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UPPCS Mains
2026 Edition
General Studies Paper III
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Internal and International Security

English Medium
6
Chapters
28
Topics
85
Figures & Maps
24
Tables
What's Inside
  1. 01National and International Security: Concepts, Hybrid Threats and Nuclear Proliferation
  2. 02Extremism, Radicalisation and Terrorism
  3. 03Insurgency: North-East, Jammu and Kashmir and AFSPA
  4. 04Communication Networks, Media and Cyber Security
  5. 05Organised Crime, Money Laundering, Human Trafficking and Corruption
  6. 06Security Forces, Border Management and Higher Defence Organisation
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Internal and International Security
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Internal and International Security
UPPCS Mains · Smart Notes

Contents

Internal and International Security · General Studies Paper III
  1. 01National and International Security: Concepts, Hybrid Threats and Nuclear Proliferation5 topics
    1. 1.1National Security in a Globalised World: Meaning, Dimensions and Challenges
    2. 1.2Hybrid Warfare, Grey-Zone Tactics and Drone Threats
    3. 1.3Security and Development: Underdevelopment, Extremism and the Twin-Track Approach
    4. 1.4Nuclear Proliferation: Control Regimes and India's Stand
    5. 1.5Nuclear Deterrence and India's Nuclear Doctrine
  2. 02Extremism, Radicalisation and Terrorism4 topics
    1. 2.1Extremism and Radicalisation: Causes, Spread and Cross-Border Links
    2. 2.2Left-Wing Extremism: Causes, Challenges and Counter-Strategy
    3. 2.3Terrorism: Meaning, Forms, Causes and the Global Fight
    4. 2.4India's Counter-Terrorism Framework: Laws, Agencies and the Response to Cross-Border Terrorism
  3. 03Insurgency: North-East, Jammu and Kashmir and AFSPA4 topics
    1. 3.1Insurgency in the North-East: Meaning, Causes and Affected States
    2. 3.2Peace Process in the North-East: Accords, Development and the Myanmar Border
    3. 3.3Militancy in Jammu and Kashmir: Proxy War, Post-2019 Changes, OGWs and Hybrid Militants
    4. 3.4Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act: Provisions, Criticism and Reform
  4. 04Communication Networks, Media and Cyber Security3 topics
    1. 4.1Media and Social Networking in National Security
    2. 4.2Cyber Security: Threats, Cyber Warfare, Critical Infrastructure and the National Framework
    3. 4.3Cyber Crime: Types, Digital Arrest and Protection
  5. 05Organised Crime, Money Laundering, Human Trafficking and Corruption5 topics
    1. 5.1Organised Crime, Drug Trafficking and Narco-Terrorism
    2. 5.2Money Laundering: Stages, Techniques and the PMLA–FATF Framework
    3. 5.3Terror Financing and Fake Indian Currency Notes (FICN)
    4. 5.4Human Trafficking: Causes, Protection and Rehabilitation
    5. 5.5Corruption as an Internal Security Challenge
  6. 06Security Forces, Border Management and Higher Defence Organisation7 topics
    1. 6.1Armed Forces and Central Armed Police Forces: Role, Kind and Mandate
    2. 6.2Intelligence and Investigation Agencies, NATGRID and Police Reforms
    3. 6.3Land Border Management: Borders, Challenges and Border-Area Development
    4. 6.4Coastal and Maritime Security: Indian Coast Guard, Coastal Security, Piracy and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands
    5. 6.5Higher Defence Organisation: CCS, NSC, CDS and the Defence Council
    6. 6.6Defence Reforms: Revolution in Military Affairs, Jointness and Agnipath
    7. 6.7Defence Production: DRDO, PPP and Indigenisation
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Internal and International SecurityChapter 01 · Topic 1
Chapter 01

National and International Security: Concepts, Hybrid Threats and Nuclear Proliferation

Internal and International Security · 5 topics
Topic 1

National Security in a Globalised World: Meaning, Dimensions and Challenges

Chapter Overview

This chapter sets out what national security means today and how its threats have changed. Security now covers borders, cyberspace, money flows, information and nuclear weapons: Union Budget 2026-27 gives Defence ₹5,94,585 crore and Home Affairs ₹2,55,234 crore, while the NPT Review Conference of 2026 again ended without agreement.

Topic 1 defines national security and the challenges that globalisation brings. Topic 2 covers hybrid, grey-zone and drone threats, and Topic 3 shows how security and development support each other at home. Topics 4 and 5 move to the international level: the regimes that control nuclear proliferation with India's stand, and nuclear deterrence with India's doctrine.

Topic Flow
  1. 1National Security in a Globalised World
  2. its newest forms are
  3. 2Hybrid Warfare, Grey-Zone Tactics and Drone Threats
  4. which feed on the gaps addressed by
  5. 3Security and Development
  6. while at the global level India faces
  7. 4Nuclear Proliferation and Control Regimes
  8. whose other face is
  9. 5Nuclear Deterrence and India's Nuclear Doctrine

Union Budget 2026-27 raised the allocation for Home Affairs to ₹2,55,234 crore and for Defence to ₹5,94,585 crore, and in 2026 MHA set out PRAHAAR, India's National Counter-Terrorism Policy and Strategy. National security is the protection of a country's territory, people, institutions, resources and values from military and non-military threats, both within and across its borders.

Meaning and Dimensions of National Security

  1. National security: an all-encompassing idea covering the protection of territory, resources, assets, institutions, ideologies and citizens from many kinds of threat; e.g. definition used by the Observer Research Foundation (ORF).
  2. Internal security: preserving the unity, integrity and sovereignty of the state and law and order within its borders against anti-national forces; e.g. Article 355 binds the Union to protect States against internal disturbance; Modernisation of Police Forces scheme ₹4,061.34 crore (Union Budget 2026-27); UP: ₹1,374 crore for non-residential police buildings (UP Budget 2026-27, see GS-5 Ch 14).
  3. External security: protecting the country from threats that start abroad, such as war, cross-border terrorism and state-backed cyber attacks; e.g. Defence ₹5,94,585 crore in BE 2026-27, with pensions shown separately (Union Budget 2026-27).
  4. Non-traditional security: the idea reaches beyond armies to human security, economic and food security, energy security, environmental security and cyber security, since each can weaken the state; e.g. UAPA (1967) s 15 treats a threat to India's "economic security" as terrorism; energy security: see Indian Economy Ch 6, Topic 5; environmental security: see Environment and Ecology Ch 1, Topic 1; disasters: see the Disaster Management book.
Table 1.1 Common ground: each category mixes internal and external actors, which is why internal and external security now overlap.
Category of internal threatExamplesCovered in
Secessionist or separatistKhalistani groups, Naga insurgency, militancy in Jammu and KashmirCh 3
Left-Wing ExtremismCPI (Maoist) in the former Red CorridorCh 2, Topic 2
Terrorismcross-border terrorism, home-grown radicals, lone wolvesCh 2
Organised crimedrug trafficking, FICN, human traffickingCh 5
Cyber threatsstate-sponsored advanced persistent threats, ransomware, attacks on critical infrastructureCh 4
Border threatsinfiltration, smuggling, illegal migration, drone dropsCh 6, Topic 3
Traditional and non-traditional dimensions of national security
Fig. 1.1 Traditional and non-traditional dimensions of national security

How Globalisation Changes Security Threats

  1. Transnational terrorism: terror groups recruit, raise funds and plan across borders, and some seek chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear (CBRN) material; e.g. UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy (2006) asks states to keep such material from terrorists; terrorism killed 5,582 people worldwide in 2025 (IEP Global Terrorism Index 2026).
  2. Borderless cyberspace: attacks on banks, power grids and government networks can come from anywhere, while global rules for state conduct are still evolving; e.g. CERT-In handled over 29.44 lakh incidents in 2025 (PIB, 2026); norms of the UN Group of Governmental Experts (2015, 2021) taken forward by an Open-ended Working Group until 2025.
  3. Illicit finance: hawala, online payments, crowdfunding and virtual assets move crime and terror money faster than national regulators can track it; e.g. FATF (2025) lists these channels of terror financing; see Ch 5, Topics 2 and 3.
  4. Drugs and organised crime: global drug supply chains feed addiction, crime and terror funding inside India; e.g. Myanmar has been the main opium source since Afghanistan's 2023 ban, with 53,100 ha in 2025 (UNODC); India seized drugs worth ₹1.71 lakh crore in 2014–25 (NCB, 2026).
  5. Supply chains and sea lanes: dependence on imported energy, critical goods and long sea routes exposes the economy to disruption and coercion; e.g. 127 Navy ships deployed against piracy in the Gulf of Aden since 2008 (MoD, 2024).
  6. Information and technology: encrypted apps, the dark web, drones and coordinated fake accounts let small groups reach and influence millions; e.g. 1,092.79 million internet subscribers at end-March 2026 (TRAI, 2026); see Ch 4, Topic 1.

External Actors and Cross-Border Linkages

  1. Blurred boundaries: state and non-state actors operate at the same time, so internal threats are often guided or supported from outside; e.g. MHA lists 46 terrorist organisations under the UAPA (MHA, 2026).
  2. Cross-border terrorism: the government holds that terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir is backed from across the border, and links bilateral steps to its end; e.g. Indus Waters Treaty held in abeyance from April 2025 until Pakistan credibly abjures support for cross-border terrorism (MEA, 2025); see Ch 2, Topic 4.
  3. Transnational networks: global jihadist and pro-Khalistan groups, some based abroad, spread propaganda and recruit online, beyond the reach of national law alone; e.g. Al-Qaida, AQIS, Islamic State, Babbar Khalsa International and Khalistan Zindabad Force listed under the UAPA; Sikhs for Justice an unlawful association (MHA).
  4. Porous borders: long land borders and riverine stretches allow infiltration, smuggling, counterfeit currency and illegal migration; e.g. 15,106.7 km of land border with seven neighbours (MHA Annual Report 2024-25); 2,29,746 counterfeit notes detected in 2025-26 (RBI).
Table 1.2 Attributions as stated by the Government of India; groups named as in the UAPA lists.
Actor or frontLinkageOfficial response
Pakistan-based terror groupsproxy fronts (TRF, PAFF), infiltration, drone dropsUAPA bans; Indus Waters Treaty in abeyance (2025)
LAC with Chinaborder friction and grey-zone pressure (see Topic 2)disengagement at Depsang and Demchok (2024)
Myanmar borderinsurgent movement, drugs and armsdecision to scrap the Free Movement Regime; fencing approved (2024)
Bangladesh bordersmuggling, counterfeit notes, illegal migration3,232 of 4,096.7 km fenced (MHA)
Global jihadist networksonline propaganda and recruitmentAl-Qaida, AQIS, Islamic State listed under the UAPA
Pro-Khalistan groupspropaganda, funding and violenceBKI, KZF, KLF listed; SFJ declared unlawful
Cross-border and maritime threat linkages around India
Fig. 1.2 Cross-border and maritime threat linkages around India

Limits of the Response

India's laws, forces and budgets have grown, but critics argue the response still trails threats that are fast, borderless and often below the threshold of war.

  1. Liberty and security: critics argue special laws such as AFSPA and UAPA give wide powers with weak oversight; the government holds they are needed; e.g. UAPA s 43D lets a court extend investigation from 90 to 180 days (MHA); see Ch 2, Topic 4 and Ch 3, Topic 4.
  2. Capacity gaps: police and public order are State subjects, and large vacancies in central forces limit a uniform national response; e.g. 1,00,204 vacancies in the CAPFs and Assam Rifles (MHA, 2024); 154.84 police per lakh people (BPR&D, 2023).
  3. Weak global rules: there is no agreed UN definition of terrorism and cyber norms are voluntary, so transnational threats escape binding law; e.g. CCIT pending since India moved it in 1996; the UN Convention against Cybercrime, signed at Hanoi in October 2025, needs 40 ratifications to enter into force (UN, 2025).

Way Forward

  1. Whole-of-government strategy: one national strategy should join defence, police, diplomacy, finance and technology agencies under clear coordination; e.g. PRAHAAR (2026, see Ch 2, Topic 4); the Kargil Review Committee (1999) sought a review of the national security set-up.
  2. Intelligence and data: real-time sharing between central and State agencies closes the gaps that cross-border networks exploit; e.g. NATGRID links 11 central agencies with the police of all States and UTs; CCTNS runs in all 17,798 police stations (MHA, 2026).
  3. Global cooperation: extradition treaties, mutual legal assistance and joint working groups carry Indian law across borders; e.g. NIA Act amendment (2019) lets the NIA probe scheduled offences committed abroad; No Money for Terror conference, New Delhi (2022); India placed in FATF regular follow-up (2024).
  4. Resilient economy: indigenous defence production and secure supply chains reduce the risk of coercion through dependence; e.g. defence production a record ₹1.78 lakh crore in 2025-26 (MoD, 2026); see Ch 6, Topic 7.
Way forward for national security in a globalised world
Fig. 1.3 Way forward for national security in a globalised world

India needs a whole-of-government strategy that ties borders, cyberspace, finance and global partners together, so that globalisation adds to its strength rather than its exposure.

Based on NCERT, Standard Books references, Keywords from Syllabus and Previous Year question Papers

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Internal and International SecurityChapter 01 · Topic 2
Topic 2

Hybrid Warfare, Grey-Zone Tactics and Drone Threats

Global threats now come mixed together: at the Combined Commanders' Conference in September 2025 the Raksha Mantri asked the forces to prepare for unconventional threats such as information, ideological, ecological and biological warfare (PIB, 2025). Hybrid warfare is the combined use of conventional, sub-conventional, cyber, information and psychological tools by a state or its proxies to weaken a rival without open war.

Hybrid Warfare and the Grey Zone

  1. Grey-zone operations: hostile acts kept below the threshold of armed conflict, with plausible deniability, so that the target finds it hard to respond; e.g. salami slicing: small, step-by-step gains on a disputed border.
  2. Proxy war: a state backs militant fronts to strike while denying any role, which raises the cost and risk of a response; e.g. TRF is listed as a front of Lashkar-e-Taiba and PAFF of Jaish-e-Mohammed under the UAPA, 1967 (MHA, 2026).
  3. Cognitive warfare: deepfakes and AI-made disinformation target what people believe, to divide society and erode trust in institutions; e.g. UN Policy Brief (2023): 70% of UN peacekeepers said disinformation affected their work; see Ch 4, Topic 1.
  4. Cyber and economic coercion: cyber attacks, cyber theft and pressure through trade or supply chains hurt a rival without firing a shot; e.g. FATF (2026) found a Cambodia-based conglomerate laundered at least USD 4 billion for fraud networks and North Korean cyber theft.
  5. Lawfare and subversion: legal claims, international forums and support to separatist or political fronts are used to delegitimise the target state.
Tools used in hybrid warfare
Fig. 1.4 Tools used in hybrid warfare

India's Exposure to Hybrid Threats

  1. Western front: the government holds that proxy terrorism is backed from across the border, now joined by drones and online propaganda; e.g. Pahalgam attack, April 2025, answered by strikes on terror infrastructure in Operation Sindoor, May 2025; see Ch 2, Topic 4.
  2. Northern front: friction on the Line of Actual Control shows grey-zone pressure on a disputed border, handled through talks and infrastructure; e.g. Galwan, 2020: 20 soldiers died stopping PLA ingress; Depsang and Demchok disengagement, 2024 (MoD).
  3. Information front: fake news and doctored videos spread fast during crises, which makes information a battle space of its own; e.g. in April 2025 MIB asked media and social media users to avoid real-time coverage of defence operations.

Drones as a Security Threat

  1. Kinds of drones: military, commercial, improvised weaponised and swarm drones differ in size, range and the threat they pose; e.g. PRAHAAR (2026) flags misuse of drones and robotics by state and non-state actors.
  2. Cross-border drops: drones ferry arms, ammunition and narcotics across the western border, joining the drug trade with terror; e.g. BSF seized 272 drones and over 367 kg of heroin on the Punjab border in 2025 (BSF, 2025); handlers also use drones in Jammu and Kashmir (MHA, 2026).
  3. Rising intrusions: intrusions are frequent and concentrated on the western front, which stretches border forces along open terrain; e.g. 791 drone intrusions in 2025, 782 of them on the Punjab and Rajasthan border (MoD, 2025).
  4. Hard to detect: small, low-flying drones have a low radar signature, and swarms of cheap drones can overwhelm air defences.
Drone intrusions along India's western border in 2025
Fig. 1.5 Drone intrusions along India's western border in 2025

Rules and Systems to Counter Drones

  1. Drone Rules, 2021: liberalised rules set registration, airspace zones and weight-based classes, opening most airspace to lawful civil use; e.g. about 90% of Indian airspace made a green zone for flying up to 400 feet (MoCA, 2022).
  2. 2022 changes: an amendment ended the drone pilot licence, and the import policy barred foreign drones while freeing their components; e.g. drone PLI scheme (2021): ₹120 crore over three years; Drone Certification Scheme (2022).
  3. Counter-drone systems: layered counter-unmanned aircraft systems (C-UAS) detect, track and neutralise small drones through soft-kill or hard-kill options; e.g. D4 Counter Drone System, developed by DRDO and BEL and produced by BEL (Department of Defence Production, 2026).
  4. Border deployment: anti-drone systems with trained operators are now deployed along the India–Pakistan border against drug drops; e.g. MHA, 2025; see Ch 6, Topic 3 and Ch 5, Topic 1.
Layers of counter-drone defence, from detection to investigation
Fig. 1.6 Layers of counter-drone defence, from detection to investigation

Limits of the Response

Hybrid threats are designed to blur responsibility, so even a strong response meets legal, technical and cost limits, and views differ on how far deterrence works below the threshold of war.

  1. Attribution: plausible deniability makes diplomatic and legal responses slow and hard to justify to other states; e.g. banned groups resurface under new names such as TRF and PAFF.
  2. No legal threshold: international law has no binding rule for grey-zone acts or for terrorist use of new technology; e.g. the Delhi Declaration (2022) of the UNSC Counter-Terrorism Committee is only non-binding guidance.
  3. Cost and coverage: a cheap drone or fake video forces costly detection and correction, and critics argue counter-drone cover is still uneven; e.g. 791 intrusions against 237 drones brought down along the border in 2025 (MoD, 2025).

Way Forward

  1. Integrated response: combine military, cyber, diplomatic and economic tools under one doctrine, with clear lead agencies for each threat; e.g. MoD declared 2025 the "Year of Reforms" for jointness, cyber and space domains, AI and robotics; a multi-stakeholder task force (2018) studied AI in defence (MoD, 2019).
  2. Cyber capability: build defensive and deterrent cyber power in the armed forces, working with civilian agencies such as CERT-In; e.g. Defence Cyber Agency and Service cyber groups set up under a 2018 framework (MoD, 2021).
  3. Cognitive resilience: fact-checking, media literacy and quick official counter-messaging blunt disinformation before it spreads; e.g. I4C spreads alerts through @CyberDost, SMS, radio and metro announcements (MHA, 2025).
  4. National counter-drone framework: fix who detects and who neutralises drones near borders, cities and vital sites, backed by indigenous industry; e.g. indigenous D4 production by BEL; drone import ban (2022) to build a domestic base.

India needs one integrated doctrine for hybrid threats, with strong cyber forces, a resilient public and layered counter-drone cover along its borders and vital sites.

Based on NCERT, Standard Books references, Keywords from Syllabus and Previous Year question Papers

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