Economic Affairs & National Development

Multiple-Central Bank Digital Currency Platforms : An Alternative to the Dollar-Based Payment System?

The United States Dollar (USD) has long enjoyed the ‘exorbitant privilege’ of being at the centre of the international financial and trade system, serving as the dominant currency for holding financial assets and facilitating cross-border payments. The dollar-based international payment system has three major components:

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Emerging technologies

Shifting Dynamics: Brain Chips as the Next Battlefield  

Composed of 86 billion neurons, the human brain is nothing short of an absolute marvel. This composite cobweb is slowly but surely becoming a technological hotspot, with massive funds poured to detect and record its activity and synergise it with smart devices, a phenomenon called Brain-Chip Interface (BCI).

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Economic Affairs & National Development

Fixing Pakistan’s Budget

The question of fiscal sustainability has long haunted the Federal Budget of Pakistan. As deficits have widened over consecutive years, reform efforts have been piecemeal and trivial at best, and counterproductive at worst. What Pakistan’s budgetary architecture requires, however, is a systematic overhaul. By contrast,

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India

Half a Decade of Amplified Suppression in Indian Occupied Jammu & Kashmir

Fifth August 2024 marks half a decade since India annexed the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) and denied the disputed territory’s right to statehood through a rushed presidential decree. Months after winning the second term in the Lok Sabha polls 2019, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government revoked

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Strategic Foresight

Democracy in the 21st Century:Exploring Contemporary Trends

In the aftermath of the Cold War, a wave of democratisation, coined by American political scientist Samuel Huntington as the ‘Third Wave’ swept across the world. The wave refers to the transition of several non-democratic setups to democratic ones, promising a future where democratic ideals would grow.

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Cyber

Cyberspace as a Global Common : Formulation and Applicability of International Law

In the modern digital age, cyberspace has become an integral part of daily life. However, as cyberspace transcends physical borders, it poses unique challenges to traditional legal frameworks. Understanding cyberspace as a ‘global common’ and the applicability of international law within this realm is crucial for ensuring security, stability, and cooperation in the digital domain. To address these critical issues,

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Economic Affairs & National Development

The Stock Market is not the Economy

The ebbs and flows of business cycles provide ample evidence that a stock market, by itself, is not representative of an economy as a whole. Even in recent memory, one may think of how governments around the world poured in unprecedented amounts of stimulus during COVID-19, much of which poured

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Aerospace

Trusting Autonomy in Military Aviation

The imagination of military aviation enthusiasts has remained captivated by the idea of self-flying fighter aircraft for decades. Hollywood tried to cash in on this back in 2005 with the release of Stealth which depicted an AI-controlled Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicle (UCAV) slated to replace human pilots in the future.

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Emerging technologies

Beyond Autopilot: Unmanned Systems and their Dual Use Potential

Unmanned systems, driven by rapid technological advancements, have become pivotal not only in the military domain but in civilian arenas also because of their dual nature. So far, most of the available literature looks at the military utility of unmanned systems only. However, this article sheds light on the usefulness of

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