As 2025 draws to a close in few days, it is time to reflect back on the chain of events that have shaped the year. Apart from the typical highs and lows – the year saw some unprecedented events that will have a lasting imprint.
In contemporary air warfare, there is a silent battle that begins long before the first missile is fired: the battle of the mind. The Indo-Pakistan conflict of 2025 reaffirmed this truth. In that short but decisive engagement, Pakistan Air Force (PAF) demonstrated that in modern warfare, victory is no longer about airframes destroyed but in the mastery of cognition, which is the ability to think faster, act smarter and control perception under stress. To make victory second nature, institutionalisation of cognitive gains through AI, cross-domain integration and leadership development is paramount for modern air forces.
Certain estimates suggest that there are currently 2.1 million Pakistani youths who are unemployed. The youth unemployment rate of the age group (15-24 years old) has reached 11.1 per cent, which is much higher than the worldwide average.
Ever since ChatGPT rolled out in late 2022, the global conversation about Artificial Intelligence (AI) became fixated on the threats posed by deepfakes, synthetic propaganda and AI systems that could create entire universes with a single prompt
Modern warfare is characterised by the race to compress the Observe-Orient-Decide-Act (OODA) loop. Militaries that can process information faster will undoubtedly have an edge in future conflicts. In this context, machine learning (ML), a prominent subset of
Humanity’s expedition towards stars is inevitable. According to the organic state theory, states have a tendency to expand and occupy the available space, much like organic beings
The tragic crash of Tejas at Dubai Airshow 2025 holds serious strategic repercussions for Indian Air Force (IAF) and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL). Tejas Light Combat Aircraft (LCA), a multi-purpose 4.5 generation jet, is not only viewed by India as a manifestation of its technological and strategic autonomy but also as a symbol of national pride.
India and Afghanistan have recently warmed up marked by the official visit of Taliban’s foreign minister to India and New Delhi’s decision to reopen its embassy in Kabul. While the chatter about a renewed partnership in the region is only natural, a long term alliance between Taliban led Afghanistan and BJP’s India is anything but natural.
In the third week of September, Qatar convened an emergency meeting of 57 of the most influential Islamic leaders called the Arab-Islamic Extraordinary Summit. The agenda of the meeting was to discuss a collective response to Israel’s unprovoked aggression against Qatar a few days prior, in which it launched aerial strikes against a Hamas negotiating party within the neutral confines of Doha, which was acting as the official mediator.
On 31st October, the United States Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth and India’s Defence Minister Rajnath Singh renewed the 10-year defence framework at the ASEAN Defence Summit in Kuala Lumpur.
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