2. Over the past few years, harsh realities have emerged for smaller states. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine; Israeli aggression in Gaza, Lebanon, and elsewhere, or the recent US maneuvering over Cuba, alongside the ongoing Iran-US war— all clearly demonstrate that the politics of territorial conquest has not been relegated to history. In 2023, Azerbaijan’s swift military operation in Nagorno-Karabakh displaced over 100,000 Armenians. However, that was not merely a military campaign; it was simultaneously an information war. Baku was far ahead of Yerevan in controlling the international narrative. Similarly, China’s incremental advances in the South China Sea clarify that while each step may appear minor in isolation, the cumulative effect can be profound and virtually irreversible.

Bangladesh is by no means immune to strategic risks. The border with Myanmar has long been volatile. Since 2022, repeated incursions by Myanmar into Bangladesh’s airspace and territorial waters have continually come to light. Beyond this, another major reality is Bangladesh's geopolitical positioning, where it cannot afford to ignore the influence of much larger neighbours in terms of military expenditure.

The 2018 Defence Policy emphasised preventive diplomacy and conflict avoidance. Principally, this is correct. However, in today’s world, diplomacy alone is insufficient unless backed by a robust information strategy. This is because when a vacuum is left in the field of setting narratives, someone else fills it. In the era of information warfare, losing the narrative often means the erosion of one’s diplomatic leverage.