Since the end of the cold war, the dimensions of war have been changed. Samuel.P. Huntington elucidated the concept of a clash of civilizations. He contended that the future nature of war would be based on the people’s cultural and religious identities. He elaborated on the eight types of civilizations in this scenario. Similarly, the era of conventional warfare culminated after the disintegration of the USSR in 1991. Asymmetrical wars have reached their pinnacle in the post-9/11 period. USA Afghanistan war, Arab spring, Us Iraq war, and the periods of civil war in different African countries like Ethiopia, Congo, etc. are the various glaring aspects. In these wars, millions of people perished in the world. According to a meticulous estimate, almost 2,448 American service men and 51,191Taliban were killed in 20 years. Similarly, the Health Ministry of the Iraqi government recorded 87,215 Iraqi violent deaths between 2005 to 2009. These are the recorded causalities of asymmetric wars. The recent Russia-Ukraine conflict is also an example of asymmetrical warfare in which disproportionate armies are present on the battleground. Russia is the nuclear power while Ukraine has destroyed its nuclear assets after the disintegration of the USSR.
In the last decade, the nature of war has completely changed. it is considered the new era of warfare. In this period economic and cyber wars have become more frequent. Economic wars are being orchestrated both in horizontal and vertical dimensions. In horizontal manners, superpowers are at logger’s head with each other. The sino-Us trade war is one of the examples of a horizontal economic war. In this war, Trump placed tariffs and non-tariff restrictions on Chinese imports. In retaliation, China imposed tariffs on an array of products from the USA. China, exclusively, targeted agricultural goods (soybean, grain sorghum, pork cotton, etc.) to orchestrate pandemonium in the farmer community. Now, the Biden administration maintained the more or less same restriction over Chinese goods. In vertical trade wars, the concept of economic imperialism is applied.
Through economic imperialism, the underdeveloped nations are deliberately kept underdeveloped. Dependence on Bretton wood institutions (IMF, WB) and looming foreign debts are some of the tools of this imperialism. Another way of economic warfare is the fluctuations of dollar values in the international markets which greatly influenced the economies of underdeveloped countries. Inflation broke all the records of history in most third-world countries. Sri Lankan economic crisis and Bosnian economic challenges are irrefutable realities. The growth in all six Balkan countries is expected to be 3% in 2022.
The second one is the cyber war which is imminent these days. In 2010, an Israeli-owned Stuxnet worm destroyed the Iranian nuclear facility. According to an estimate, it ruined almost one-fifth of nuclear centrifuges. This worm infected almost 200,000 computers and made 1000 machines physically disabled. Similarly, in 2016, Russian hackers manipulated the elections of the USA and disclosed all the confidential emails of the democratic national committee. Ransomware attacks rose almost 97% in 2021 as compared to 2020. The total annual estimated cost of global cybercrimes is 6 trillion$ per year. In the race of cyber warfare, multiple countries are at daggers drawn to each other. For instance, USA and China, USA and Russia, and Israel and Iran are in competition with each other.
The third and most advanced perspective of war is technological warfare. According to Yuval Noah Harari, there are three revolutions that shaped the world. First was the cognitive revolution which occurred 70,000 years ago; the second was the agricultural revolution which occurred 12000 years ago, and the third was the industrial revolution which occurred 500 years ago. According to many scholars, the fourth revolution occurred with the advent of the internet. The 21st century is the century of information technology and the world is living in the period of globalization 4.0. Artificial intelligence is wrapping the whole world under its lap. Technological supremacy has become one of the parameters of superiority in the present age. The technological race is also shaping the dimensions of international politics. For instance, two superpowers of the world are at daggers drawn in the field of technology. America blames China for intellectual property theft. Booing C17 is an example of it. It is an American 4-engine military transport aircraft. it is capable of rapid strategic delivery of troops and cargo to main operating bases. C 17 was the sole property of America at one time but China prepared the same ditto copy of this plane named as Y20 cargo plane at the air show in China in 2014.
The last but not least type of warfare is 5th generation warfare. This is a new method of hijacking the policies of any government in the world. Regimes are changed and information and ideas are manipulated. Strikes and protests are orchestrated in the country and resultantly pandemonium and chaos have been created. Third-world countries are, unfortunately, the victim of this warfare. For instance, the disclosure of Indian chronicles clearly dictates the evidence of 5th generation warfare in Pakistan.
Keeping in view the all of above discussion, it can be said with certainty that the 21st century is the century of new dimensions. If any country wants to exceed in the present age, it has to develop capabilities in all of the above fields. Unfortunately, the center of power is not concentrated on a single point. There are different hubs of power in the world. No military is considered superior just on the basis of manual military strength. The race is going on between countries to acquire superior technologies and excel in the dimensions of warfare due to the absence of any international legislation to halt this arms and technological race. The international community is not paying heed to the increased threats of different methods of warfare in the world. Money is being spent like water in the acquisition of arms and weapons. To cap it all, the 21st century has changed all the previous dynamics of war. If the international community didn’t pay attention, the future will be a horrific one.
The writer is a Bureaucrat.
