Advancing Strategic Thought Through Independent Defence Scholarship

The Defence Horizon Journal is an independent international platform bringing together researchers, practitioners and military professionals to advance informed debate on security and defence.

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  • Bianca Lins and Josef Schröfl, (Peter Land Group: Lausanne, 2026). pp. 236. The Cyber and Information Space Matrix offers an ambitious attempt to systematise one of the most complex terrains in contemporary security: the convergence of cyberspace, information environments, and modern conflict. Edited by Bianca Lins and Josef Schröfl, the volume positions itself at the… Read more →

  • Abstract: This paper argues that (military) leaders need to develop four critical capabilities to succeed in a disruptive and ambiguous environment. It goes on to contrast these desiderata with the fundamental trade-off between readiness and quality that permeates all military training and education, including academic studies. To counter a specific threat within a given time… Read more →

  • Abstract: This study examines how the People’s Republic of China and Taiwanese media frame United States-Taiwan arms sales using unsupervised text mining methods. It analyses English-language news coverage from 2019 to 2026, a period marked by delayed U.S. arms transfers and political debate over Taiwan’s defence spending. Drawing on articles from Taiwanese and PRC-affiliated media,… Read more →

  • Abstract: Emerging technologies increasingly accelerate intelligence and decision cycles, yet the officer as human-in-the-loop remains cognitively vulnerable within contested information environments. Artificial intelligence may both mitigate and amplify these vulnerabilities. This article conceptualises Cognitive Resilience as the systematic integration of cognitive control loops into military decision-making. It proposes a training framework—Countering Cognitive Warfare Training (CCW… Read more →

  • Abstract: Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and, especially, First Person View (FPV)-drones have fundamentally altered conventional and asymmetric warfare. With their rapid development since 2022 in the Russian-Ukrainian war, the Austrian Armed Forces recognised the need to develop methods to train future leaders in the intricacies of warfare with a heavy UAV presence and in integrating… Read more →

  • Vivek Chadha, (Bloomsbury Publishing India Pvt. Ltd., 2015). pp. 258 Terrorism finance remains under-examined in Indian security studies despite its central importance. Vivek Chadha’s Lifeblood of Terrorism addresses this gap through a detailed mapping of funding sources, transfer mechanisms, and operational use across India’s conflict zones. Indian Army Veteran, Colonel Chadha, leverages counterinsurgency expertise, offering enforcement-focused, state-centric… Read more →

  • Abstract: Specialised digital-reserve functions are becoming increasingly important in how states conceptualise reserves in national and allied security. Alongside traditional reserve roles, digitally-specialised reservists can mobilise scarce expertise in cyber defence, data, cloud systems, and AI. Drawing on civilian and academic professionals, they may strengthen resilience against hybrid threats while raising questions of interoperability, legality,… Read more →

  • Abstract: Digital insecurity becomes leverage only when authorities recognised by relevant governance bodies convert cyber risk into binding rules, restrictions, or supervisory duties that alter the terms of participation. This process is called institutional conversion. Three pathways matter most: reliability shock, supplier risk governance, and exposure cascade. Comparing the European Union with Nigeria shows that… Read more →

  • Abstract: This article argues that AI-mediated cadet/officer training is not ethically neutral but functions as a normative training environment that shapes attention, incentives, and moral reasoning. Drawing on a virtue-ethics distinction between simulated virtue (ethically correct-looking outputs and rule compliance) and internalised virtue (phronesis-based judgment under pressure), it describes how AI training ecosystems pre-structure ethical… Read more →

  • Abstract: Across many waves of indiscriminate missile and drone attacks by Iran, the performance of defensive systems deployed by the GCC, especially the UAE, has been both consistent and strategically consequential. In a region where stability is both a security imperative and an economic necessity, this represents a major strategic achievement. The next phase of… Read more →

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