“We are living in the surroundings of silent and unspoken enemies who are more dangerous and treacherous as compared to spOken and Op-en enemies. The survival in this situation is quite inevitable”. Dr. Rana Danish Nisar ~
By Rana Danish Nisar
The world is facing multiple challenges and threats vis-à-vis prompting peace. The paradoxical roles of the states in this anarchic world are also the prevalent factor behind the complexity of this world regarding achieving peace and prosperity.
Besides realism, the liberal/Ideal school of thought also seems paradoxical in their words and actions. One side they believe that the world should be peaceful and states should promote cooperation, integration and understanding midst the anarchic World classroom but on the other hand the might is right proverb seems true in the global institutions i.e. UN, IMF, WHO and others etc. The mighty powers usually use the platforms for their own self-interests, make the platforms self-centered and use them against their opponents or foes. This is the real depiction of this anarchic world. As like individuals, states are selfish and power seekers. States want hegemony over others.
The realist school of thought prefers military power, while liberal school prefers integration & cooperation according to national interests preferably. Where the interests clash, either you are a follower of realist school or liberal school, war is inevitable.
Today, in this modern world, the characters of war have been totally changed. The conventional and kinetic characters of wars have been replaced by new ones and Neuro-warfare (Brain-Warfare) is one of them. Apart from digital warfare, digital-terrorism, Bio- terrorism, Chemical-terrorism, gray-zone wars, disinformation wars, media wars, 5G warfare and advancement of modern weapons, Neuro-warfare is now new-fangled peril to world peace. What the “Neuro-Warfare” actual means?, Importantly, “Neuro-warfare is strategic tact against the foe and target the high-specific individuals and their “mental, brainy and heart” thoughts & behavior and mold them against their own land and same like the digital/cyber warfare, the weapon which are used in this warfare are usually disinformation campaigns, media, and entertainment modes i.e. movies, songs, documentaries etc. rather than deployment of nuclear nukes.
Simply, the Neuro-Warfare is an aptitude to damage/degrade/vitiate/destroy an opponent’s cognizance. Neuro-weapons could be used in non-kinetic as well as gray-zones operations against enemies which have ability to enhance or degrade the psychological, Physical, mental, physiological workouts and enactments/performances of targeted population/groups of people and specified/listed leaders either they are political, religious or social. By following the structural-realist school of thought, Neuro-warfare has also two modes “Defensive & Offensive”. Sometime, states fight Neuro-war defensively with their own inhabitants & citizens to prevent the state from any upcoming upheaval, cataclysm & chaos before it starts by following the constructivism approach. The state constructs the agenda within its inhabitants and civilians against its foe. On the contrary, by ensuing offensive measurements, the state uses Neuro-warfare and manipulates the religious, political, social situations in its nemesis state.
Although this kind of war doesn’t need any conventional bundles of weapons but needs only a few seconds of fake viral video clips which have the ability to hit the mental ability & thoughts mechanism of the rival state. The biggest advantage of this neuro-warfare is that it gives “+-sum” advantages for the performers/executors and on the contrary “0-sum” for the heirs. In the case of China and its neuro-strategy, China has already won the game and is ruling over the global market. Globally, besides the Chinese soft power approach, the global customer has one mental/neuro approach that “we can buy the best product with cheap & less prices from the Chinese market”.
Moving ahead, brain & thoughts modification is not a new tact but as old as the history is itself. In ancient times, disinformation was the only sole tool to manipulate the enemies. On the other hand, today, the multiple social networking applications could be used for manipulation as well as washing the thoughts and collection of data which give the common impression of “brain-washing” of the folks. Additionally, the video games are or have also been singing their domineering role aimed to manipulate the mindsets of the young folks. In this 21st century, with the rapid advancement in all fields i.e. biochemistry, biotechnology, nanotechnology, computational intelligence & surveillance, high advancements in “command, Control and communication (C3)”, Artificial Intelligence and much more have cemented the road which lead towards in-depth advancements in warfare as well. Thus, in the modern world, nation-states are facing multi-color challenges vis-à-vis their security, particularly the developing & economically, politically, socially and educationally deprived nations and Land of pure (Pakistan) is one of them.
Since independence, Pakistan has been pebble-dashing multiple dares & defies. The poverty, political instability, educational deprivation, lack of social mobility & kinesis, lack of availability of strong infrastructure and most importantly arch-rivalry with eastern border neighbors and border disputes with western border fellow-citizens are serious challenges. The important North-East-West-South (NEWS) national security is also required. By following the four pillars of states which are required for acquisition of the status of state, the “sovereignty” either internal or external both are the most important pillars of the state and state needs prosperity in both modules. Any disturbance in any one of them can lead the state towards pandemonium or anarchy. Recently, the beloved land of the pure is facing in-depth political instability, political pollution all over the country which clues the nations towards polarization.
The political parties and their political workers are busy working for their own interests. The uprising political-polarization situation within the country is the by-product of this Neuro-warfare that the innocents citizens are started to do believe blindly, what they see, what they listen and what they watch in social media and they don’t even know about the truth-ness or fake-ness. It really seems to “failing to win” this critical situation that people and the political workers of political parties are now, not in these conditions to listen to any arguments & complaints against their charismatic political leaders and people are saying good or bad words against each other. The fake social accounts which are made by political workers are provoking instability in the country which are made only for misusage.
Dr. Ali Abbas highlights the problems of the state in his piece of writing, “the dilemma of Pakistani political elites” that how even the political elites use their own political workers for their workouts and interests. He argued that being a mounting republic, Pakistan has been careworn for the solidification of its democratic bodies, pecuniary improvement besides fortifying its autonomy for the harmony and growth for elongated stretch but all in abortive and the reasons behind are Politicians. Currently, they have various social accounts which are commonly used to defame their political competitor and reciprocally the results are worse for the state political stability. Political leaders are the representative of the folks and represent them in the executive bodies of the state.
Thus, most specifically, the adversary’s main targets are political elites and manipulate their ideas and thoughts against their own nation. It seems common in the developing nations and deprived economies and loan-funded poor countries. Actually, these political leaders are also the Neuro-weapons which are used by the enemies to achieve specific agenda, goals and objectives. Moreover, this type of political leadership is also used as Special Operations forces (SOF) against the enemies. Rendering to the concept of “Special Operations Forces (SOF), these maneuvers are trivial, in particular systematized units wrought by judiciously carefully chosen folks using amended/modified thoughts and rapid actions of these thoughts in their own favor & benefits. There is no doubt that political leaders are the center of gravity of any state existence and via these operations, one state could disturb the center of gravity of the state, reciprocally the state can fall down or disturb entirely.
In the milieu of suggestions, there is a dire maximum need of training & education of the nation. The military training in schools as well as in colleges & universities should make it possible. The national health institutions under the state leadership should build “Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neuro-technologies” (BRAIN) institutions aimed to build-up mental and brainy capabilities of the folks and make them stronger in their own favor.
The state should set different institutions i.e. Advance Defense Research Institution (ADRI), Advance Defense & Artificial intelligence Institution (ADAAII) and National Institute of advance Artificial Intelligence and Intelligence communication (ICAI nIC) which will boost-up state’s defense capability and will examine the multiple ways that how the neuro-science could boost intelligence based operations and alter the adversary psychology, brain set-ups, capabilities before the time.
The recruitment of artificial intelligence and computational specialists in the institutions are the need of hour. The educational institutions should also play their imperative role to build-up the society’s mental abilities to be more educated. The literature, media and entertainment tools i.e. movies, songs and videos could be monitored. Moving towards conclusion, with the rapid developments in this 21st century, state need rapid progress with arithmetic formula “2*2=4” because the new problems need new solutions rather than old ones. It is clear now that it’s really hard to survive in this contemporary era of multiple challenges and the survival only possible for the fittest as per realist school of thoughts and should be fittest not only politically, economically, socially but also in technology & advance computational technologies and strategies & tactics.
Rana Danish Nisar – The author is a PhD (International Relations) Student at the School of Politics and International Studies (SPIS). He holds Mphil in (International Relations), Masters in (Pakistan Studies), and Masters in (International Relations) degrees. He won acceptance Harvard Project for Asian and International Relations HPAIR (USA), 2017. His research interests are broadly in South Asian Affairs, South Asia Geo-Politics, India-Pakistan Relations, South Asian Nuclear Politics, US and South Asia, Indian Ocean, Security studies, South Asian developments studies.
(The views expressed in this article belong only to the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of World Geostrategic Insights).