National Security

On 15 January 2026, the Pakistani defence production minister confirmed that an agreement for a new trilateral defence deal between Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Türkiye is in the pipeline, other than the Pakistan-Saudi bilateral deal announced last year. Though no formal accord has been signed as yet, nor have any terms been made public, the countries’ acknowledgement of the long-discussed deal has nonetheless inspired considerable discourse regarding its potential.

On 19 January 2026, the three-hour visit of the United Arab Emirates’s (UAE) president, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, to India attracted significant attention due to the potential outcomes it intended to materialise. The visit prospects a deep strategic engagement between the two states across several domains, including defence innovation, industrial development, advanced technology, training, education and counter terrorism.

On the morning of January 3, 2026, the United States carried out an operation against Venezuela: deposing a sitting president Nicolás Maduro and his wife from the heartland of a heavily guarded capital. Although the legality and morality of this operation are highly contested, this article focuses on an equally important dimension, which is the employment of airpower in conflicts.

Although the SDMA does not identify an adversary, effectively functioning as a deterrent, it cannot be viewed in isolation from the Israeli belligerence in the Middle East. Israel’s war against Hamas has expanded beyond the genocide of Gaza; it has bombed the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, Iran, and recently Qatar. Tel Aviv’s campaign under the banners of ‘anti-Semitism’ and ‘terrorism’ has engulfed the whole Middle East in a war-like situation, which has generated new enemies and has deepened the instability of the region.

Economic dysfunction has been a consistent reason for riots in recent years. Countries such as Bangladesh, Srilanka, Nepal, and most recently Iran witnessed mass protests emanating from economic turmoil. Unemployment, inflation, and mismanagement of resources led the masses to express their discontent through protest and strife.