Journal of Defence Studies

African Defence: A Statistical Analysis

Africa’s continental aspirations are well documented in ‘Agenda 2063’. With a laid-out implementation plan for well-articulated goals to meet the aspirations, Africa is moving in the right direction, albeit a little slowly. The main reasons are intertwined and interrelated—conflicts and slow economic growth. To top this, African governments are splurging on building military capabilities without clearly defined strategic goals.

Two Decades of US-Taliban War in Afghanistan

In August 2021, the world was stunned by dramatic visuals of Afghan civilians running along and attempting to cling to a US Air Force (USAF) C-17 aircraft taking off from the Kabul airport in a desperate bid to flee from Afghanistan that had fallen to the Taliban. Just a month before this, in the first week of July 2021, the last of the American troops left Bagram Airfield, which had been the nerve centre of American-led military operations in Afghanistan for nearly 20 years.

A Study on Measuring the Index of Technologies (Smart and Conventional)

Humans have been developing technologies that make living easier and open unimaginable horizons. Scholars have been combining technologies to innovate and evolve newer concepts. The evolution of smart devices has led to the concept of creating smart cities. Several nations intend to develop a smart technology ecosystem for ease of governance, economic growth, and comfort of their citizens. The not-so-nascent concept of a smart city requires a scale to measure the levels of technology in the system.

Aptitude Tests to Assess the Suitability of Gentlemen Cadets for Allotment of Technical Arms/Services upon Commissioning at the Indian Military Academy (IMA), Dehradun

Science of warfare maintains that man is more important than his weapon. Today, technology is changing very rapidly and weaponry is continuously evolving. It is the age of high technology and rapid improvement of weaponry. The defence forces of all the countries are forging ahead every day with improved systems and technology. The fit between the man and his weapon is perhaps more important today than in any other time in the history of warfare. We cannot be adhering to the old colonial procedure for allocation of human capital to handle the fast and ever-changing technology of weapons.

Cyber-Biosecurity: An Emerging National Security Frontier

Cyber-Biosecurity, an emerging threat landscape at the intersection of cybersecurity, cyber-physical security and biosecurity has a potential to disrupt economic, social and political well-being of the nation and has tremendous national security implications. All forms of cyber-attacks impact the manufacturing industries, governments, health infrastructure, patients and bio-economy at large.

India–Egypt Defence Cooperation: Continuity and Reset

India–Egypt relations are gaining momentum once again. Back-to-back high-level exchange of bilateral visits in the past few months have set the tone for India and Egypt to strengthen their ties. India’s Defence Minister Rajnath Singh visited Egypt in September 2022 and India’s External Affairs Minister
Dr S. Jaishankar visited it in October 2022. Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi was the Chief Guest at India’s Republic Day in January 2023.

Reality, Lies, and Automation: How AI-Powered text generation models could cause chaos?

In the past few years, the emergence of social media as a robust platform has ushered in a new era of social interaction, communication, community building, and sadly, fomenting conflicts through disinformation and propaganda. Social media has opened new, easily accessible avenues for disseminating falsehood, sowing division and promoting real-world (offline) damage through violence, harassment and exploitation. Using disinformation to win wars is not something new.

India–Malaysia Defence Relations: Issues and Challenges

This article aims to analyse the bilateral defence relations between India and Malaysia in the context of ongoing geo-political and strategic issues confronting the Indo-Pacific region. Writings on defence partnerships between India and Malaysia are very few and when seen in the context of India’s new ‘Act East Policy’, this article attains significance. The article analyses these relations in a descriptive and analytical manner by first looking into the historical relations and thereafter by highlighting, in brief, the developments during the Cold War era.

Critical Analysis of the Chinese Private Space Sector: The Past, Present and Future

This article presents a comprehensive review of China’s emerging private space industry, including an analysis of government policies, investments and international relations. China’s private space industry has grown significantly since 1988, with over 60 startups emerging by 2022, thanks to the strong support from the government and military civil fusion.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Human-Machine Teaming

The battlefields of the future will be dynamic, chaotic, unpredictable, and uncertain. In such interlinked battlefields in multiple theatres and domains, commanders and staff would be sifting through multitude of data for information, decision, and feedback. In such a time-constrained operational environment obscured by Clausewitzian fog of war, effective and unbiased decision-making by leaders and cohesive, cogent actions by teams of humans and machines/systems will be enablers for succinct victory.