Hybrid Warfare in the technological era is more harmful for humans and humanity than traditional warfare

The entire world today is standing at the mouth of a burning volcano which can collapse at any time in the raging flames of war. The day is not far when this hunger for power will become the cause of the end of humanity and human culture.

From the beginning, along with the development of human culture, there has been development in the types of war, war has always been the only means of any nation's security, sovereignty, integrity and fulfillment of its national interests, but in the new era of human civilization, things are changing.

 

If the background of war has changed along with the technology of war, the nature of war has changed. In ancient times, war used to be a means of human development through which humans learned gathering, organization, importance of state, good governance, new art of war, but in the present scenario, countries have been blinded by the greed for power.

Today, war is not limited to the nations to fulfill their national security and national interests, but the roots of colonization have also made war a medium to satiate the hunger for dominance and power over other countries.

Hybrid Warfare

From ancient times till the present time, we have been seeing different types of warfare, be it biological warfare, chemical warfare, cyber warfare, but today the most prevalent is the fifth generation of warfare is hybrid warfare.

Hybrid war is a theory of war which is the most powerful, effective, accurate, and low cost among all the types of war so far, which helps in achieving victory over the enemy without fighting with conventional weapons.

Rumors are spread among the public due to which the power of the enemy nation becomes unstable and the morale of the people and the government is broken and the attention of the enemy nation is diverted from the frontier war.

 

It is not easy to get its correct definition, but various military thinkers have clarified their views on this subject. This war is also similar to the silent war which Acharya Chanakya has said in Arthashastra that silent war is a type of war. An state is at war with another state in which the king and his ministers—and unknowingly, the people—all publicly behave as if they are at peace with the opposing state, all the while secret agents and spies are assassinating important leaders.

These happen in other states, creating divisions among key ministers and sections, and spreading propaganda and disinformation.

The father of 'Hybrid Warfare' is American defence researcher Frank G. Hoffman is considered. In one of his research papers in 2007, he had explained about the beginning and development of hybrid warfare.

In that research, it was said that to defeat the enemy, the direction of the war should be shifted from the military field to the political, economic and technological fields and on one hand a traditional war is going on between two countries and on the other hand diplomacy, international law, fake news.

And if efforts are being made to influence the war through methods like foreign interference, then it is called hybrid war.

 “Hybrid warfare is essentially the manipulation of information space,” says Teja Tillikainen, director of the European Center of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats (Hybrid CoE).

Spread of hybrid warfare

The dangers of hybrid wars have been in the awareness of all the nations since the time of World War II( 1939-45), but now the dangers have taken a real form, due to which the concern of all the countries has increased.

In the war going on between Russia and Ukraine for the last two years, every possible effort was made in the pursuit of victory, in which all means, including Sam, Dam, Dand, Bhed were used, but today this war has taken the form of propaganda, rumors and cyber attacks, due to which the world is all eyes are on these countries as to what they will do now because when the enemy fights frontally on the border, it can be stopped through direct war but invisibly tries to disturb the internal security peace of a country.

So it becomes very difficult for the enemy country to provide complete security to itself, which has become a cause of concern for countries around the world today.

Today Russia is accusing U.S. that U.S. is trying to mislead its soldiers through its intelligence agencies and Russia has officially said that this hybrid war which U.S. is doing against it is absolutely wrong which cannot be confirmed or denied. U.S. has not done it yet.

In 2022, several cyber attacks were recorded by Russia against Ukraine, as well as some attacks on Russia. The first major cyberattack occurred on January 14, 2022, and more than a dozen Ukrainian government websites were destroyed.

According to Ukrainian officials, about 70 government websites were attacked, including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Cabinet of Ministers, and the National and Defense Council (NSDC). On 15 February, another cyberattack destroyed several government and bank services.

Last year in September 2023, underwater explosions in the Baltic Sea tore a hole in the Nord Stream gas pipeline. This pipeline between the coast of Denmark and Sweden was severely damaged.

This pipeline has been built to transport gas from Russia to Germany. Western countries suspected that this explosion might have been carried out by Russia so that it could punish Germany for supporting Ukraine by cutting off its gas supply. But after the explosion, Russia clearly said that it had no involvement in this explosion.

Elections can also be interfered with under hybrid war after the 2016 US elections, Russia started continuously interfering in the electoral process there. The Russian campaign had launched such a campaign in support of Donald Trump. Although Russia denies this.

It is said that it spread a lot of propaganda using online bots (robots) through accounts controlled by cyber activists supporting the Putin government.

Another important method of hybrid war is propaganda. Under this creating an alternative and lie that appeals to a section of the population, thereby communicating one's point of view to a particular section of the population and repeatedly telling it in such a way that it accepts that lie as truth, similarly what happened when Russia made its war actions its own.

It was said that the retaliatory action was taken in self-defense and many European countries also supported it. Similarly, China has been using this diplomacy with Taiwan, it considers it as its part whereas this is not true, it is also a fake propaganda and assassination of former prime minister of japan shinzo abe july2022 its also part of hybrid warfare.

Hybrid warfare in indian scenario

India is a nation surrounded by land borders on tree sides, but in the north, the three countries with which it shares borders are China ,Pakistan and Nepal, but both of them, China and Pakistan, have not always seen India as a developed and prosperous country. So from time to time, through some activity or the other, they try to disturb the peace of India.

Since 1947, our neighboring country Pakistan has been showing itself exploited and exploiter of India on the world stage and under the guise of this, it has been sending terrorists to India and carrying out terrorist activities in India with funding from outside. It tarnishes India's image on the world stage by showing itself as a victim of India in the United Nations.

 

In the year 2020, despite China being angry after losing many of its soldiers in the violent clash with Indian Army soldiers in Galvan Valley, China does not directly initiate war with India in order to maintain its good image in the world Keeping this in mind and adopts such diplomacy to make the Indian people lose faith in their government and army so that their morale gets broken and political instability arises.

For this, it takes the help of fake rumour, like in the map of China recently released by government of China, it shows Aksai Chin and Arunachal Pradesh. They shows their share in many land parts of the state which is a rumour. In order to create distrust among the Indian public, in response to this, the Government of India banned more than 100 applications developed and operated by China, which proved to be a major action.

The emergence of a separate country movement in the Indian states adjacent to Pakistan and the activities of Naxalism in the states adjacent to China and the violent actions of the leftists can also be a part of this war.

According to Indus Faces report, Indian enterprises and government organizations face more than 5 billion cyber attacks in 2023.

The report titled Annual State of Application Security Report, 2023 reported an average quarterly spike of 63 percent in cyberattacks from the first to the last quarter of the year, which may not have succeeded in their objective but it is a matter of concern that today the field of war has become so wide that it is not limited to just the border but it also affects the daily life of the common people In the present time.

Indian army has to stand firm on all fronts and do the same which it has always been doing. But in today's technological era, there is a need for more caution and deployment in the changing battlefield because this field of hybrid warfare is quite deadly and harmful for the human generation.

The king should always fight in the interest of the state and the people. - Acharya kautilya

Article by

 
Suraj Dixit

Research scholar

Defence and strategic studies

Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh