Weather weapons: why the atmosphere could become the next geopolitical battleground

AI Summary

Concerns arise that weather control technology could become a geopolitical weapon, with increased attention on China amid flooding in Assam, India. Policymakers are debating the implications of environmental manipulation as a potential tool of pressure or warfare.

When devastating floods swept through Assam in northeastern India in 2018, the disaster quickly triggered a troubling question within New Delhi’s security corridors: could control over the weather become a new tool of geopolitical pressure or warfare? As technology advances, could control over the weather become a tool of geopolitical pressure, or even a weapon? Much of the concern centred on neighbouring China. Assam’s then finance minister, Himanta Biswa Sarma, publicly warned about Beijing’s...