Muhammad Ahmad
In the contemporary world we are observing new social, political, economic, and technological advancements which are not only changing our way of living but also changing the nature of warfare. The emphasis of warfare has shifted from manpower to information manoeuvring. Now a days, we hear the word Fifth-Generation War (5GW) everywhere but what does it mean? Proper definition of 5GW is not possible because of its vast scope but the term was coined in 2003 by Robert Steele to label the new form of war in which non-kinetic measures are used to affect one’s perception about a religion, culture, moral values, and state to knock down the other country. Classification of Wars First-Generation Wars were fought face to face using tactics of line and column, the Second-Generation Wars were of gun powder, the Third-Generation Wars were of Air Force tactics and static artillery position (blitzkrieg), the Forth-Generation Wars were of guerrilla tactics, and the Fifth-Generation Wars are of information manoeuvring.
The priority of warfare is moving from physical dominance to cognitive dominance due to which old weapons like physical weapons are losing their charms and weaponized information is becoming the apple of everyone’s eye.It is important to note that with the evolution of warfare tactics the sphere of battlefield and combatants are also changing. At first, the battle was fought only at battlefield but now the whole world is battlefield, and the domain of combatants is shifted from military personnels to civilians which is making it difficult to identify the clandestine agent and increasing the lethality of war. All this making 5GW harder to fight and hardest to understand it. Instruments of 5GW The principal instruments of 5GW are media and social media through which information is weaponized to mould the public opinion. In Pakistan there are 46 new channels, 543 Urdu newspapers, 76 English newspapers, 111 million internet users, and 71.70 million active users of social media. From this we can imagine that how easily media and social media can be used to change one’s opinion about one’s religion, belief system, state, and identity. Objectives of 5GW The paramount objective of 5GW is to create confusion which is destroying the ability specially of youth to differentiate between good and bad. This is giving opportunities to other hostile nations like India, USA, Israel etc. to exploit the youth and used them for their purposes without knowing them that they are destroying their very own, belief system, culture, state and identity.
It is difficult to identify who is friend and who is foe in this war, but it is very clear that India is not friend. India is disseminating propaganda, using mal information, and spreading disinformation to destabilize Pakistan and chagrin globally. India is using bi-dimensional strategy to sabotage Pakistan. Firstly, India is trying to diplomatically isolate Pakistan by spreading disinformation about Pakistan. According to a report published in 2019 by EU Disinfolab, from past 15 years in the 116 countries India was using 500 fake media outlets and a dozen of fake NGOs to advance anti-Pakistani narrative in the United Nations and European Union. Furthermore, India is disseminating propaganda that Pakistan is sponsoring terrorism in the region by tagging incidents like Bombay Attacks in 2008, Pathankot Attack in 2016, and Pulwama Attack in 2019 to Pakistan. India is also blocking Pakistan’s way to economic stability by supporting the narrative that Pakistan should be in the FATF blacklist because of its terrorist activities. Secondly, India is trying to destabilize Pakistan Internally by using mal information. Kulbushan Yadav is a proof of this who was deployed in Pakistan to destabilize it internally. We have observed that in recent years, Pakistan is destabilizing internally, trust on state institutions is weakening, and violent incidents are increasing. Why? The enemy is using our fault lines such as ethnicity, sectarianism, weak economy, and bad governance to hit our state.In the second quarter of 2024 Pakistan lost 380 lives in violent incidents out of which 92% were from Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Recently, a violent incident is observed in Kashmir which took the lives of four people. Moreover, sectarian violence is getting bloodier as in March 2022 60 lives were lost in a bomb blast in Shia Mosque. All these incidents are the offshoots of the 5GW. Affects Effects in Pakistan How 5GW is affecting us? If we look at our condition one may observe that we are becoming intolerant of our minorities, insecure of our future, violent in our protests, lacking national integration, lacking confidence in our culture, and lacking confidence in our institutions.
That is how we are playing in the hands of others and destroying ourselves, our nation and our state. We must need to understand that we have security challenges from the East and from the West, economic challenges from FATF and IMF, and social challenges because of identity crises.So, we need to paly constructive role in nation building instead of destructive because we are Pakistan. From all this, it must not be perceived that we should not stand up for our rights and not critic the state for its wrong doings. My aim is just to enlighten my nation about the 5GW. Solutions To grapple with the nuisance the government needs to put some real efforts to address the economic, educational, and social need of the nation as populist strategies which government is employing will further dent the fragile economy of the country creating space for enemies to harness it for their purposes. There is a dire need for quality education and economic stability which are the only things through which 5GW can be fought. BIO:
-M Ahmad is a dedicated article writer currently pursuing his studies at the National Defence University (NDU), Islamabad, Pakistan. With a passion for writing and a keen eye for detail. He has a keen interest in a variety of topics, including politics, policy, economics, culture, and Islam.