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Rabia Akhtar @rabsaa.bsky.social · 20d

Signaling solidarity is not the same as issuing a blank check of military intervention. Islamabad is not offering Riyadh a covert “nuclear button,” and Riyadh is not signing up to fight in Kashmir. Defense cooperation ≠ automatic war pledge, and signaling ≠ nuclear guarantee.

Project on Managing the Atom @managingtheatom.bsky.social · 21d

@rabsaa.bsky.social has released her edited volume, "Strategic Reckoning: Perspectives on Deterrence and Escalation Post-Pahalgam", offering timely insights into the dynamics of deterrence, crisis management, and regional security in South Asia.
www.belfercenter.org/research-ana...

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Reposted by Rabia Akhtar

Project on Managing the Atom @managingtheatom.bsky.social · 21d

@rabsaa.bsky.social has released her edited volume, "Strategic Reckoning: Perspectives on Deterrence and Escalation Post-Pahalgam", offering timely insights into the dynamics of deterrence, crisis management, and regional security in South Asia.
www.belfercenter.org/research-ana...

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Rabia Akhtar @rabsaa.bsky.social · Aug 14

Beyond Nukes. Pakistan’s Army Rocket Force Command aims to hit hard without crossing the nuclear line, cleaner command, better targeting, and a faster kill chain to stress Indian IADS. Why this matters & what to watch next! Here's my initial assessment of ARFC.
pakistanpolitico.com/arfc/

Pakistan’s Army Rocket Force Command

Rabia Akhtar (Note: This piece offers a preliminary read of the ARFC announcement and its implications, pending further

pakistanpolitico.com

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Rabia Akhtar @rabsaa.bsky.social · Aug 10

Like seriously! Who’s with me?

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Rabia Akhtar @rabsaa.bsky.social · Jul 26

Beyond the Brink: Game Theory and the Future of Indo-Pak Security in the Age of Stealth
open.substack.com/pub/rakhtar/...

Beyond the Brink: Game Theory and the Future of Indo-Pak Security in the Age of Stealth

Applying game theory to understand the precarious balance of power in South Asia’s emerging stealth competition.

open.substack.com

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Rabia Akhtar @rabsaa.bsky.social · Jul 26

Third Nuclear Age is already here. May 2025 showed how non-nuclear tech, politics, and misperception can unravel deterrence. @nktpnd.bsky.social breaks it down with Ejaz Haider.
youtu.be/il_GY3h34Ec?...

InFocus With Ejaz Haider EP71: Deterrence in the New Nuclear Age

YouTube video by CSSPR

youtu.be

Rabia Akhtar @rabsaa.bsky.social · Jul 24

To all my PhD students!

Rabia Akhtar @rabsaa.bsky.social · Jul 23

From Escalation to Explanation: The Fight for the Last Word
substack.com/profile/3030...

Rabia Akhtar (@rabiaakhtar1)

From Escalation to Explanation: The Fight for the Last Word https://open.substack.com/pub/rakhtar/p/who-owns-the-story-the-real-battle?r=i1g3g&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=fals...

substack.com

Rabia Akhtar @rabsaa.bsky.social · Jul 21

We are not just witnessing a decline in the humanities, we are watching a civilizational shift toward control, fragmentation, and forgetting. What happens when a society stops teaching meaning? McGilchrist offers a warning we can’t ignore.

open.substack.com/pub/rakhtar/...

The Collapse of Attention: Losing the Right Mind

Mapping the Fall of the Reflective Mind

open.substack.com

Rabia Akhtar @rabsaa.bsky.social · Jul 21

The world does not need more deterrence posturing. It needs strategic humility. In this piece for @belfercenter.bsky.social, I reflect on the Nobel Laureate Declaration and its urgent call to recalibrate how we think about nuclear risk.
www.belfercenter.org/research-ana...

Remember Your Humanity: Why the Nobel Laureate Declaration Is a Call for Strategic Recalibration

Marking the 80th anniversary of the Trinity test, Nobel Peace Laureates and experts issued a powerful declaration urging urgent global action to reduce nuclear risks amid rising geopolitical instabili...

www.belfercenter.org

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Rabia Akhtar @rabsaa.bsky.social · Jul 21

Pakistan’s resistance to the FMCT is not a diplomatic anomaly. It is a calculated stance shaped by asymmetry, strategic parity concerns, and treaty design flaws. I unpack the strategic logic behind Pakistan’s position. open.substack.com/pub/rakhtar/...

In Search of Equity: Understanding Pakistan’s Conditions for the FMCT

Strategic Fracture in the Global Nuclear Order: Why the FMCT Fails to Convince Pakistan

open.substack.com

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Rabia Akhtar @rabsaa.bsky.social · Jul 21

Just launched: Elusive Stability by @alizia1992.bsky.social. If you care about where South Asian nuclear and strategic debates are headed, this Substack will shape how we think about tomorrow’s crises today.

Syed Ali Zia Jaffery @alizia1992.bsky.social · Jul 20

I am happy to launch my Substack, Elusive Stability. Subscribe, engage, and take the debate forward.

open.substack.com/pub/alizia1992…

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Reposted by Rabia Akhtar

Syed Ali Zia Jaffery @alizia1992.bsky.social · Jul 20

I am happy to launch my Substack, Elusive Stability. Subscribe, engage, and take the debate forward.

open.substack.com/pub/alizia1992…

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Reposted by Rabia Akhtar

Alex Wellerstein @wellerstein.bsky.social · Jul 20

Actually after trying to do a very simple operation to merge data from two GeoTIFF files I now understand why Oppenheimer is involved with this. It is a cautionary tale...!!!

Alex Wellerstein @wellerstein.bsky.social · Jul 20

I was looking for a decent GeoTIFF viewer and suddenly there's a random photo of J. Robert Oppenheimer on my screen. What does J. Robert Oppenheimer have to do with GIS mapping? I am become GeoTIFF, destroyer of worlds? IDK. Very strange.

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Rabia Akhtar @rabsaa.bsky.social · Jul 21

“We are eternal vibrations, not accidents of matter.” Tesla’s message transcends time. A call to awaken, resonate, and return to the source. Love is the highest frequency. A reminder that the universe may be less mechanical and far more conscious than we imagine.

open.substack.com/pub/rakhtar/...

Tesla, Vibration, and the Echo of the Universe

What if consciousness did not emerge from us, but flowed through us?

open.substack.com

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Rabia Akhtar @rabsaa.bsky.social · Jul 20

India’s new Agni-V "bunker-buster" is no ordinary missile. It's a conventional warhead meant to strike deeply buried nuclear sites. But the strategy behind it is deeply flawed. My new piece in Dawn explains why.
www.dawn.com/news/1925251...

THE PROBLEM WITH INDIA’S NEW MISSILE GAMBIT

India’s reported pursuit of a missile able to carry a ‘bunker-buster’ like the US’ Massive Ordnance Penetrator presents a perilous

www.dawn.com

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Rabia Akhtar @rabsaa.bsky.social · Jul 17

“Remember your humanity, and forget the rest.”
Guided by these words, we signed the Nobel Laureate Assembly Declaration in Chicago to stop the drift toward nuclear war. Clear steps. Shared responsibility. Urgent action.
thebulletin.org/2025/07/the-...

The Nobel Laureate Assembly Declaration for the Prevention of Nuclear War

Tremendous progress has been made in reducing global nuclear stockpiles and nuclear risks, but we are now heading in the wrong direction. Poised at the beginning of a new, complex, and dangerous nucle...

thebulletin.org

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Reposted by Rabia Akhtar

The Debate - France 24 @f24debate.france24.com · Jul 14

🗨️"Pleasing #Trump isn’t #Putin's priority. Putin has no reason to stop."

👉 @belfercenter.bsky.social‘s @mbudjeryn.bsky.social ‬

➡️Full show: f24.my/BJVm.x

@en.france24.com #Trump #Ukraine

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Reposted by Rabia Akhtar

Project on Managing the Atom @managingtheatom.bsky.social · Jul 15

In an article published in Foreign Affairs, Mohammed Tabaar argues "Israel’s June 13 assault on Iran, designed to decapitate Tehran’s military and nuclear program, is one of the worst setbacks the Islamic Republic has ever experienced."
www.foreignaffairs.com/israel/islam...

The Islamic Republic’s New Lease on Life

How the U.S.-Israeli strikes empowered the Iranian regime.

www.foreignaffairs.com

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Rabia Akhtar @rabsaa.bsky.social · Jul 12

Rethinking Strategic Depth in the Age of AI: Lessons from May 2025
open.substack.com/pub/rakhtar/...

Rethinking Strategic Depth in the Age of AI: Lessons from May 2025

In the aftermath of the May 2025 Indo-Pakistan crisis, a 4-day high-intensity, multidomain conflict, the traditional notion of strategic depth demands rethinking.

open.substack.com

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Rabia Akhtar @rabsaa.bsky.social · Jul 11

Is India rewriting the logic of nuclear deterrence in South Asia? Yes and it is doing so openly, deliberately, and dangerously.
open.substack.com/pub/rakhtar/...

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Reposted by Rabia Akhtar

Hans Kristensen @nukestrat.bsky.social · Jul 11

Disappointed to see this from Chatham House: removing source data from chart, referencing secondary sources, using outdated nuke data when updated is available, misrepresenting “nuclear arsenal” data. 🤷🏼‍♂️

Her is link to primary data source: fas.org/initiative/s...

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Rabia Akhtar @rabsaa.bsky.social · Jul 11

The new e-book on Operation Sindoor is not just a post-crisis account, it is India’s blueprint for normalising pre-emptive force against Pakistan. My latest analysis examines why this strategic shift should alarm anyone concerned with nuclear stability in South Asia open.substack.com/pub/rakhtar/...

India’s Strategic Revisionism: How India Is Legitimising Pre-emptive Force

Reading 'Operation Sindoor' as India’s Most Dangerous Shift in Strategic Thinking Yet

open.substack.com

Rabia Akhtar @rabsaa.bsky.social · Jul 10

What if Huntington’s clash never truly happened and Fukuyama’s end never arrived? 25 years later, we revisit the thinkers who tried to define the world. Some got it right. Most missed the tremors. Check out my mew post on rereading globalization in 2025.
open.substack.com/pub/rakhtar/...

Huntington, Fukuyama, and the Futures They Couldn't See

There are books that predict the future.

open.substack.com

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Rabia Akhtar @rabsaa.bsky.social · Jul 8

Embed EDTs into Crisis Simulations
open.substack.com/pub/rakhtar/...

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