The world continued to witness complex developments in 2023. While the Russia – Ukraine conflict intensified, new flashpoints arose from military coups, conflicts, local wars, and increasingly fierce strategic competition among major powers, making global security outlook further bleak. To illustrate that picture, the National Defence Journal has selected the top 10 defence, military events of the world in 2023.

Israel-Hamas military conflict  

In 7 October 2023, the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) launched an unprecedented surprise attack on Israel. Hamas fired thousands of rockets, captured hundreds of Israelis, killed and wounded over 1,200 others after its fighters crossed into Israel from the Gaza Strip. Israel staged a military operation code-named “Iron Swords” in retaliation and attacked Hamas force in Gaza Strip. The international community expresses deep concern that the conflict has inflicted catastrophic damage on infrastructure in Gaza, killed more than 17,000 Palestinians, and caused a serious humanitarian crisis. Alarmingly, the conflict potentially escalates into a regional war when more and more Islamic Jihad fighters join the conflict.

2. Russia’s ongoing special military operation in Ukraine

Russia has launched a special military operation in Ukraine since February 2022. Ukraine has recently mounted a counteroffensive to retake areas under Russia’s control. Nevertheless, the outcome failed to meet Kiev’s expectations. With neither side making substantial territorial gains, the conflict has entered a stalemate in many strategic areas in Eastern Ukraine. The Russia – Ukraine conflict in nearly two years has not only made resources almost exhausted and led to dramatic casualties for both sides but also had adverse effects on global security environment. As a result of completely different perspectives between Moscow and Kiev, hopes for a ceasefire and termination of the conflict remain out of view.

3. Military coups in many African countries

Niger military staged a coup to oust the government of President Mohamed Bazoum in 26 July 2023. This is the fifth military coup in Niger since this country gained independence in 1960. It is worth mentioning that when the coup in Niger was still lingering in the region, another military coup broke out in Gabon on 30 August 2023, shaking Africa. The coups in Niger and Gabon are the continuation of the wave of military coups in recent years. One after another militaries of Sudan, Chad Republic, Mali, Guinea, and Burkina Faso have overthrown civil administrations to take power since 2019 only. Observers believe that military coups in Africa are both corollaries of many contradictions and causes of instability to countries and the continent.

4. NATO’s adoption of comprehensive defence plans

At the 2023 Vilnius Summit held in Litva, leaders of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) approved the most comprehensive and detailed defence plans since the Cold War. Accordingly, NATO will boost its high-readiness forces to more than 300,000 troops, who can be deployed to any conflict in the world. It also recognised Indo-Pacific as a key strategic region and pledged to increase the presence of its Navy and Air Force and establish a liaison office in Japan to protect the Alliance’s security and strategic interests in this region. NATO also adopted a new Defence Production Action Plan to accelerate joint procurement, boost production capacity, and enhance Allies’ interoperability. NATO expects that the comprehensive defence plans will allow it to have land, sea, and space superiority over any potential adversaries. Russia and China have resolutely opposed the plans and considered NATO’s decisions Cold War mentality, which is not in the interest of global security, stability, and peace.

5. US – Japan – South Korea trilateral security alliance

Leaders of the United States, Japan, and South Korea signed a trilateral security pact at Camp David on 18 August 2023. According to the agreement, these three countries will produce a joint vision and basic principles of cooperation and set up mechanisms for comprehensive cooperation in various fields. The parties are also committed to strengthening security cooperation for peace and stability on the Korean peninsula and in Indo-Pacific region and in responding to common threats, especially the nuclear and missile programmes of North Korea as well as rising tensions in the South China Sea. Together with existing US-led regional security mechanisms such as the Trilateral Security Partnership between Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States (AUKUS) and the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue among the United States, Japan, India, and Australia (QUAD), the establishment of the US-Japan-South Korea trilateral security alliance will make regional security more complex.

6. Russia’s withdrawal from many important international treaties

On 2 November 2023, President Vladimir Putin signed a law on Russia’s withdrawal from the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT). The CTBT is a multilateral treaty that bans all nuclear explosions, whether for military or peaceful purposes. Russia’s decision to revoke its ratification of the CTBT aims to balance its status under the Treaty with United States because Washington has not ratified the Treaty yet. Then, Russia announced to withdraw from the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) and the pact with Japan on decommissioning nuclear weapons on 7 and 9 December 2023, respectively. President Vladimir Putin also signed a law to suspend Russia’s participation in the New START treaty that is the last remaining nuclear arms control pact between Russia and the US after the US had unilaterally withdrawn from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty in 2019 and the Open Skies Treaty (OTS) in 2020. These are the signs of Russia-NATO rising tensions that are attributed to NATO’s unwillingness, causing deep concerns in the international community.

7. North Korea declares itself a nuclear weapons state

North Korea announced successful building of the most powerful nuclear force in the world on 6 November 2023. Previously, North Korea’s Supreme People’s Assembly had agreed to adopt constitutional amendment to make nuclear force-building policy permanent as the basic law of the state on 28 September 2023. In 2023, North Korea test fired many long-range missiles designed to be tipped with a nuclear warhead. Of note, on 13 July 2023, this country successfully launched the Hwasong-18 – an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) with a range of over 1,000km. Advances in missile industry and declaration of the leader of North Korea about the country’s nuclear status make it hard for situation in Northeast Asia to be defused soon.

8. Finland formally joins NATO

Finland officially became the 31st member of NATO on 4 April 2023. According to Western scholars, this move will help to strengthen Finland’s national security while bolstering the power of this military alliance and creating conditions for a larger security framework in Northern Europe. However, this event and the ongoing crisis in Ukraine have greatly militarised this region. Obviously, Finland’s NATO membership will double the length of member states’ borders with Russia, adding some 1,300km of land and sea border.

9. Large-scale military exercises in many parts of the world

In 2023, the world continued to witnessed an increase in both scale, form, and nature of military exercises. In Asia – Pacific, apart from annual exercises with allies, the United States, Indonesia, Australia, Japan, Singapore, France, and the UK held the multilateral exercise named Super Garuda Shield 2023. There were bilateral and multilateral large-scale exercises between the United States, Australia, Canada, Japan, and New Zealand; exercises between Indonesia and 36 other countries; as well as between Australia and the Philippines in the South China Sea. Ten member states of the Association of Southeast Asia (ASEAN) also launched the first non-combat military exercise in this sea. In March 2023, China, Iran, and Russia held a joint naval exercise named the Security Belt-2023 in the Gulf of Oman. In August 2023, India participated for the first time in the Exercise Bright Star-23 - the largest joint military exercise ever hosted by Egypt – with 33 other countries. More importantly, NATO held the largest ever air drill named Air Defender 23 with the participation of 10,000 troops and 250 aircraft from 25 nations in mid-June 2023 at the Old Continent.

10. Massive launch of military satellites into orbit

Besides the United States and Russia, China is the nation which has the most launches of military satellites to serve its own military programmes and plans. In 2023, many developing countries also researched and successfully put their military satellites to orbit. Iran successfully launched a military satellite into orbit on 27 September 2023, marking another advancement in space technology. After two failures, in 22 November 2023, North Korea declared successful launch of a reconnaissance satellite into orbit, which demonstrates Pyongyang’s capabilities to design rocket boosters. Shortly afterwards, South Korea also successfully put its first reconnaissance satellite into orbit on 2 December 2023. Many other countries such as India, Canada, Mexico, and Israel all plan to launch their military satellites in 2023 or early 2024, which leads to the race to militarise space extremely expensive and risky to global security and stability.