The Space Security Trilemma: Analysis of Anti-Satellite (ASAT) Weapons of the United States, China, and India

2026-08-17T17:07:57+00:00

In the contemporary strategic environment, outer space has emerged as a critical domain of military competition, complementing the traditional land, sea, and air domains. As reliance on space-based assets continues to expand, major spacefaring nations invest in advanced technologies, including Anti-Satellite (ASAT) weapons, to strengthen their capabilities and secure strategic advantages in space. The United States (US) demonstrated its ASAT capability in 1985, China in 2007, and India in 2019. The emergence of ASAT capabilities among these three states contributed to a complex space security trilemma, in which measures adopted by one state to enhance its security are perceived as threats by others, encouraging reciprocal military responses. ASAT systems, particularly direct-ascent kinetic interceptors, can disable, damage, or destroy satellites during periods of conflict, thereby undermining an adversary’s military space support and reducing its operational effectiveness. Against this backdrop, the present study provides a comparative analysis of the ASAT capabilities of the US, China, and India. The analysis is undertaken through the analytical framework of Space-power Theory to assess the strategic motivations, military implications, and security consequences associated with the development of these capabilities.

The Second-Generation Threat: AI-Assisted Decentralized Militancy and Counter-Extremism Governance in South Asia

2026-08-14T17:46:17+00:00

Existing counter-extremism scholarship and governance practice remain largely anchored to the Islamic State threat model of 2014–2018, which assumed centralized production, stylistically recognizable output, and predominantly Arabic and English distribution. Whether that framework is still adequate for the South Asian threat environment is the question this article addresses. Generative AI tools have, since approximately 2019, enabled decentralized Militant Islamist networks to produce vernacular-language propaganda at near-zero marginal cost, a qualitative shift that the post-2014 counter-extremism consensus did not anticipate. Drawing on a structured comparative case study of three national sub-systems, Pakistan’s Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan and its Umar Media wing, Bangladesh’s Ansar al-Islam ecosystem, and India’s WhatsApp distribution environment, and applying Marc Sageman’s network theory of leaderless jihad alongside Tarleton Gillespie’s platform governance framework, with J. M. Berger’s account of algorithmic amplification as a bridging device, the analysis identifies three compounding structural deficits in the current governance architecture: a South Asian vernacular language moderation gap, an absence of definitional categories for AI-generated content in national regulatory frameworks, and inter-state coordination failures shaped by competing geopolitical interests.

ASIAN Journal of International Peace & Security (AJIPS)

The Space Security Trilemma: Analysis of Anti-Satellite (ASAT) Weapons of the United States, China, and India

The Second-Generation Threat: AI-Assisted Decentralized Militancy and Counter-Extremism Governance in South Asia