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

There is growing disquiet in several nations about how weather-manipulation tools are used in cross-border rivalries4-MIN READ4-MIN0ListenPublished: 8:00pm, 18 Jul 2026Updated: 9:48pm, 18 Jul 2026When devastating floods swept through Assam in northeastern India in 2018, the disaster quickly triggered a troubling question within New Delhi’s security corridors. 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 Tianhe, or Sky River, initiative, one of the world’s largest weather-modification programmes.04:20Indian villagers resist mega dam meant to counter China water threatThe project, which was first raised in 2016, aims to intercept and redirect atmospheric moisture across the Tibetan Plateau, but has triggered criticism both within China and abroad.