As we enter the first week of January 2026, the global landscape is defined by the fallout from the U.S. military operation in Venezuela and a critical “election-year” posture from Washington. The year ahead suggests a shift from the post-war multilateral order toward a more transactional, high-stakes era of “sovereignty-first” politics.
In 2025, security assessments have highlighted a “paradigm shift” as extremist groups move from passive technology use to the active integration of Generative AI for propaganda, recruitment, and attack planning.
AI integration in nuclear early warning systems creates catastrophic risks by generating high-fidelity “hallucinations” and deepfakes that could trigger accidental escalation. To ensure strategic stability, nuclear powers must maintain strict “human-in-the-loop” protocols, improve deepfake detection, and prioritize information accuracy over launch speed in crisis decision-making.
