Captain Smit Machchhar’s Heroism: A Catalyst for India-Israel Cognitive Security Partnership
The attempted attack aboard Flydubai Flight FZ1073 will rightly be remembered for Captain Smit Machchhar’s extraordinary courage and the passengers who prevented what could have become one of the deadliest aviation attacks since 9/11. But history may ultimately judge the incident for something even more significant: it exposed how the next generation of threats may bypass airport checkpoints, advanced aircraft systems, and traditional counterterrorism measures – not by attacking the aircraft, but by compromising the human being trusted to operate it. If the allegations surrounding the attack are confirmed through ongoing investigations, this may represent not merely an attempted hijacking, but a stark reminder that the human mind has become a critical battlefield in modern conflict.
What began as an attempted hijacking aboard a commercial flight has rapidly evolved into a multinational security investigation spanning South Asia, the Middle East, and North America. Bharat’s National Investigation Agency (NIA) has registered a case under the Anti-Hijacking Act and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) to investigate potential terrorist linkages and secure critical digital and flight evidence. Simultaneously, Israel’s internal security agency, Shin Bet, is leading the intelligence investigation into the suspect’s alleged motives, network, and reported plans to target locations in Tel Aviv. The UAE is pursuing the principal criminal prosecution, Saudi Arabia has conducted the initial forensic investigation following the emergency landing, Oman is examining the suspect’s activities before departure, and the United States has initiated reviews through its transportation and intelligence agencies.
Together, these parallel investigations underscore that this is being treated not as an isolated act of in-flight violence, but as a complex transnational security incident with potentially far-reaching implications.
Beyond the criminal investigations and the terrorism angle lies a strategic dimension that has received far less attention. The apparent design of this attack bears several characteristics associated with cognitive warfare operations where the objective extends beyond physical violence to shaping perceptions, exploiting vulnerabilities, and generating strategic consequences. If confirmed through ongoing investigations, this incident could represent an attempt to target not only an aircraft, but also the growing strategic partnership between Bharat and Israel and, by extension, the broader coalition of democratic nations confronting emerging security threats.
For the past three years, Israel has confronted an increasingly complex security environment, requiring sustained operational and tactical responses across multiple fronts. At the same time, Bharat’s rapid economic, technological, and geopolitical rise has made it an increasingly attractive target for influence campaigns and other forms of cognitive manipulation by hostile external actors.
While the methods vary – from disinformation and psychological operations to attempts at exploiting human vulnerabilities – the strategic objective remains consistent: to disrupt decision-making, erode public trust, and impose costs on nations whose growing partnership is reshaping the regional and global strategic landscape.
Those seeking to undermine democratic nations are often united by a common objective rather than a shared ideology. Unburdened by the responsibilities of governance, economic development, or democratic accountability, they can invest disproportionate effort in devising innovative and asymmetric methods of attack. Bharat and Israel, as vibrant democracies and increasingly close strategic partners, are therefore likely to remain attractive targets for actors seeking to exploit cognitive, informational, and psychological vulnerabilities alongside conventional security challenges.
The Cognitive Warfare Agency (CWA) believes that the time has come for Bharat and Israel to move beyond ad hoc cooperation and begin developing a shared strategic vision for addressing the emerging challenges of cognitive warfare.
Before formalizing any institutional alliance, the first step should be the establishment of a joint interdisciplinary task force comprising experts from government, academia, industry, defence, intelligence, and civil society. Its mandate should be to examine the evolving cognitive threat landscape, define a common strategic vocabulary, identify priority areas for cooperation, and design the architecture of a future Bharat–Israel Cognitive Security Partnership.
Cognitive Warfare Agency (CWA) advocates that Cognitive warfare is not merely a challenge for intelligence or security agencies; it is a whole-of-society challenge capable of influencing the perceptions, decisions, and behaviour of individuals, communities, institutions, and nations. Consequently, any effective response must be equally multidisciplinary, integrating expertise from technology, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, information warfare, narrative analysis, psychological operations, law, public policy, governance, behavioural science, psychology, education, philosophy, and even the civilizational traditions of resilience – including yoga, mindfulness, and spirituality. Only by bringing these diverse domains under a common strategic framework can democracies build enduring cognitive resilience against the evolving threats of the twenty-first century.
Such an initiative would extend far beyond the bilateral security interests of Bharat and Israel. It has the potential to become a pioneering model for democratic nations confronting the rapidly evolving challenges of cognitive warfare.
By developing a shared framework for cognitive resilience – one that integrates technology, intelligence, policy, law, psychology, education, and civilizational wisdom – both nations can offer the international community a practical template for anticipating, understanding, and countering emerging cognitive threats.
In an era where the human mind has become a strategic domain of contestation, a Bharat–Israel partnership in cognitive security could illuminate a path that many like-minded democracies may choose to follow.
