Arul R

Mythos evokes caution about the emerging stage of AI development, characterised by the dilution of human oversight and inequitable access to capabilities.

• Meghna Pradhan |
• May 20, 2026 |
• Issue Brief

Africa's rapid adoption of cryptocurrencies and decentralised finance (DeFi) reflects both structural economic pressures and technological opportunity. Driven by currency volatility, inflation, financial exclusion, and a young, mobile-first population, crypto assets, particularly stablecoins have become embedded in everyday transactions, remittances, and value storage across the continent. However, this digital transformation has generated significant security risks. Drawing on recent law-enforcement operations such as INTERPOL-AFRIPOL's Operation Catalyst, this paper examines how cryptocurrencies and DeFi platforms are increasingly exploited by organised crime networks and terrorist groups for money laundering, fraud, extortion, and terror financing. The analysis highlights how pseudo-anonymity, weak regulatory frameworks, peer-to-peer exchanges, and crossborder ease of transfer enable a growing crime-terror nexus in Africa. While crypto technologies offer pathways for financial inclusion and economic resilience, their unregulated expansion threatens to undermine regional security and governance. The paper argues for calibrated regulation, institutional capacity-building, and financial literacy as essential to balancing innovation with security imperatives.

• Meghna Pradhan |
• July-December 2025 |
• Africa Trends

The war in West Asia has seen an unprecedented use of Artificial Intelligence and autonomous systems like drones in the military kill chain.

• Meghna Pradhan |
• March 23, 2026 |
• West Asia War Analyses

The war in West Asia has seen an unprecedented use of Artificial Intelligence and autonomous systems like drones in the military kill chain.

• Meghna Pradhan |
• March 23, 2026 |
• IDSA Comments

The February 2026 New Delhi AI Impact Summit is expected to reorient the global conversation on AI from principles to their practical, tangible impact.

• Ajey Lele, Meghna Pradhan |
• January 01, 2026 |
• Special Feature

For Koreans, the Korean War was undoubtedly a watershed moment, which cemented the bifurcation of Korean Peninsula that continues more than seventy years after the fact. It is impossible to segregate the Korean War from the history of United States. US had, after all, provided for around 5.7 million personnel in the UN initiative against North Korean ingression into South Korea.

• Meghna Pradhan |
• July-September 2025 |
• Journal of Defence Studies

The abrupt rescission of the AI Diffusion Framework marks a significant shift in US approach to AI policy.

• Meghna Pradhan |
• July 04, 2025 |
• Issue Brief

India is championing flexible, voluntary commitments that enshrine human accountability and compliance with International Humanitarian Law norms in military AI.

• Meghna Pradhan |
• May 22, 2025 |
• Issue Brief

Research Analyst, Manohar Parrikar IDSA, Ms Meghna Prdhan’s Issue Brief ‘SILENT WINGS OVER VERMILION SKIES: Contextualising SEAD and Loitering Munitions in the 2025 India-Pakistan Conflict’ has been published by Society for the Study of Peace and Conflict (SSPC) on 14 May 2025.

The issue brief provides an in-depth analysis of the 2025 India-Pakistan conflict, focusing on the strategic use of loitering munitions and Suppression of Enemy Air Defences (SEAD) in modern warfare.

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• Meghna Pradhan |
• October–December 2024 |
• Journal of Defence Studies