on resource-constrained battlefield edge hardware. Russian operations involving over 50,000 Shahed drones in Ukraine illustrate the operational scale of this emerging industrial-defense axis. Western defense inventories face rapid depletion. To counter this structural leverage, European countries must repurpose automotive manufacturing lines toward military robotics while re-shoring critical mineral processing capabilities.

Accommodation: An underutilized strategy for great-power rivals

Defense Priorities | By Moritz Graefrath

Donald Trump sparked intense foreign policy debate in May 2026 by explicitly discouraging Taiwanese independence, questioning a $14 billion arms package, and advocating territorial concessions to resolve the Russo-Ukrainian War. Critics swiftly condemned these accommodative positions as modern-day appeasement reminiscent of British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain’s 1938 Munich Agreement with Nazi Germany.

That conventional anti-accommodation consensus misapplies historical analogies by assuming modern peer competitors possess boundless expansionist ambitions. Selective concession is a prudent diplomatic tool. Both China and Russia maintain vital, asymmetric stakes regarding Taiwan and Ukraine, whereas the United States holds only limited core strategic interests in these regional flashpoints. Relying on default confrontation in non-vital theaters produces low-credibility deterrence threats while risking catastrophic escalation into direct great-power war. Strategic accommodation satisfies limited revisionist grievances, encourages reciprocal restraint, and preserves vital diplomatic maneuverability for managing long-term stability between competing nuclear-armed major powers.

Overcoming China’s Supply Chain Leverage

American Affairs | Jorge Guajardo

Chinese economic strategy transformed foreign industrial vulnerabilities by expanding intermediate export shares from 33 percent to 46 percent between 2001 and 2025, converting global supply chain reliance into coercive geopolitical leverage. Following state-orchestrated market access retaliations against Norway, Lotte, and France, Beijing escalated to export controls on rare earth minerals during a 2010 maritime dispute with Japan.

Sumitomo Electric invested $100 million in alternative tungsten capacity. Nissan engineered motors to cut dysprosium and terbium consumption by over 90 percent, establishing private-sector demand-side mitigation models. However, broad international inertia allowed Chinese authorities to launch global mineral embargoes and target firm-specific nodes like Dutch-headquartered semiconductor manufacturer Nexperia, causing widespread production halts across major automakers like Honda. This structural exposure culminated on March 31, 2026, when Premier Li Qiang signed State Council Order No. 834 to codify supply chain security controls. Corporate vulnerabilities now extend to any production network routed through Chinese-owned entities regardless of corporate headquarters location.

China Primer: South China Sea Disputes

Congressional Research Service | Dolven, Ben; Piekos, William

The People's Republic of China continues to assert expansive sovereignty claims over roughly 62 percent of the South China Sea, deploying coast guard vessels, floating barriers, and military infrastructure across contested land features. These maritime operations directly challenge neighboring claimants—including the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, and Taiwan—while threatening crucial international sea lanes that carry up to one-third of global ship-borne trade and host 3.6 billion barrels of oil.

Tensions stem from competing interpretations of the 1994 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, with Beijing rejecting the 2016 arbitral tribunal ruling that invalidated its dashed-line claims. Flashpoints have intensified around Scarborough Shoal and Second Thomas Shoal, where China maintains persistent coast guard deployments. Beijing routinely blocks Philippine resupply operations. In response, Washington has expanded security assistance through the Pacific Deterrence Initiative under the FY2026 National Defense Authorization Act to reinforce regional maritime domain awareness.

The devastation of NSA Bahrain is a national security warning

Military Times | Capt. John Cordle (ret.)

Iranian missile strikes severely damaged U.S. Naval Support Activity Bahrain in Manama during the opening phase of Operation Epic Fury. The strike degraded the primary operational hub for U.S. Naval Forces Central Command and U.S. Fifth Fleet, generating an estimated $400 million in physical destruction. Operational logistics suffered immediate degradation.

Destroyed installation assets include headquarters buildings, barracks, warehouses, communications towers, and a potable water processing station. Consequently, maritime resupply lines for forward-deployed warships stretched from hundreds to thousands of miles, inducing severe supply scarcities aboard the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln. Well over 1,000 evacuated military dependents remain in relocation limbo six months after the assault. U.S. Fifth Fleet commander Vice Adm. Curt Renshaw acknowledged that military forces are navigating uncharted territory without clear guidelines. Failing to reconstitute NSA Bahrain will fundamentally alter how the U.S. Navy maintains, operates, and projects sea power throughout the Gulf.

How the Iran war has made the US more vulnerable

Politico | By Jack Detsch and Paul McLeary

United States military operations against Iran have drawn key air defense systems, interceptors, and carrier strike groups away from the Indo-Pacific and European theaters, weakening global deterrence capabilities. Continued munition transfers to the Middle East have depleted critical weapons reserves, forcing command leaders to extract munitions from the Korean Peninsula and extend naval strike deployments.

Stockpiles are dwindling rapidly. Consequently, key Indo-Pacific partners like Taiwan and Australia face heightened anxieties over unfulfilled missile orders while Chinese aerial incursions persist. Simultaneously, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth initiated a European force posture review, removed senior commanders, and halted joint drone warfare training programs with Ukrainian forces. To break the ongoing operational deadlock with Tehran, the White House has pivoted toward economic sanctions managed by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. Nevertheless, over 50,000 troops, hundreds of aircraft, and a dozen warships remain tied to the Middle East, leaving broader global power projection severely compromised.

US Army's new M1E3 Abrams takes Cold War tank into drone age

Times of India | Aryan Singh

The United States Army will deploy its next-generation M1E3 Abrams and XM30 main battle tank prototypes to the 1st Cavalry Division for user testing, evaluating operational concepts tailored for future armored warfare. This evaluation marks a fundamental shift away from Cold War doctrine, which originally prioritized heavy physical armor against massed Warsaw Pact forces following the M1's 1980 introduction into service.

Modern combat in Ukraine demonstrates that persistent uncrewed aerial surveillance, long-range precision strikes, and loitering munitions severely compromise legacy heavy armor platforms. Consequently, the M1E3 transitions to a lighter chassis, a hybrid-electric drive, an autoloader, and a three-person crew located within a protected hull compartment underneath an unmanned turret. Built-in active protection systems and counter-uncrewed-aircraft capabilities mitigate modern overhead threats directly. Networked command architecture and artificial intelligence integration will enable seamless teaming with autonomous robotic ground platforms. Operational feedback will directly shape future force structure.

US plans to cut off military aid to key Middle East ally, BBC told

BBC | Daniel Bush

The United States Department of Defense plans to terminate security assistance to the Kurdistan Regional Government's Peshmerga forces when their bilateral memorandum of understanding expires on 30 September. This funding cut coincides with the final withdrawal of remaining coalition troops and the closure of the last American military base in Irbil.

The decision leaves 180,000 Kurdish troops without $61 million in annual Pentagon support previously allocated for weapons, training, and stipends under counter-IS programs. Iraqi Kurdistan faces heightened operational exposure following 158 Iranian drone and missile strikes targeting the region by late May. Senior officials like Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi have framed the drawdown as a transition to full Iraqi security self-reliance. Former coalition envoy James Jeffrey warns that abandoning long-standing allies risks creating a strategic vacuum. Iran gains leverage. The policy shift occurs despite Washington completing an $800 million consulate complex in Irbil last December.

Modern Targeting in European Militaries

RUSI | Robert Tollast, Noah Sylvia and Matthew Savill

European militaries are accelerating the adoption of digitalized command and control systems to dramatically scale up sensor-to-effector operational targeting capabilities. High-intensity operations like the 28 February 2026 US Operation Epic Fury against Iran demonstrated the operational necessity of cohering disparate intelligence data streams to sustain nearly 900 strikes within 12 hours.

Traditional staff workflows struggle to maintain such relentless strike rates without deep organizational adaptation and procedural overhaul. Crucially, scaling force output to thousands of targets daily introduces acute friction between decision speed and legal compliance under international humanitarian law. Armed forces integrating capabilities like the UK Digital Targeting Web must address organizational bottlenecks alongside raw technological upgrades. Human-machine teaming requires transparent governance frameworks to retain meaningful control over automated workflows. Speed creates friction. Decentralized command structures and adapted doctrine are vital to prepare Allied forces for high-intensity multi-domain warfare against Russian forces.

The Price of Russian Paranoia: Spy Hunting Shores Up Putin’s Power—but Paralyzes the State

Foreign Affairs | Andrei Soldatov and Irina Borogan

The Russian Federal Security Service has systematically pivoted from counterterrorism to aggressive counterespionage operations to enforce internal regime discipline during the war in Ukraine. Prosecutions under Article 275 reached 361 convictions in 2024 and 143 state security cases in the first quarter of 2026 alone, targeting political opponents, civil servants, and defense corporate executives.

Drawing on Soviet-era doctrines of comprehensive counterintelligence coverage, security agencies have penetrated deeply into state institutions and private enterprises through intrusive surveillance and preemptive sting operations. Paranoia now governs Russian administrative life. High-profile treason and corruption arrests, including former Deputy Minister Maxim Parshin and top executives at Gazprom Energoholding, signal that high-level professional standing offers no immunity from repression. Consequently, fearful civil servants and industrial leaders routinely withhold critical operational data, delay vital strategic decisions, and pivot entirely to self-preservation. This pervasive climate of domestic mistrust ultimately paralyzes routine state governance and severely degrades institutional capacity across the broader wartime economy.

Why Ukraine Hasn’t Broken

The Free Press | Sebastian Junger

Russia launched a lethal strike killing at least 38 people in the suburbs of Kyiv just days after Ukraine commemorated the 35th anniversary of its independence from Moscow. Entering its fifth year of full-scale conflict, Ukraine continues to demonstrate unexpected societal endurance despite relentless Russian aerial bombardment and severe military strain.

International representatives from Estonia, Finland, Lithuania, Serbia, Romania, and England gathered near Kyiv’s Saint Sofia Cathedral to address national resilience alongside First Lady Olena Zelenska. The conflict represents the continuation of a long strategic pattern. Russia previously invaded Chechnya, Transnistria, Georgia, Crimea, and Eastern Ukraine prior to its 2022 multi-axis offensive staged from Belarus. Ukrainian civil cohesion remains remarkably intact. High rates of civilian volunteerism and sustained public commitment to territorial defense continue to defy initial Western and Russian predictions of rapid state collapse. This collective civilian determination forms the core foundation sustaining Ukraine's sovereign resistance against ongoing Russian aggression.

The ‘Extinct Volcanoes’ Problem: Why Unit Strength Is Not Combat Power

RUSI | Roger N. McDermott

Ukrainian and Russian armed forces facing severe attrition in prolonged combat highlight a critical distinction between nominal personnel headcount and true unit combat power. A recent RUSI assessment revealed that approximately one-sixth of Ukraine’s 120 active brigades suffer from chronic underperformance due to frontline combat deployments exceeding 200 days without sufficient unit rotation.

This systemic operational degradation directly mirrors Imperial Russian commander Aleksandr Svechin’s 1915 analysis of "extinct volcanoes"—depleted formations maintaining administrative strength while losing real fighting energy. Paper numbers mislead. Repeatedly inserting individual replacement recruits into exhausted units cannot restore depleted non-commissioned officer cadres, command trust, or specialized battalion staff planning expertise. As a result, both belligerents continuously struggle to translate raw manpower mobilization and defense industrial throughput into effective combined-arms tactical performance. Future defense planning and Western military aid assessments must prioritize organizational cohesion, leadership quality, and structured rotational cycles over simple order-of-battle unit tallies.

Forecasting the Next World War: Between Theory and Practice

E-International Relations | Raphaël Dosson

International Relations theory oscillates alongside structural power shifts, driving cyclical transitions between peaceful liberal institutionalism and conflict-driven realism. Critical historical junctures—such as the collapse of the League of Nations and the failure of the Munich Agreement—demonstrate how idealist frameworks fail to deter revisionist powers. This recurring divergence between theoretical assumptions and material conditions repeatedly precipitates systemic rupture.

Theoretical paradigms adapt as systemic pressures intensify. During the Cold War, structural friction pushed security analysis toward Kenneth Waltz’s 1979 neorealist framework following peripheral confrontations in Korea, Vietnam, and the Cuban Missile Crisis. The subsequent 1989–1991 collapse of the Soviet Union exposed the predictive limits of structural models, shifting academic discourse toward reflectivist approaches. Long-term historical cycles—including 50–60 year Kondratieff economic waves and 80–100 year Power Transition Theory models—indicate that contemporary geopolitical friction threatens another major systemic realignment. Understanding this co-evolution between theory and practice remains essential for anticipating future global conflict.

How Much of the Internet Is Written With AI?

Pew Research Center | Samuel Bestvater,Aaron Smith,Carson TerBush,Chris Baronavski and Janakee Chavda

Pew Research Center analyzed 490,000 English-language webpages from the Common Crawl archive between 2021 and 2026 using the Open Pangram detection model. The findings reveal that nearly 10% of commercial .com domains contained text generated or edited by artificial intelligence by early 2026. This rate represents double the frequency found on .org websites (4.6%) and ten times that of government or educational domains, which remained around 1%.

The divergence underscores commercial incentives driving synthetic text adoption. Specific linguistic markers—including em dashes, Oxford commas, and specialized vocabulary—have expanded dramatically across online media since ChatGPT launched in November 2022. Em dash usage doubled across web samples. Oxford comma frequency increased by 63%, while distinct AI vocabulary choices such as "delve" and "testament" more than doubled. Statistical detection models leverage these structural anomalies alongside subtle syntax patterns to track synthetic content proliferation.

The Faceless War: How Artificial Intelligence Rewrote the Map of Power

Small Wars Journal | Francisco Carneiro Júnior

Private technology firms now supply the critical semiconductor, cloud, and orbital infrastructure underpinning modern military operations and cognitive warfare. In July 2025, the U.S. Army awarded Palantir a $10 billion software contract for the Maven Smart System, consolidating seventy-five prior programs onto commercial enterprise platforms. Transferring software control for programs like the $22 billion IVAS program to Anduril Industries anchors military readiness within private civilian supply chains.

Operational wargaming at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College revealed that large language models process doctrine effectively when guided by broad commander's intent rather than micromanaged steps. Software replaces traditional general staffs. Simultaneously, the June 2025 Israel-Iran conflict demonstrated how synthetic media and recirculated authentic footage skew perception at near-zero marginal cost, prompting Israel to form the Sphera unit. Non-aligned mid-sized powers like Brazil must construct sovereign data governance frameworks to mitigate absolute dependency on foreign technology oligopolies.

U.S. Army’s Patriot Air and Missile Defense System

Congressional Research Service | Feickert, Andrew; Holcombe, Robert

The U.S. Navy plans to integrate Lockheed Martin PAC-3 MSE interceptors onto Aegis guided-missile destroyers, targeting initial land-based testing in early 2027 and operational capability by 2028. This integration expands naval point-defense capabilities while supporting broader joint integrated air and missile defense objectives. The U.S. Army currently fields 15 active Patriot battalions and plans to add three additional battalions from FY2029 to FY2031, costing $1.792 billion per battalion equipped with IBCS and LTAMDS.

However, manufacturing bottlenecks and munition shortages create severe friction across international supply chains. Foreign allies are seeking alternatives. Denmark canceled its August 2025 Patriot procurement request in September 2025 to acquire the European SAMP/T system, while Switzerland evaluates alternatives due to projected four-to-five-year delivery backlogs. Simultaneously, the Department of Defense is assessing Patriot integration into the multi-tiered Golden Dome homeland defense architecture designated under Executive Order 14347.

Winning the Salvo Competition: How to Rebuild the Air and Missile Defense Industrial Base

Center for Strategic and International Studies | Benjamin Jensen and Tobias Oestreich

Russian missile salvos against Ukraine are driving an urgent global expansion of air defense production capacity. Moscow is projected to launch 840 ballistic missiles at Ukrainian targets in 2026, causing Ukrainian interception rates to drop from 24 percent to 10.2 percent amid severe interceptor shortages. This crisis puts a premium on high-end interceptors such as Patriot, THAAD, AIM-120 AMRAAM, and IRIS-T.

Modern warfare demands unprecedented industrial scale. To address surging demand, German manufacturer Diehl Defence committed €1.5 billion in investments, increasing its workforce to 6,000 employees and boosting IRIS-T SLM missile production 20-fold since 2022. Simultaneously, U.S. contractor RTX aims to scale annual AMRAAM production by 58 percent to 1,900 units through artificial intelligence and automated component testing. Long-term air defense readiness requires transatlantic policy alignment, multiyear defense contracts, and reduced export barriers to sustain military stocks against expanding missile inventories from China and Russia.

Beyond kinetic strikes: opportunities for UAV-borne directed energy in disrupting asymmetric extremist networks

Taylor & Francis Online | Ruxandra Oana Vlad

Unmanned aerial vehicle platforms equipped with non-nuclear electromagnetic pulse payloads offer counterterrorism operations a precise non-kinetic alternative for disabling digital infrastructure. Traditional kinetic strike campaigns conducted by the United States have steadily lost operational efficacy as extremist organizations like Daesh shifted core communication, recruitment, and planning functions onto dark web networks.

Physical drone strikes in urban areas risk heavy civilian casualties, infrastructure damage, and operational blowback that feeds propaganda. Grounded in projects like the Counter-Electronics High Power Microwave Advanced Missile Project initiated in 2009, drone-mounted directed energy weapons bridge critical capability gaps between conventional airstrikes and cyber interdictions. Directed energy offers scalable precision. By emitting targeted high-power microwave pulses from B-52 bombers or retrofitted unmanned aerial vehicles, counterterrorism forces can disrupt localized terrorist electronics and communication hubs instantly. This capability mitigates physical destruction while neutralizing the digital command networks that sustain modern globalized extremism.

Between Precision and Legitimacy: How the Kargil War Shaped India’s Strategic Partnerships

BESA Center | Dr. Lauren Dagan Amos

India's 1999 Kargil War against Pakistan transformed New Delhi’s strategic relationships with Israel and the United States while demonstrating conventional escalation control under nuclear deterrence. Pakistani forces occupied fortified positions at 15,000–17,000 feet, threatening key territorial access along the Line of Control. The crisis forced rapid adaptation of operational capabilities when political constraints prohibited Indian forces from crossing international boundaries.

Integrating Israeli Litening targeting pods onto French Mirage 2000 and Jaguar fighters within just 12 days enabled precision laser-guided strikes against entrenched positions at Muntho Dalo and Tiger Hill. Ground assaults ultimately secured victory. Simultaneously, Washington broke historical neutrality by pressuring Islamabad to withdraw, acknowledging Indian diplomatic restraint. This multi-sourced technological integration—combining American guidance kits, French airframes, and Israeli pods—validated India's doctrine of strategic autonomy without operational isolation. Consequently, the conflict established a lasting precedent for crisis-driven defense procurement, rapid system customization, and flexible multi-alignment in South Asian defense architecture.

Pakistan’s Compellence Trap

Small Wars Journal | Muhammad Amir

Pakistan surged to first place on the 2026 Global Terrorism Index after recording 1,139 deaths across 1,045 incidents in 2025, even as global terrorism fatalities dropped 28 per cent. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan generated over 74 per cent of all domestic attacks, concentrating the violence along the 2,600-kilometer Durand Line.

This geography grants insurgent groups operational depth beyond Pakistani reach. Ground operations like Azm-e-Istehkam repeatedly fail to neutralize Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan forces operating from Afghan sanctuaries. Demanding Kabul suppress culturally linked allies misdiagnoses a compellence problem as deterrence. Pakistan declared a state of war in February 2026, launching airstrikes against Kabul and Kandahar that displaced 115,000 people. Diplomatic exhaustion eventually forced Islamabad to accept Chinese-brokered talks in Urumqi. Tactics yield no strategy. Escalation across borderland terrain has converted cross-border counterinsurgency into a cyclic interstate conflict, transferring regional diplomatic leverage to Beijing while worsening domestic border vulnerabilities.

Balochistan Has Become a Nightmare for Pakistan and Iran

BESA Center | Manish Rai

Pakistani security forces initiated Operation Shaban and Operation Al-Azm in Balochistan following coordinated rebel assaults on state infrastructure and police outposts. The escalation highlights the military's inability to suppress ethno-nationalist insurgents who exploit the province's expansive terrain and porous frontiers with Iran and Afghanistan. Pakistan's XII Corps remains severely overstretched.

Diverted troop deployments along the Line of Control and the Durand Line prevent Islamabad from massing sufficient forces in the region. Simultaneously, anti-state resentment stems from economic exploitation and severe poverty among the local population. This instability is overflowing across the Goldsmith Line into Iran's Sistan and Balochistan province. Sunni militant organizations like Jaish al-Adl benefit from safe havens in Pakistan while adopting sophisticated tactics similar to the secular Balochistan Liberation Army. Trust deficits between Tehran and Islamabad prevent effective cross-border counterinsurgency cooperation. Consequently, both nations face an intensifying dual-front ethno-nationalist threat along their shared periphery.

The Subcontract: Pakistan’s Military Command Sells Strategic Availability to Washington

FrameTheGlobe News

On August 20, 2026, Pakistan’s National Assembly passed the Defence Forces of Pakistan Act, consolidating operational command across all military branches under Chief of Defence Forces and Chief of Army Staff. This statutory restructuring formalizes a broader geopolitical pivot toward Washington, aligning Rawalpindi's command architecture with American regional security objectives.

The centralization consolidates nuclear and multi-domain military control into a single office. Power now rests in one military chair. Thirteen days prior, Saudi Arabia, Türkiye, and Pakistan executed the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement, establishing a mutual defense framework backed by Saudi capital and Turkish defense-industrial capacity. Concurrently, former United States Ambassador to Pakistan Donald Blome assumed leadership of the State Department’s Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, bridging South Asian military assets into Gulf security planning. This alignment grants Washington a regional proxy structure to counter Iranian influence and restrict Chinese expansion in the Arabian Sea.

Armed by China: The Dependency Behind Pakistan’s Military

The Heritage Foundation | Kriti Upadhyaya

Pakistan's armed forces during the 2025 conflict with India marked the first reported combat deployment of advanced Chinese weapon systems, including HQ-9 air-defense networks, PL-15 air-to-air missiles, and J-10 fighter jets. Chinese suppliers supplied 82 percent of Pakistani defense imports between 2019 and 2023, highlighting a structural shift in regional military alignment.

Data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute details four major waves of arms transfers since 1965, resulting in nearly 46,000 delivered systems across land, air, and sea domains. Domestic Pakistani manufacturing now produces eight of twelve major military platform categories under Chinese license, culminating in joint fighter manufacturing and eight Hangor-class air-independent propulsion submarines. Beijing thoroughly controls Pakistan's military supply chain. Consequently, any outside security cooperation risks subsidizing Chinese defense technology, obligating Washington and international partners to manage Pakistan's force structure as permanently bound to Beijing's geopolitical ambitions.