Artificial Intelligence and Pakistan’s National Security – Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO)

Relations between India and Pakistan have been fraught with tension ever since their partition from British India in 1947. They have fought several wars; territorial skirmishes and terrorist incidents have occurred with some frequency. The border between the two countries remains one of the most militarized on the planet.

Having a population one sixth the size of India’s, and a considerably smaller army, Pakistan’s national security strategy is India-centric in focus and reactive in nature. It aims to acquire Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems to offset the increasing gulf in military strength between it and India, with China being Pakistan’s main supplier. China has become especially important for Islamabad after the recent deterioration of the latter’s relation with the USA and concomitant upgrade of the Washington DC–New Delhi quasi alliance. Pakistan’s objective is to acquire all the AI embedded tools that India possesses or is in the process of acquiring.