| In our latest update, we highlight our new Disruptive Technologies and Nuclear Risks research program, launched this year to examine the security challenges emerging at the intersection of technological innovation and nuclear risk. From military AI and cyber vulnerabilities to hypersonic weapons, space systems, and precision-strike capabilities, our recent publications explore how these evolving technologies are reshaping strategic stability in the Asia-Pacific and beyond.
We also round up recent activities from our network, including analyses on the G7 Leaders’ Summit, the Xi-Kim Summit and its implications for security on the Korean Peninsula, perceptions of Chinese-built infrastructure in Southeast Asia, and more. |
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Disruptive Technologies and Nuclear Risks
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This year, our research strategy has expanded to address the cross-cutting security challenges at the intersection of disruptive technologies and nuclear risks. Our latest work explores six interconnected domains: the implications of military AI for command-and-control systems; the hypersonic-nuclear nexus and compressed decision windows; cyber vulnerabilities within nuclear infrastructure; space-based early warning platforms; the escalatory risks of conventional precision-strike missiles in the Asia-Pacific, alongside efforts to advance nuclear fail-safe mechanisms. Our most recent publications and briefs on these evolving dynamics are detailed below for your further reading.
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| Manpreet Sethi outlines four ways in which AI-enabled military systems could undermine nuclear deterrence, and argues that these risks can be mitigated by keeping AI as a decision-support tool rather than a replacement for human judgement, maintaining air gaps between early-warning systems and launch commands, and ensuring secure channels for crisis communication. |
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| Jingdong Yuan provides a timely assessment of China’s strategic pivot toward military intelligentisation, exploring how Beijing is integrating AI into the PLA to gain a decisive edge in its rivalry with the United States. Examining how Chinese analysts view these disruptive technologies as a historic opportunity to “overtake on a curve,” the paper explores the operational benefits, inherent risks of AI-nuclear integration, and the steep implementation challenges facing the PLA. |
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| Sameer Patil and Rahul Rawat argue that the integration of emerging technologies – particularly AI – into nuclear systems will heighten global nuclear risks by increasing the likelihood of miscalculation, faulty judgment, and unintended escalation. They call for a closer examination of these risks, including in the context of India’s nuclear arsenal, and explore ways to mitigate the dangers posed by AI in nuclear command, control, and communications (NC3) systems through robust risk reduction and failsafe measures. |
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| Tianjiao Jiang analyses Beijing’s recent white paper, “China’s Arms Control, Disarmament and Non-proliferation in the New Era,” arguing that it signals a shift toward a more proactive Chinese stance on global security governance. As “cross-domain entanglement” in space, cyber, and AI increasingly blurs the boundaries of modern warfare, Jiang offers concrete recommendations for US-China cooperation to establish the multi-layered safeguards necessary to prevent an AI-induced strategic crisis. |
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| As South Korea rapidly moves from debating the role of AI to deploying it in practice, Suon Choi recommends that South Korea and the United States discuss bilateral AI safeguards, ensure military AI systems are designed to de-escalate tensions rather than intensify them, and leverage Seoul’s position as a global AI leader to promote international standards that could indirectly pressure the DPRK to adopt basic safety norms. |
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| Ryo Hinata-Yamaguchi examines how AI is shaping Japan’s defence planning and operational risk management, focusing on the strategic operationalisation within the Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF) and its broader regional implications. Given the constraints on military transparency, establishing shared norms for accountability and oversight is critical to mitigating inadvertent escalation and ensuring long-term strategic stability. |
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| Aina Turillazzi examines how AI is reshaping the Australian Defence Force under the 2024 National Defence Strategy and Integrated Investment Program, where AI is largely financed through the same machinery that funds connectivity, data infrastructure, and command and control. She argues that the policy task is not to slow adoption, but to ensure AI holds up under crisis pressure, and outlines four strategic shifts to build a more controllable AI-enabled force. |
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| Sahar Khan analyses how the integration of AI into the Indian and Pakistani militaries has altered the regional security environment, increasing the need for credible ‘guardrails’ to reduce escalation risks and recognize mutual vulnerabilities. She argues that both countries should publicly reaffirm that nuclear launch authority remains under meaningful human control, tailor crisis communication for AI-driven incidents, and establish informal understandings not to target nuclear command-and-control infrastructure with cyber operations. |
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APLN has over 180 members from 24 countries in the Asia-Pacific.
Each week, we feature their latest contributions
to global and regional security debates.
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| C. Raja Mohan, the Korea Chair at the Council for Strategic and Defence Research, Delhi, was interviewed by Times Now where he discussed key developments surrounding the G7 Leaders’ Summit, the Iran–US peace agreement, India–US relations, Prime Minister Modi’s upcoming meeting with President Trump, and India’s multi-alignment strategy in an evolving geopolitical landscape. |
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| Huong Le Thu, Deputy Director of Asia Program at the International Crisis Group, discussed with Christopher Green, Jenny Town, and William Yang the outcome of the Xi-Kim summit and its implications for security on the Korean Peninsula, as well as wider regional geopolitical dynamics. |
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| Hoang Thi Ha, Senior Fellow at ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute, co-wrote a commentary with Eugene R.L. Tan on perceptions of Chinese-built infrastructure in Southeast Asia. It reflects both the tangible benefits of these projects and broader considerations shaping regional views of China as an infrastructure development partner. |
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| Cheong Wook-sik, Director of the Hankyoreh Peace Institute and Director of the Peace Network, argued that linking a peace treaty to denuclearisation has become increasingly unrealistic, and proposes a more pragmatic approach that combines deterrence with a peace treaty based on “peaceful coexistence” and strategic ambiguity. |
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