Recently, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced the establishment of the “Era Military Innovation Technology Park”, which focuses on scientific research, testing and simulation of advanced weapons, military and special equipment. Coincidentally, the US military is also stepping up the development of the “Soldiers Build Intelligence System Military Training Support” project, hoping to better assist officers and soldiers in conducting military intelligence training by providing equipment, simulators and simulation modeling services. The frequently mentioned military simulation technology has attracted attention from all parties. With the rapid development of cloud computing, big data, artificial intelligence and other technologies, military simulation technology has made significant progress in equipment construction, military exercises, combat training and logistics support. At present, major military powers have recognized the huge application prospects of simulation technology in the military field and regard it as an “advanced intelligence contest” in modern warfare.
The “virtual battlefield” can also deploy troops
Once upon a time, we all “learned about war from war”. The emergence of military simulation technology has allowed us to learn about future wars from the “virtual battlefield”.
Simulation technology mainly relies on computer and other equipment platforms, and uses mathematical models to conduct scientific research, analysis, evaluation and decision-making on issues that need to be studied. Military simulation systems are simulation systems built specifically for military applications. They can conduct quantitative analysis of combat elements such as land, sea, air, space, electricity, and the Internet, the performance of weapons and equipment, and combat operations, and then accurately simulate the battlefield environment, present relevant battlefield situations, and achieve effectiveness evaluation of the combat system and command decision-making assistance.
At present, military simulation systems have become an effective means of studying future wars, designing weapons and equipment, and supporting the evaluation of tactics, and they run through the entire process of weapons and equipment development and testing. In recent years, military simulation technology has been increasingly regarded as a multiplier for improving combat effectiveness and one of the key technologies for national defense security and troop construction and development.
The United States has always listed modeling and simulation as an important key defense technology. As early as 1992, the United States announced the “Defense Modeling and Simulation Initiative” and established a special Defense Modeling and Simulation Office. The United States also specifically listed the “integrated simulation environment” as one of the seven driving technologies to maintain the US military advantage. At the same time, European countries attach great importance to the development of military simulation technology, and strive to continuously improve simulation methods in the process of developing a new generation of weapon systems, thereby improving the comprehensive effectiveness of weapon equipment construction and development.
In fact, military simulation technology has allowed people to fully learn about future wars in experiments. Before the outbreak of the Gulf War, the US Department of Defense used military simulation technology to analyze and determine the direct consequences of Iraq igniting all oil wells in Kuwait, which had a profound impact on the US military’s formulation of the Gulf War combat plan. In the integrated ballistic missile defense system project carried out by the US military, modeling and simulation methods are specifically used to conduct a preliminary assessment of the ballistic missile defense system. At the end of 2017, the US Department of Defense’s Advanced Research Projects Agency invested 12.8 million US dollars specifically for the construction of virtual simulation space battlefields. The US Army also spent 57 million US dollars to develop the Army Infantry Training System – this immersive military virtual simulation training system can provide soldiers with a more realistic battlefield combat simulation environment.
A brainstorming session to plan operations
From artillery simulation, aircraft simulation, missile simulation to today’s various types of weapon system equipment simulation and combat simulation, while simulation technology continues to meet the needs of military applications, it is also rapidly developing in the direction of virtualization, networking, intelligence, collaboration and universalization. In order to continuously improve military simulation calculation methods and improve simulation technology, people are constantly launching a “brainstorming” to plan operations.
Mathematical modeling algorithm. Mathematical model is the basis of simulation. To carry out simulation, we must first build a mathematical model of the object to be simulated. At the same time, the correctness and accuracy of the mathematical model directly affect the credibility of the simulation calculation results. In recent years, the rapid development of artificial intelligence technology has provided new ideas for mathematical modeling. Introducing artificial intelligence to build mathematical models can not only effectively improve the realism, reliability and accuracy of simulation models, but also further improve the efficiency of modeling and simulation.
Virtual reality technology. With virtual reality technology, people can interact with objects in a virtual simulation environment through related equipment, thereby creating an effect of “immersion” in the real environment. The augmented reality technology that has emerged in recent years has further increased the user’s perception of the virtual simulation system, and can superimpose virtual objects, scenes, and information generated by the military simulation system onto the real scene. The U.S. Army is currently relying on virtual reality and augmented reality technologies to develop the future overall training environment to achieve seamless, mixed immersive combat training.
Network grid technology. The realization of military simulation is inseparable from the strong support of computers, local area networks, software engineering and other technologies. The distributed interactive simulation that integrates simulation equipment or systems of different types in different locations into a whole provides a more realistic application environment for military simulation. In recent years, grid technology that can realize the rapid transmission of various types of information and resource sharing has become a research hotspot for military simulation. The US Department of Defense has begun to use the “Global Information Grid” plan to establish a military grid that communicates various information elements on the battlefield and realizes the dynamic sharing and collaborative application of various military network resources.
Winning the war before it starts
The future information warfare is an integrated war that is carried out simultaneously in multiple dimensions such as land, sea, air, space, electricity, and the Internet. Not only is the battle structure complex and the weapons and equipment diverse, but it also places higher demands on the combatants and the use of tactics. Only by building a “virtual battlefield” for future wars with the help of military simulation technology and realizing the scientific coordination of factors such as the scale of war, the course of war, war investment, the number of combatants and weapons and equipment, the targets of attack and the intensity of attack, can we be sure of victory before the war begins.
In the field of combat experiments, the U.S. military has fully reduced the losses caused by improper combat plans and action plans through a large number of computer simulation evaluations and iterative optimizations. The Russian military’s combat regulations and tactics are also “optimal battlefield solutions” obtained through scientific deduction and simulation calculation using mathematical models. Through military simulation analysis and evaluation, battlefield commanders and fighters can quickly understand the trend of war simulations and carry out effective responses according to various changes in the “virtual battlefield”, thereby effectively improving the effectiveness of combat experiments.
In the field of military training, individual soldier training can be carried out through an immersive virtual simulation training environment, which can be as close to the battlefield environment as possible and effectively improve the training effect. In recent years, the US Army has specially opened a “simulated immersion” training course in the “Advanced Course for Officers”. Through the implementation of virtual simulation military training, the organization and implementation of training are not restricted by time and weather conditions. The distributed training simulation system can even enable trainees in different locations to participate in the training together. By modeling and simulating the specific battlefield environment, tactical background and enemy forces, the military training system can also provide trainees with a more realistic battlefield perception.
In the field of equipment demonstration, the technical support of simulation systems is required throughout the life cycle of weapons and equipment development. At present, the United States has extensively adopted simulation technology in new weapon system development projects to fully support the development and testing, live-fire evaluation and combat testing of weapons and equipment. The U.S. Missile Defense Agency has further explored effective measures to deal with incoming missile threats through missile threat target modeling and simulation. The U.S. Navy simulates the operation of ship systems and crew members through mission analysis simulation software, and obtains simulation results for determining and optimizing the number of crew members. In the future, military simulation technology may become a new technological highland for the world’s major military powers to compete.
At the beginning of 2017, Master, known as the evolved version of “AlphaGo”, swept Ke Jie, Park Tinghuan, Iyama Yuta and other top Go players on the Go online platform, winning 60 consecutive games, setting off a “Master storm” and causing many people to worry. What humans are worried about is not that Go, known as the “last bastion of human wisdom”, will be conquered by artificial intelligence, but that artificial intelligence has subverted Go today, what will it subvert tomorrow? This is the concern that hangs in people’s minds.
Master’s consecutive victories over human masters are similar to the nature of computers proving the four-color theorem. They are all victories of computing power and algorithms. There is no need to worry too much that they will dominate and enslave humans. However, artificial intelligence is developing rapidly, and it is generally believed that strong artificial intelligence will come sooner or later. Nowadays, artificial intelligence has penetrated into every corner of life. It is not uncommon to use artificial intelligence in war. Since the arrival of the artificial intelligence era is inevitable, how we use it in future wars will become the key to victory. Whether artificial intelligence brings threats or development to mankind depends on how to use it. “The fake horse is not good at running, but it can reach a thousand miles; the fake boat is not good at sailing, but it can cross the river.” The integration of war technology and artificial intelligence may be the way of the future.
Development History of Artificial Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence Opens the Door to Intelligent Warfare
Master’s 60-game winning streak makes us think about how artificial intelligence will change our lives. Perhaps the following life scenarios will gradually become a reality:
When driving, you tell the location and the autopilot system takes you to your destination;
In hospitals, you see tug-trailer robots from the United States transporting medical equipment and “Big White” robots caring for patients;
After get off work, you press the “Go Home Mode” on your phone, and when you open the door, you find that the curtains are closed, the temperature is right, the lights are soft, the water is hot, and there is a cute home robot greeting you.
In fact, you can also use an unmanned aerial vehicle to carry a diamond ring and propose to your beloved…
We have been looking forward to this day for a long time.
The era of great development of artificial intelligence is here!
As early as shortly after the first computer came out, scientists predicted that the era of artificial intelligence would come. In 1997, when Deep Blue defeated Kasparov, this beautiful scene seemed just around the corner. However, in the second half of the 20th century, artificial intelligence research fell into a cold winter due to the failure of several attempts at technological innovation. The most recent cold winter, from the end of the 20th century to the first decade of the 21st century, was caused by the bottleneck encountered in the research of neural networks.
In recent years, everyone can clearly feel that the theoretical research and perceptible products of artificial intelligence seem to have suddenly “exploded” in a blowout manner: wearable devices have appeared in large numbers, intelligent robots have appeared frequently, the accuracy of machine face recognition exceeds that of the naked eye, companies such as Apple and BMW have worked together to develop driverless cars, and the United States and Europe have successively established projects to tackle the human brain…
The explosion of artificial intelligence projects is not a coincidence, but a leap forward after more than 10 years of silence. Ray Kurzweil, an American scientist who successfully predicted that robots will defeat human chess players, has predicted that the wonderful intersection point when artificial intelligence surpasses the sum of human wisdom will be in 2045.
So, how big an impact will this wave of artificial intelligence explosion have, how long will the impact last, and to what extent will it change human life?
From weak artificial intelligence to strong artificial intelligence. After Deep Blue dominated the chess field in 1997, artificial intelligence did not change the world as expected, and Deep Blue disappeared after more than 10 years of silence. Artificial intelligence has also remained at the stage of weak artificial intelligence and has not made any breakthroughs. This period of nearly 20 years has become the longest artificial intelligence winter to date. Some people joked that the greatest achievement in the field of artificial intelligence in the past 20 years is that Spielberg made the science fiction movie “Artificial Intelligence” that has captivated the world. Spielberg put all the rich fantasies of human beings about the future world into the movie world he created. Subsequently, a series of movies about artificial intelligence such as “Robot Butler”, “Super Hacker” and “Ex Machina” came into being. Artificial intelligence has begun to enter all aspects of human life. The use of artificial intelligence in industries such as medicine, education, services, manufacturing, and even in the military field has become common, which makes many military enthusiasts think about what artificial intelligence means to the military field and where it will go in the future?
“AlphaGo” only represents the latest achievements of artificial intelligence in the fields of deep learning of machines based on neural networks, high-performance computing and big data technology, and is a weak artificial intelligence. However, some military experts predict that the application of strong artificial intelligence in the future will bring about huge changes, just like the entry of big data five years ago. In the military field where competition and game are more intense, artificial intelligence has been increasingly moving towards the battlefield since the emergence of computers in the last century, promoting the advent of the era of intelligent warfare.
Artificial intelligence is taking big steps onto the battlefield
Artificial intelligence is an important branch of modern information technology. The world’s first programmable “Giant” computer was born in Britain during World War II. Its purpose was to help the British army decipher German codes. In recent years, artificial intelligence has been increasingly used on the battlefield, profoundly changing the face of war. In summary, the application of artificial intelligence in the military field is mainly reflected in the following five aspects:
Intelligent perception and information processing. The rapid development of micro-electromechanical systems, wireless sensor network technology, and cloud computing technology has further developed battlefield perception methods in the direction of intelligent perception and information fusion processing. The U.S. military, Russian military, French military, German military, etc. are all equipped with digital soldier systems with intelligent information perception and processing capabilities, such as the U.S. military’s “Night Warrior” and the Russian military’s “Warrior”. In fiscal year 2015, the U.S. Department of Defense’s Advanced Research Projects Agency added research and development projects such as the “cerebral cortex processor”. This processor simulates the structure of the human cerebral cortex to solve problems such as real-time control of high-speed moving objects. In the future, its application will greatly improve the autonomous action capabilities of robots and drones.
Intelligent command and control assists decision-making. The military of various countries develops various military information systems in order to build a powerful grid network information system and improve intelligent evaluation and decision-making assistance capabilities. The command and control automation systems of major military powers are constantly developing, pursuing stronger information and decision-making advantages than their opponents. In recent years, the US military has established a cyber command to vigorously strengthen its network attack and defense capabilities, focusing on the development of intelligent diagnostic information systems for network intrusions based on cloud computing, big data analysis and other technologies, which can automatically diagnose the source of network intrusions, the degree of damage to one’s own network and data recovery capabilities.
Unmanned military platforms. Western countries began to attach importance to the research and development and application of small drones, remote-controlled unmanned vehicles and unmanned boats during World War I. At present, the armies of more than 70 countries in the world are developing unmanned system platforms. The US military has equipped more than 7,000 drones, and more than 12,000 ground wheeled (or tracked) robots have been put into use on the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan. In the near future, the US military will achieve that ground robots account for one-third of its ground forces, and the carrier-based X-47B drone will account for one-third of the total number of carrier-based aircraft, further promoting the coordinated training and exercise between manned and unmanned platforms.
Bionic robots. Since the 21st century, robot technology has developed rapidly. Various bionic robots such as humanoid robots, robot fish, and robot insects have been continuously introduced and have been increasingly used in the military field. For example, the US military once tested a “big dog” robot on the battlefield in Afghanistan to help soldiers with accompanying support. The US Department of Defense upgraded it in 2013, increasing its load capacity to 200 kilograms, running speed to 12 kilometers per hour, bulletproof and silent. The Russian army recently plans to step up the development of humanoid robots that can drive vehicles and form a robot unit that can fight side by side with human soldiers.
Expanding people’s physical skills and intelligence. The cross-integration of information technology, new material technology and biotechnology will further expand people’s physical strength, skills and intelligence. For example, foreign militaries are developing mechanical exoskeletons to create “mech warriors” with doubled physical strength; and by implanting bioinformatics chips to improve people’s memory and reaction ability, so that human soldiers can better adapt to the highly informationized combat environment in the future.
Artificial intelligence will drive a new round of military reforms
When new military technologies, operational concepts, and organizational structures interact to significantly enhance military combat capabilities, it will trigger new military changes. The increasingly widespread application of artificial intelligence in the military field is becoming an important driver of military change, giving rise to new war styles and changing the internal mechanism of winning wars.
It brings a new impact on the concept of war. The history of human warfare has gone through the era of cold weapons, the era of hot weapons, the era of mechanization, and the era of informatization. The development of artificial intelligence has accelerated the arrival of the intelligent era. Can intelligence be divided into high-level intelligence and low-level intelligence? Do armies with high-level intelligence have an overwhelming advantage over low-level intelligence armies? If the “mechanization” of people and the “humanization” of machines are two inevitable development trends, does it go against the traditional ethics of war for robots that can think to fight instead of humans? Artificial intelligence has unprecedentedly improved battlefield perception and information processing capabilities. Does the “fog” of war still exist on the high-tech battlefield? To understand these issues, the military field must have a brainstorming session.
It brings new inspiration to theoretical innovation. The material and technological basis of war is constantly updated, opening up new space for innovation in strategic theories and operational concepts, and constantly giving birth to new disruptive technologies in the field of artificial intelligence; the combined application of precision strike ammunition, unmanned equipment and network information systems has given birth to new intelligent combat theories such as “distributed lethality”, “mothership theory”, “combat cloud” and “swarm tactics”; relying on one’s own information advantage and decision-making advantage, how to cut off and delay the opponent’s information and decision-making loop in a decentralized battlefield network has become a core issue that must be solved to win in intelligent warfare.
Future Trends in Military Applications of Artificial Intelligence
With the development and application of strategic frontier technology fields such as information technology, nanotechnology, biotechnology, new materials technology, and new energy technology, artificial intelligence-related technologies will continue to mature and play an increasingly important role in the military field.
Artificial intelligence technology and equipment continue to make breakthroughs. Major countries have elevated artificial intelligence to the level of national strategy. The Office of the Chief Scientist of the U.S. Air Force has issued the “Unmanned Systems Horizon” technology assessment and forecast report for 2035, which believes that the automation, autonomy and remote control performance of various unmanned systems and combat platforms in the future will continue to make breakthroughs with the advancement of technology. In particular, with the advancement of technologies such as super-large-scale computing, quantum computing, cloud computing, big data, and brain-like chips, artificial intelligence information processing and control technology will be greatly developed, profoundly changing the proportion of artificial intelligence technology in modern warfare.
Artificial intelligence has given rise to the vigorous development of new combat forces. The widespread application of artificial intelligence systems and combat platforms will make artificial intelligence, as an important combat element, permeate the entire process of war and combat preparation, and further enrich the connotation of new combat forces. With the application of drone formations, unmanned submarine formations, battlefield robot soldier formations, and coordinated formations of unmanned and manned combat units on the battlefield, various types of “mixed” new combat forces will continue to emerge. With the construction and application of military Internet of Things, military big data, and cloud computing technology in the military field, artificial intelligence combat forces such as “cloud brain”, “digital staff”, and “virtual warehousing” for information support, command and control, effect evaluation, and logistics support will play an increasingly important role in future wars.
Artificial intelligence is constantly evolving and upgrading through actual combat applications. Artificial intelligence systems and combat platforms, which are supported by information technology, are different from the research and development model of traditional mechanized weapons and equipment. Mechanized weapons and equipment are generally put into use after the technology matures until they are scrapped and eliminated, and have a certain service life; artificial intelligence systems are developed in the mode of system prototype-practical training-evolutionary upgrade. Artificial intelligence systems often use continuous evolution to improve their intelligence level according to different versions. The evolution direction of artificial intelligence is always towards high-level intelligence. This law of development of artificial intelligence systems and combat platforms has revolutionary significance for military training and combat capability improvement. In recent years, the United States and its allies have continued to organize activities such as the “Schriever” space (network) exercise and the “Lockton” cybersecurity exercise, which are repeated tests and upgrades of their artificial intelligence information systems. In the future, upgrading training of artificial intelligence systems and various unmanned combat platforms through continuous confrontation exercises will be an important way to improve combat effectiveness.
Artificial Intelligence Helps Build Smart National Defense
Data is called a strategic resource in the information age. The emergence of artificial intelligence provides methods and means for humans to deeply mine the wisdom resources of data information, and is leading and reshaping the development trend of the world’s new military transformation. Facing the booming wave of artificial intelligence, how to meet challenges, seize opportunities, accelerate the construction of military informatization, and enhance the core military capabilities to win modern wars are the contemporary issues that our army must answer to achieve the goal of strengthening the army. On the one hand, our army must keep a clear mind and make prudent judgments. We must not be frightened by the seemingly powerful and mysterious appearance of artificial intelligence, nor blindly applaud it, nor be indifferent and lose the opportunity for development, and be attacked by opponents due to lack of technical cognition. Breakthroughs in individual technical fields of artificial intelligence are nothing more than an extension of human intelligence, but they cannot replace the dominant position of human intelligence. People are still the core element of all elements of combat effectiveness, and people’s subjective initiative is still the key to determining the outcome of intelligent warfare. On the other hand, our army should implement the military-civilian integration development strategy and the innovation-driven development strategy, grasp the trend of the times, highlight the characteristics of our army, keep a close eye on the opponent’s layout, boldly absorb and apply the relevant technological achievements of artificial intelligence to promote the information construction of the army, and try to apply artificial intelligence technology to achieve transformation and upgrading in platform construction, logistics support, military training, national defense mobilization and other fields. Actively develop countermeasures against the opponent’s military application of artificial intelligence, and explore the winning mechanism of the game with strong enemies in the field of artificial intelligence in practice.
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The military application of artificial intelligence in the United States, Russia and other countries
United States: In July 2016, the U.S. Marine Corps tested the Modular Advanced Armed Robotic System (MAARS), which uses sensors and cameras to control gun-wielding robots based on artificial intelligence. The “Army Global Military Command and Control System” developed by the U.S. Army has been equipped with Army Aviation Force transport helicopters, allowing helicopter pilots to maintain contact with frontline soldiers and command ground forces.
Russia: The “Wolf-2” mobile robot system being developed by the Russian Strategic Missile Forces uses a tracked chassis and can be controlled via radio channels within a range of 5 kilometers. The shooting accuracy is guaranteed by a thermal imager, ballistic computer, laser rangefinder and gyro stabilizer, and it can hit the target at a speed of 35 kilometers per hour.
Israel: The robot “Dogo” developed by the company is an automatically armed tactical combat robot, which comes with a standard Glock 26 9mm caliber pistol. It can be said to be a little devil.
The arrival of the “Master” makes the combat style develop towards unmanned
The Go account Master has challenged the world’s top players on two major Go platforms, Yicheng Go and Tencent Go, and won 60 consecutive games, which has attracted great attention from the world on artificial intelligence. Few people thought that in the field of Go, machines did not experience a period of “stalemate” with humans, but directly left in the dust.
Engels once said that the application of cutting-edge technology began in the military field. Military struggle is a comprehensive contest covering multiple dimensions, multiple fields, full time domain and high intensity, and the addition of artificial intelligence will accelerate the pace of military reform in various countries like a catalyst. Looking at the entire process of the two industrial revolutions and the two world wars, we will find that there is an inevitable connection between “technology” and “war”. Technology will trigger war, and war in turn will promote the development of technology. At this stage, all countries have made great progress in the development of information and intelligent weapons and equipment, and various precise positioning, precise strike, and precise evaluation weapon systems have emerged in an endless stream. However, humans have not yet been separated from the weapon system, and a large part of the operations still need to be completed manually. The combination of artificial intelligence and weapons and equipment means that in the future, from searching and discovering targets, to threat assessment, to locking and destroying, and then to effect evaluation, this series of processes does not require human participation at all. Machines can help us make decisions and achieve unmanned development of combat styles.
Master quietly disappeared after winning 60 games in a row, but discussions about the future of artificial intelligence are still endless: Will it take away human jobs, or will it be an extension of human functions? Will it eventually surpass human intelligence, or will it merge with humans? The answers to these questions are not as simple as either one or the other. Solving them will accompany the future development of artificial intelligence. In 1997, “Deep Blue” defeated Kasparov, making more use of computer computing expertise such as hardware acceleration and brute force computing. AlphaGo uses new artificial intelligence technologies such as neural networks, deep learning, and Monte Carlo tree search, and its strength has already made a substantial leap. These new technologies make artificial intelligence more competent for tasks such as voice and image recognition and evaluation and analysis, and are therefore an important development direction.
Although the dust has settled on this round of the Go “man-machine battle”, the thoughts it has triggered in various fields are very worthy of study. Among them, “‘man-machine battle’ is the best pre-practice of war” is particularly worthy of serious study in the military field. Whether in the era of cold weapons or the mechanized era, fighting on the front line relies on “human wave tactics”, and solving problems requires “concentrating superior forces”. Informatized warfare no longer uses “human wave tactics”, and the scene of large-scale fighting is difficult to reproduce, but as far as the entire war is concerned, the use of troops is not necessarily less, on the contrary, it may be more, but the number of troops used at the forefront has been greatly reduced, and the position of the troops has undergone a major shift. In the unmanned, networked and non-contact combat mode of future wars, there will be more participants, and sometimes you cannot know who the opponent is or where he is hiding.
Although the competition field and the battlefield have different operating rules, many of the winning mechanisms are the same. In the past, we could only learn about war in war, but now we can learn about war in a computer-simulated, near-actual combat environment, and deduce the offensive and defensive modes and development trends of future wars. “AlphaGo” can easily collect the chess games of many Go masters, but in the military field, it is extremely difficult to obtain relevant data on your opponent’s training, exercises, and even combat! Future wars are carried out with the support of information systems. Only by solving the core problem of human-machine integration can we take the initiative on the battlefield and win the final victory in modern warfare. (Zhu Qichao, Wang Jingling, Li Daguang)
An analysis of the use of strategies in intelligent warfare
■Chen Dongheng, Zhong Ya
Reading Tips: “Warfare is the art of deception”. War is a competition of comprehensive strength. Ancient Chinese military strategists have always attached great importance to “strategizing in the tent and winning thousands of miles away”, and all of them regard strategy as the way to victory. War practice shows that as long as war is a confrontation between humans, smart strategies will not withdraw from the battlefield. Today’s battlefield competition is about intelligent skills, and what is fought is smart strategies.
“The best military is to attack the enemy’s strategy, the next best is to attack the enemy’s alliance, the next best is to attack the enemy’s soldiers, and the worst is to attack the city.” Strategy, as a component of combat power and a weapon to win the war, runs through ancient and modern times and transcends national boundaries, and has an important function of influencing and determining the outcome of the war. Although the role of science and technology is more prominent in intelligent warfare, it does not exclude the use of strategy. With the support and guidance of strategy, the combat system is more efficient. In-depth research and mastery of the use of strategy in intelligent warfare will be more conducive to winning the initiative in intelligent warfare.
The status and role of the use of strategy in intelligent warfare
The essence of strategy lies in the intelligent release of power. Scientific strategy application can often defeat the majority with the minority, the big with the small, and the strong with the weak. The battlefield of intelligent warfare presents more transparency, more extended combat space, more diverse means of confrontation, and more complex winning mechanism. This provides a solid material foundation and technical support for the implementation of strategy, and the status and role of strategy are becoming more and more important.
The internal driving force of the army construction and development planning. Demand is the order of the army, and use is the commander of the weapon. How science and technology are innovated, how weapons and equipment are developed, and how the national defense forces are built are often driven by demand and forward-looking planning. For example, in order to make up for the gap between Russia and the United States in terms of overall air defense and anti-missile strength, Russia used “asymmetric” strategies to focus on penetration technology and developed the “Zircon” and “Dagger” hypersonic missiles before the United States. Facts show that the application of strategies mainly focuses on “Tao” and “Fa”. The more reasonable the design and the more scientific the application, the more it can stimulate the motivation, vitality and potential of innovation and creation, and trigger a revolution in science and technology, weapons and equipment, and military construction and combat methods. Only when intelligent warfare, scientific and technological innovation and weapons and equipment development are closely connected with the needs of scientific war strategies can they adhere to the correct direction and be better transformed into actual combat power.
A multiplier of the actual combat effectiveness of the combat system. In the combat power spectrum, strategy, as an important soft power, has the value and significance of providing scientific methodological guidance, appropriate time and opportunity selection and correct path support for the use of military hard power. For example, Iran once used the “dislocation” tactics to launch a large-scale retaliatory air strike against Israel, first using hundreds of cheap drones to attract the consumption of Israel’s expensive air defense system, and then using more advanced high-value ballistic missiles to penetrate, which improved the hit rate to a certain extent. Facts show that when facing an opponent with superior hard power, if the strategy is used properly, it can also achieve miraculous results; and the same hard power may have very different combat effectiveness when using different strategies and tactics. In intelligent warfare, although the “blade” of military hard power is faster, in order to make it more effective, it still needs to rely on more sophisticated strategic “sword skills”.
Dependent variables of hybrid warfare operations. Strategy can not only empower military hard power, but also has a strong direct combat function, and can even defeat the enemy without fighting by “soft killing”. For example, the United States once spent a lot of money to capture the leader of al-Qaeda, Osama bin Laden, but he seemed to have disappeared from the world, and technical means could not determine his exact hiding place. He was finally tracked down by targeting his messenger through strategic use. The United States’ “live broadcast” “Spear of Poseidon” operation attempted to show the strength of the US military by killing Bin Laden to shock the international community. Intelligent warfare is a hybrid warfare, which has entered a new era of global live broadcast, universal participation, and full coverage. More and more countries are adopting strategic methods to enhance their own confidence and strike the opponent’s will to resist, and the strategic “soft kill” combat function is becoming more and more apparent.
Basic mechanism of intelligent warfare strategy application
Intelligent warfare, high-level development of artificial intelligence, rapid iteration, full spectrum penetration, and high-efficiency release, make the application of strategy have more dimensional support and stronger drive, showing a unique operation mechanism.
Cluster operation of strategy application. The application of strategy is based on the underlying logic of war operation and follows the law of evolution of the subject from individual to team and then to system. From a historical perspective, the application of strategy warfare in the cold weapon era relied more on the wisdom and experience accumulation of generals. Natural factors such as geography and weather are the main grasps of strategy operation. The burning of Red Cliff and borrowing arrows from straw boats are vivid footnotes. In the mechanized era, in order to adapt to the increasingly complex composition of military branches and the needs of fast-paced operations, the “General Staff” of senior military institutions dedicated to war planning services came into being. The “General Staff” in the two world wars is a typical representative. In the information age, the use of war strategies mainly relies on the control of information, and information power has become the main support behind strategic planning. In intelligent warfare, the comprehensiveness of technology application, the systematic nature of force planning, and the platform characteristics of game confrontation are more prominent, and the internal requirements are that the subject of strategy implementation should shift to a more powerful systematic platform.
Algorithm-driven strategy application. Strategy is based on strategy. The essence of planning is calculation, calculation of the world situation, calculation of military situation, calculation of development trend, calculation of strength and weakness, calculation of winning advantage… Whether it is calculation by human brain or machine, calculation by generals or calculation by teams, calculation is always the most critical supporting factor. Generally speaking, whoever has stronger computing power, more precise algorithms, and faster calculations can grab the “calculation” machine and win the victory. In the era of intelligent calculation, artificial intelligence participates in strategic decision-making with human-machine hybrid algorithms or machine algorithms, which greatly enhances the efficiency of calculation. It is based on this that major countries have focused on breakthroughs in artificial intelligence to win the future competition. These artificial intelligences, characterized by strong computing power, have great application potential in simulating battlefield situations, simulating war processes, and assisting decision-making and command. Only by guarding against the opponent’s technical aggression, vigorously improving our computing power, and adding the wings of algorithms to traditional strategies can we be invincible in the strategic game confrontation.
Intelligent support for the use of strategies. In intelligent warfare, strategies are based on the rapid development of artificial intelligence and its extensive military applications. It is a two-way “rush” of human strategic wisdom and “technical” wisdom. Now, the generals’ ingenuity and traditional staff work have become increasingly difficult to adapt to the needs of intelligent warfare. Comprehensive intelligent command and decision-making platforms have become an important support for the implementation of strategies. The command and decision-making system of the US military has developed into a large platform that integrates four-layer structural functions, including “intelligence support, information fusion, mission coordination, autonomous decision-making, action deployment, force allocation, situation adjustment, and real-time tracking”, and has become the brain of its “decision-making center warfare”. The Russian Federation Armed Forces Combat Command Center can dispatch and monitor the training and exercises of the entire army in real time, and undertake combat command tasks in low-intensity small-scale conflicts. It can be seen that intelligent support for strategic planning and strategy implementation has gradually taken shape. Intelligent strategic confrontation has put forward higher requirements for the professional integration of strategic subjects, and promoted the deep integration of human biological intelligence and artificial intelligence, which is “human-like intelligence”.
Main ways to use strategies in intelligent warfare
In intelligent warfare, the era background, supporting conditions, and action mechanisms of strategy application have undergone profound changes. The way of implementing strategies must keep pace with the times, strive to combine traditional strategic advantages with new technologies and new forms of warfare, innovate and expand scientific paths to effectively release strategic energy, and strive to plan quickly, plan carefully, and integrate strategy and attack.
Intelligent technology integration releases energy. That is, make full use of intelligent technology to empower and release energy for strategies. Generally speaking, the effective implementation of strategies is inseparable from accurate information perception, rapid personnel mobilization, and efficient force strikes. The innovative application of artificial intelligence enables people to see farther, hear more closely, know more, and calculate faster, making the army gather and disperse more quickly, move more covertly, and release power more rapidly, which is more conducive to the generation of strategies and the achievement of effectiveness. On the one hand, with the help of the rapidity and autonomy of artificial intelligence, the enemy situation can be quickly grasped through intelligent reconnaissance, the decision-making time can be greatly shortened by using machine algorithms, and the optimal strategy can be selected with the help of simulation deduction; on the other hand, relying on artificial intelligence to release and enhance the efficiency of strategies, modern brain control technology, deep fake technology, information confusion technology, public opinion guidance technology, etc., have greatly expanded the space and means of implementing strategies.
Human-machine complementation releases energy. That is, the strengths and weaknesses of human intelligence and machine intelligence complement each other and enhance efficiency and release energy. The biggest advantage of machine intelligence over human intelligence is that it can fight continuously without being affected by biological factors such as will, emotion, psychology, and physical strength. However, the “meta-intelligence” of human intelligence and its ability to adapt to changes are not possessed by machine intelligence. The two intelligence advantages complement each other and aggregate to form a powerful hybrid intelligence, which strongly supports the use of strategies in war. On the one hand, the “machine brain” safely and efficiently makes up for the shortcomings of the human brain; on the other hand, the human brain responds to special situations on the spot. Facts show that the biggest advantage of human intelligence over machine intelligence is that it can make decisions and deal with different situations on the spot, which just makes up for the shortcomings of machine intelligence. Only by combining the two can we form the optimal solution for intelligent calculation and gather the strongest strategic application.
The platform releases energy as a whole. It is to create a modular intelligent system, an integrated intelligent decision-making command action platform that integrates strategy generation and release. Intelligent warfare, every second counts, improves the time sensitivity of target strikes. The intelligent platform comprehensively uses intelligent computing and command automation technology to efficiently process massive data and complex battlefield situations, creating a “super brain” for commanders. It has significant advantages of good functional connection, high stability, fast operation speed, and high combat efficiency. It is a new quality combat force for strategic planning. Relying on the intelligent command and control system, it can make real-time decisions, form a list of time-sensitive targets, and independently solve the combat units and strike platforms that can be summoned and struck the fastest and best. The hardware and software can accurately strike the targets, and accurate strikes on time-sensitive targets can be achieved in real-time decisions, providing more options for assisting war decision-making and command.
At present, the widespread use of unmanned equipment in the military field is accelerating the evolution of war forms towards intelligence, and unmanned combat has also developed into an important combat style of intelligent warfare. However, it should be clearly seen that unmanned combat, from technical development to combat application, cannot be separated from the role of people, and people are still the “master switch” of the entire chain of unmanned combat. Therefore, unmanned combat is essentially still manned, and more attention should be paid to the construction of manned combat in unmanned combat.
From the perspective of operational design, the mission task is assigned by the mission tasker.
Equipment is the material basis of war, but people are the initiators and controllers of war. The role of any equipment in war is given by commanders and fighters at all levels. From the overall perspective of combat design, war involves multiple fields such as politics, economy, diplomacy, culture, and multiple levels such as strategy, campaign, and tactics. Winning a war requires the support of advanced equipment and technology, and more importantly, it requires all-round control of the war situation. Unmanned equipment is suitable for undertaking persistent and high-risk tasks because of its characteristics such as long-lasting endurance, concealed action, high mobility, low cost, and its advantages such as adaptability to extreme environments and flexible use. However, when encountering extremely complex combat environments, extremely fierce confrontations, and rapid changes in fighters that require real-time comprehensive weighing and decision-making, unmanned systems still need to be human-led, implement complex command and control, and control unmanned equipment to complete designated combat tasks. Therefore, although unmanned equipment has become a development trend in modern warfare, its dependence on and obedience to people will not change. It is necessary to accurately grasp the advantages and disadvantages of unmanned equipment, increase research in unmanned command and control theory, unmanned combat knowledge system, etc., to form a rich and complete combat theory system, drive the development of unmanned equipment, promote the formation of unmanned combat systems, and play a greater role in limited combat scenarios, thereby playing a good role as a “multiplier” of combat capabilities.
From the perspective of equipment research and development, unmanned systems are designed by humans.
Humans are the designers of unmanned equipment, especially in the intelligent software that empowers unmanned equipment. It is the core of unmanned equipment’s ability to perform various tasks, and it is also the embodiment of the designer’s wisdom. Although the artificial intelligence algorithms used in many core software have a certain self-learning ability and improve the autonomy of unmanned equipment, the choice of such self-learning strategies is still set by humans according to task requirements and specific scenarios. At present, various types of drones, unmanned ships, unmanned submarines, etc. have a certain ability to “think like humans”, but they are subject to the limitations of artificial intelligence algorithms, big data, and existing computer architectures. They cannot be separated from human thinking and input points set by humans. For a long time, the role of humans will still be the decisive factor in the development of unmanned equipment and warfare. Therefore, no matter to what extent informatization and intelligence develop, intelligent systems cannot completely replace humans, and the development of unmanned equipment is still dominated by humans. Manned/unmanned collaboration, human-machine coexistence, and intelligent integration are inevitable and feasible stages in the development of intelligent warfare. We must give full play to the “machine”‘s fast speed, high precision, fatigue resistance, and structured “computing” advantages, and give full play to the “human”‘s creativity, flexibility, initiative, and unstructured “calculation” advantages, integrate machine intelligence with human intelligence, learn from each other’s strengths and weaknesses, complement each other, and produce collective wisdom.
From the perspective of combat use, there are people everywhere in the circuit
The intelligent system of unmanned equipment can fully support command and control, combat operations, combat support and other aspects, so that the combat system capabilities can be rapidly improved. However, if we look deeply into the entire unmanned system operation process, it completes the “man-unmanned platform-man” loop, and achieves the combat purpose through the complementary advantages of man and machine. Any advanced unmanned equipment requires combatants to plan tasks in advance, and operators to monitor and control online to ensure that its technical characteristics are brought into play. In other words, the beginning of the loop comes from human program design and thinking introduction. The task process requires human decision-making, control, monitoring and intervention. The completion of the task requires people to evaluate the applicability and combat effectiveness of unmanned equipment and constantly adapt to new combat needs. Therefore, people are still the dominant players in the entire combat use process. If the effectiveness of unmanned equipment is to be maximized, it is necessary to implement systematic professional training for the pioneers of manned/unmanned integrated operation-people. For new combat force talents, especially unmanned combat personnel, we should set up professional training institutions, integrate teaching resources, improve supporting teaching equipment, increase artificial intelligence courses, and improve talent retention mechanisms in accordance with the concept of diversified channels, integrated design, multi-functionality, and hierarchical training. At the same time, we will draw on advanced training concepts and methods from foreign militaries, and comprehensively use simulation, computer networks, virtual reality and other technologies to carry out practical military training to cultivate compound unmanned combat talents with solid theoretical foundation, high equipment technology level, and excellent practical operation skills.
From the perspective of innovation in tactics, capability improvement depends on people.
The development of technologies such as artificial intelligence, quantum computing, unmanned and anti-unmanned systems, and hypersonic weapons has led to new characteristics of modern warfare, such as great depth, long distance, and non-contact. Unmanned, invisible, and silent warfare have begun to emerge, and the future combat concepts and combat styles will undergo profound changes. The maturity of unmanned equipment has accelerated the development of new combat concepts such as wide-area distributed combat, cross-domain collaborative combat, and unmanned cluster combat into actual combat. The advantage of unmanned equipment is that there is no one on the front-end platform, but the limitation is that there is no one, and it is impossible to independently design and summarize new combat concepts and tactics. In fact, it is all done by people to study the essence and laws of a certain type of combat problem, extract common characteristics and abstractly summarize them, and then guide the solution of such combat problems. Specifically, the new combat concept is based on the research and judgment of combat conditions such as historical, current and future technological development, threat judgment, geopolitical situation, combat opponents, battlefield environment, etc., and all of these are the condensation and crystallization of human wisdom. Therefore, in the face of the complex and changeable future battlefield environment, in order to make unmanned equipment play the best combat effectiveness, it is inseparable from the innovation of combat concepts and tactics. Based on changes in the battlefield environment and targeting different combat styles, we should conduct forward-looking designs on force deployment, timing of use, methods of action, and support methods, scientifically predict the development trend of unmanned combat, promote the mutual development of equipment technology and changes in combat methods, and explore and form a combat capability construction path that is mutually verified, closed-feedback, and rollingly developed through “conceptual design-combat experiment-equipment research and development.”
From the perspective of technological development, unmanned technology is controlled by humans.
At present, people generally believe that unmanned and intelligent applications can be competent for various tasks as long as the technology is mature, but in fact, the operating rules of computers are still limited to the von Neumann serial computing architecture, and there has not yet been a revolutionary product combining biotechnology and artificial intelligence. For example, “AlphaGo” with deep learning capabilities can quickly generate astronomical numbers of various response plans in the game with human Go masters, and is almost invincible, but its intelligent foundation is Go with relatively simple rules; the US Department of Defense’s ground-based simulated air combat project, the air combat intelligent agent it developed defeated human ace pilots in human-machine confrontation, but it can only be achieved in the simple battlefield environment of the simulator. It can be seen that the current development of the intelligent field is to be able to perform tasks purposefully in terms of selection and decision-making, while war is a dynamic game process. The intelligent solutions used by unmanned equipment are only in the background assumption situation, and the “water has no constant shape” war mode requires soldiers to respond more flexibly. Therefore, we must attach great importance to the decisive role of people in scientific and technological progress, scientifically grasp the development trend of informationized and intelligentized warfare, clarify the ideas of technological development, and actively explore and form an unmanned equipment technology research and development system and development path suitable for the characteristics of the military in accordance with the methods and steps of overall demonstration, key research, pilot verification and promotion and application.
From the perspective of war law, war is dominated by people.
With the continuous updating and iteration of unmanned equipment technology, unmanned combat has become more and more intelligent, which has led to the relative blurring of the boundaries between peacetime and wartime, front and rear, soldiers and civilians. In the Libyan conflict, drones relied on algorithms to select targets, automatically tracked and attacked armed personnel without the control of operators. It can be predicted that if unmanned equipment develops to a certain extent in autonomous calculation, autonomous decision-making, and autonomous action, and completely autonomously selects, identifies, and attacks targets, and humans do not restrain it, it will have a profound impact on morality, law, and war ethics. In fact, there are “reasons”, “laws”, and “people” behind unmanned combat. No matter what stage unmanned combat develops to, it still belongs to the category of war and is still subject to the rules of war. Whether it is international law or humanitarian law, the focus has always been on human issues, such as restrictions on combat methods and means, treatment of prisoners of war, protection of civilians, etc. All principles, rules and systems are based on the perspective of people and are solved through people. Therefore, in order to avoid humanitarian and war ethics issues caused by unmanned combat, from a technical perspective, humans need to supervise and manage the operation of unmanned systems, guide arbitration, and handle emergencies, grant them limited “right to fire”, reserve “start-stop” intervention interfaces, and be able to take over unmanned systems at any time; from a legal perspective, establish war rules between humans and weapons, enhance humans’ ability to apply the rules of war, and always play a leading role in war.
(Author’s unit: Naval Research Institute)(Editors: Dai Xiaoling, Wan Peng)
With the rise of the global Internet and the development of emerging media, the world’s major military powers are now paying great attention to the strategic issue of cognitive space security. The recently published monograph “Brain Control: The Laws of War and National Security Strategy in the Global Media Age” focuses on the future development trend of war and the issue of national cognitive space security in the global media era. It puts forward the concept of “brain control” in cognitive space, which has attracted the attention of the military academic community. On this topic, the reporter interviewed the main author of the book, Professor Zeng Huafeng, Dean of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences of the National University of Defense Technology.
“Subjugating the enemy without fighting” is the highest realm of information warfare
Reporter: The concept of brain control is inseparable from the understanding of cognitive space. What is cognitive space and what is brain control?
Zeng Huafeng: Information warfare is the unity of material and spirit, concept and reality. It is not only the manifestation of the development of material form, but also the inevitable result of the action of spiritual factors. Information warfare has enabled human warfare to truly have three combat spaces for the first time: one is the natural space composed of land, sea, air, and space; the second is the network electromagnetic space based on physical principles, which is essentially a technical space; the third is the cognitive space composed of human spiritual and psychological activities. To win the future information warfare, we must grasp the initiative of the war, obtain the control of the war domain, and dominate the discourse of the war. Seizing the control of the brain in the cognitive space and “defeating the enemy without fighting” is the highest realm of information warfare.
Cognitive space refers to the scope and field of human cognitive activities. It is an invisible space that reflects people’s emotions, will, beliefs and values, and exists in the minds of participants in the struggle. The national cognitive space exists in the subjective world of each individual, and is composed of the superposition of the cognitive spaces of countless individuals in the whole society. National interests exist not only in physical form in natural space and technological space, but also invisibly in cognitive space. “Brain control” is to use the spiritual information carried by propaganda media, national languages, cultural products, etc. as weapons, to infiltrate, influence and even dominate the cognition, emotions and consciousness of the general public and national elites, and ultimately manipulate a country’s values, national spirit, ideology, cultural traditions, historical beliefs, etc., to prompt it to abandon its own theoretical understanding, social system and development path, and achieve the strategic goal of winning without fighting.
Reporter: At present, with the advent of the global media age, especially the development of emerging social media, the political game between major powers continues to intensify, and “cognitive domain symptoms” such as human psychological confusion, moral crisis, and loss of faith continue to emerge. What do you think are the characteristics of cognitive space confrontation?
Zeng Huafeng: I think there are three main characteristics: First, the security boundary of the national cognitive space is ambiguous. The national cognitive space is a boundless, invisible, shadowless, but not negligible space of interests and confrontation. Social public opinion and ideology are the main areas of competition in the cognitive space, and spiritual information is the main weapon. Wherever spiritual information can be spread, it can become a battlefield for cognitive space competition. Second, the information attack and defense of the national cognitive space is manipulable. The reception, processing and feedback of spiritual information are not only closely related to the function of the human brain, but also have distinct national and ethnic characteristics. At the same time, spiritual information is prone to distortion in the process of dissemination and diffusion. In the era of global media, individuals are both recipients and publishers of information. Theoretically, any individual or group can instantly spread the specific information they process and produce in the world and have an impact on specific target objects. Third, the strategic confrontation in the national cognitive space is persistent. The role of spiritual information needs to be carried out step by step, and we cannot expect to produce immediate results. For example, during the Cold War, Western countries led by the United States gradually infiltrated Western values into socialist countries such as the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe through cultural exchanges and other activities, achieving the goal of peaceful evolution. Today, Western hostile forces seek to instill and infiltrate Western “democratic” and “free” ideas and values through various academic exchanges in politics, economy, science, culture, etc., in normal information interaction activities.
The main way the West seizes national cognitive space and competes for “brain control”
Reporter: What are the main ways the West seizes national cognitive space and competes for “brain control”?
Zeng Huafeng: I think there are four main ways. The first is perception manipulation. Perception manipulation is also called consciousness manipulation. It aims to manipulate the behavior of others by influencing their psychology and spirit. It can be directed at individuals, groups, a country, or even the whole world. In his book “War and Anti-War”, Toffler summarized the tools of perception manipulation into six aspects: one is “accusation of atrocities”, including condemnation of real and false atrocities; the second is “exaggerating the interests of a battle or a war”; the third is “demonizing or dehumanizing the enemy”; the fourth is “polarization”, that is, if you don’t support us, you are against us; the fifth is “claiming to obey God’s will”, which has a strong religious color; the sixth is “super propaganda-propaganda that is enough to discredit the propaganda of the other party.”
The second is to cut off historical memory. Human thought and social ideology are always closely linked to historical memory. Whether it is the spiritual world of an individual or the cultural traditions of a country or nation, figuratively speaking, they are all concentrated pasts and treasures worth cherishing. Once the historical memory of an individual or group is cleverly cut off through some means, making them lose their spiritual home, the obstacles to the infiltration of their values and ideologies are removed, opening the door for the invasion of various erroneous and chaotic ideas.
The third is to change the thinking paradigm. A country and a nation have their own specific thinking paradigm, which is the premise for people to understand the world. Especially for the social elite, their thinking paradigm and ideological cognition play a leading role in the thoughts, values and ideological identity of the whole society. However, people’s rational thinking has weaknesses. Through manipulation, “virus programs” can be instilled into it, prompting people to deviate from obvious facts and accept fallacies and sometimes even absurd conclusions. Once this set of practices seizes the social elite group, most people will lose their ability to resist manipulation. At the end of the Cold War, the Western ideological attack on the Soviet Union was to influence the rational thinking of some Soviet economists, let them make a series of public speeches in the Soviet Union that catered to Western intentions, and covertly “persuaded” the Soviet people to abandon their own country’s social system and national culture, and to welcome the so-called “new era” of Western civilization with a “thorough”, “unconditional” and “bold” attitude.
Fourth, deconstruct symbols. Symbols are born in the historical evolution of national culture. Different nations have formed their own specific symbols in the course of their respective cultural development, such as clothing, anniversaries, monuments, rituals, and characters. With the help of empathy, a nation has some great symbols, which gives it an emotional bond that unites the society. It can arouse people’s sense of belonging, so that people can unite for a common dream and create and continue a new civilization. If someone deliberately repaints and attacks the symbols in the history of a country and nation, by reversing right and wrong, publicly mocking and making fun of the glorious achievements, great figures and noble culture in history, the consequences will be very serious, and it will lead to people gradually losing their sense of identity with the country, nation and self.
Providing strong support for maintaining national cognitive space security
Reporter: Faced with fierce competition in the field of national cognitive space security, how should we maintain national cognitive space security?
Zeng Huafeng: We must fully understand and grasp the characteristics and laws of national cognitive space security, firmly occupy the ideological position, and take the initiative in the field of public opinion and ideology.
First, we must strengthen our ideals and beliefs and build a strong spiritual pillar. History and reality have repeatedly proved that the collapse of a regime often begins in the ideological field. Once the ideological defense line is breached, it will be difficult to defend other defense lines. Whether we can hold on to the ideological position and do a good job in ideological work is related to national cohesion and centripetal force. In this regard, we must always hold high the banner of ideals and beliefs and unswervingly adhere to and develop socialism with Chinese characteristics.
Second, we must be vigilant against the emergence of historical nihilism. Historical nihilism originated with the denial of the “Cultural Revolution” and reform and opening up, and then gradually moved towards the denial of the historical view of historical materialism and the denial of the cultural traditions of the Chinese nation. We must be highly vigilant against its harm, and clearly oppose historical nihilism, oppose all pseudo-historical narratives that glorify aggression and oppression and vilify revolution and resistance, face history sincerely, cherish the subjectivity established by the Chinese nation in the long course of the Chinese revolution, and enhance the self-esteem and self-confidence of the Chinese nation, so as to lay a solid cultural foundation for the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.
Third, we should seek national cultural identity in the collision between Chinese and Western cultures. While promoting military and economic hegemony, the United States actively promotes cultural hegemony. Under the banner of “economic integration”, it strongly impacts the heterogeneous cultures of various countries and tries to influence other countries’ cultures with American culture. In this context, in the process of cultural exchanges with other countries and nations in the world, we should not only continue to absorb and integrate the essence of the cultures of all nations in the world, but also enhance our national cultural consciousness and confidence, and improve the creativity and vitality of national culture in the process of continuous inheritance.
Fourth, we should actively participate in the global governance of cyberspace security. In the Internet era, the United States, with its high-tech monopoly advantage, not only controls the management of the cyber world, but is also the first country in the world to propose the concept of cyber warfare and apply it in actual combat. From the current perspective, the United States’ control over the Internet will not change in the short term. We should pay close attention to cyberspace security, actively participate in the global governance of cyberspace security, and build a cybersecurity system that conforms to the trend of globalization and meets the requirements of my country’s informatization, so as to provide strong support for maintaining the security of the national cognitive space.
We must promote the information construction of our army with a broader vision. Indulging in reflection on the characteristics, patterns and experiences of the last war is a chronic disease and common disease in human military history. From the time when information warfare was proposed to the present, people have been conducting research on its characteristics, laws and tactics, but have overlooked a problem: that is, with the development of modern science and technology, is the so-called information warfare what people are talking about today? In fact, we should have a broader vision for understanding information warfare, and include physical information, biological information and spiritual information into the framework of information warfare. From the aspects of basic research, applied research, combat theory, technology development, equipment development and organizational leadership, we should build a system of cognitive space attack and defense confrontation. Innovate the ways, methods and means of ideological and political work in the global media era. Cultivate and create a team of high-quality talents who can grasp the frontiers of cognitive science, psychology and military needs, and seize the “brain control” of future information warfare. (
The winning mechanism of war refers to the main factors for winning a war, the way they play a role, and the internal mechanisms, laws and principles of their mutual connection and interaction. With the advent of the intelligent era, the increasingly widespread application of artificial intelligence in the military field has promoted the transformation of the war form to intelligent warfare, and the winning mechanism of war has also changed accordingly.
Having data advantage is the basis for success
In the era of intelligence, the core foundation of many “disruptive technologies” is data, and war will also be “no data, no war”. In intelligent warfare, both sides will fight a “data war” around understanding data, relying on data, competing for data, and using data. Whoever owns the “data right” will have the initiative in the war. Fighting for data, mastering data, analyzing data, and applying data in war are the keys to winning intelligent warfare.
Data resources are combat effectiveness. In intelligent warfare, data comes first before troops move. Whoever controls the data controls the resources to win the war, and controls the initiative and the chips for victory. The ability to understand and use data is an important indicator for measuring combat capability and directly affects the outcome of the war. Obtaining data, analyzing data, and using data are not only the yardsticks for measuring the combat capability of troops, but also the new engine for improving the combat effectiveness of troops. Data is the most direct record of the objective world. It appears in the form of numbers and is raw data, such as the performance parameters of weapons and equipment, the size of troops, the number of guarantees, target parameters, etc. These data can be processed to become the information and intelligence needed for combat. In the information age led by data, data has become the blood of intelligent warfare.
Big data has given rise to a data-based battlefield. To some extent, whoever controls the data resources controls the “winning space” of the war. Data has changed the logical cognition of war. In the past, people inferred the whole from the individual and inferred the inevitability from the small probability events, but now they deduce individual characteristics from the high probability and find the internal laws of specific things from the correlation. Only by understanding the relevant data can we grasp the overall situation, only by gathering similar data can we grasp the trend, and only by integrating all-source data can we understand the connection. All of this is attributed to the control of the data-based battlefield.
Big data changes the way of fighting. As the most important strategic resource, how to distinguish the authenticity and quality of data, how to fight and counter-fight, deceive and counter-deceive, attack and counter-attack around massive data, has become a key issue in winning intelligent wars. When data becomes the focus of war, it will inevitably lead to competition and gaming around data, thereby promoting changes in the style of fighting. At present, the competition for data collection is intensifying, and major countries have launched research on national defense big data projects to provide more intelligence with practical value for military decision-making. The “asymmetry” of data forms the “asymmetry” of algorithms, and then achieves the “asymmetry” of tactics.
Data has given rise to intelligent equipment systems. Data technology has upgraded combat platforms to highly intelligent and autonomous systems. Data has enabled command and control systems, air combat platforms, precision-guided munitions, etc. to complete the transition from informatization to intelligence. For example, modern “swarm technology” is the application of artificial intelligence supported by big data. Data has become a “telescope”, “microscope” and “perspective lens” for analyzing wars. To win intelligent wars, one must have a data mind, data awareness and data thinking.
Mastering algorithm advantages is the key to success
One of the characteristics of intelligent warfare is that all battle plans, campaign plans and war plans need to be generated by computers, and its essence is algorithm-generated tactics. Having an algorithm advantage means having an intelligent advantage, which can achieve a high degree of unity of information advantage, cognitive advantage, decision-making advantage and action advantage.
Algorithm advantage dominates information advantage. Algorithm is a systematic method to describe the strategic mechanism for solving problems, and is the key and prerequisite for improving intelligence advantage. Algorithm technology mainly includes deep learning, supercomputing, brain-like intelligence and other technologies. The use of intelligent sensing and networking technology can widely and quickly deploy various types of intelligent perception nodes, and can implement active collaborative detection for tasks, thereby building a transparent and visible digital combat environment. Judging from the current development trend, the advantage of war algorithms dominates information advantage, which contains great potential to rewrite the rules of the modern war game. This pair of “invisible hands” will shape the new landscape of future intelligent warfare.
Algorithmic advantage dominates cognitive advantage. In intelligent warfare, big data can quickly convert massive amounts of data into useful intelligence after being processed by high-performance and efficient algorithms, thereby gaining cognitive advantage. Algorithms, as the “brain” of artificial intelligence, have become the key to intelligently sensing the battlefield and using it for decision-making, command, and coordination. The party with algorithmic advantage can dispel the “battlefield fog” and “information fog” caused by the failure to process data in a timely manner, making cognition more profound and thus seizing the initiative in the war. In the future, whoever has algorithmic advantage will have stronger cognitive ability, faster learning speed, and better quality results.
Algorithm advantage dominates decision-making advantage. With its high-speed and precise calculation, the algorithm can replace people’s hard thinking and repeated exploration, thereby accelerating knowledge iteration. With the support of massive data and supercomputing capabilities, the judgment and prediction results of artificial intelligence will be more accurate. By constructing combat model rules through algorithms, commanders can be assisted in making rapid decisions in multi-level planning and ad hoc handling of strategies, campaigns, tactics, etc. through actuarial, detailed, deep and expert reasoning. With the development of disruptive technologies such as big data, cloud computing, and quantum computing and their application in the military field, the future combat decision-making cycle will become near real-time. In intelligent warfare, the party that masters super algorithms can quickly propose flexible and diverse combat plans and countermeasures in response to changes in combat opponents, constantly disrupting the opponent’s established intentions and deployments, and thus seize the dominance of the war.
Algorithmic advantage leads to operational advantage. In the era of intelligent warfare, algorithms determine tactics, and algorithmic advantage leads to war advantage. Supported by superior algorithms, the reaction speed of artificial intelligence is thousands of times that of humans. “Algorithmic warfare” foreshadows the transformation of future wars. Whoever can seize the commanding heights of intelligent algorithms can seize the initiative and win before the battle. On the intelligent battlefield, algorithms are far more important than artillery shells. War algorithms have become the key factor in winning intelligent warfare and are the strategic commanding heights that future intelligent armies must seize. Intelligent warfare calculations are ubiquitous. The party that has the algorithmic advantage can quickly and accurately predict the battlefield situation, innovate combat methods, and achieve the advantage of “winning before the battle.”
Multi-domain integration is the key to success
Multi-domain integration is based on the cloud-based combat system. With the support of the cloud-based battlefield situation, various combat personnel, equipment, facilities, and environmental elements have expanded the battlefield space from the traditional three-dimensional space to the polar regions, deep sea, space, and cyberspace, and even to multi-dimensional domains such as cognitive domain and information domain. Multi-domain integration has formed a giant, complex, and adaptive confrontation system. The integration of “cloud gathering” and “network gathering” has become a new mechanism for intelligent combat.
Cross-domain integration and integrated energy release. Under the conditions of intelligent warfare, the emergence of a large number of new long-range combat platforms and intelligent new concept weapons has made the future combat landscape present the characteristics of air-ground-sea-sky integration, global instant strikes, and cross-domain strategic deterrence and control. Supported by the cross-domain, distributed, and networked “cloud killing” collaborative combat system, through the cross-domain aggregation of multiple combat capabilities, cross-domain interoperability of combat command, cross-domain sharing of combat information, cross-domain movement of combat weapons, cross-domain response of combat actions, and cross-domain complementarity of combat functions are achieved. Cross-domain integration is the close coordination of main domain control and cross-domain support to implement cross-domain collaborative support. Integrated energy release is the transition of joint operations from integrated joint operations to cross-domain joint operations, realizing the cross-domain aggregation and overall energy release of multiple combat capabilities.
Human-machine integration, using speed to defeat slowness. If weapons are an extension of the human body, intelligence is an extension of the human brain. In the era of intelligent warfare, there will be a mode of giving human intelligence to machines to implement combat. People will further withdraw from the front-line confrontation and combat, and the combination of people and weapons will appear in a new form. Unmanned combat weapons and human intelligence are deeply integrated into an organic symbiosis, perfectly combining human creativity, thinking and the precision and speed of machines. Therefore, in future intelligent warfare, the mode of engagement will gradually change from the mutual killing of “human-machine integration” to the unmanned system cluster confrontation of “human-machine integration”. Relying on the intelligent combat system, commanders adaptively adjust and select the mode of action according to changes in the battlefield environment. Unmanned combat develops from single-platform remote control combat to multi-platform cluster autonomy, forming a simple command chain of “commander-combat cluster”, highlighting the rapid, flexible and autonomous characteristics of human-machine collaboration.
Brain-intelligence fusion and efficient control. The combat system of intelligent warfare will be characterized by a highly intelligent “human + network + machine”. The intelligent command and control system will operate in a collaborative manner of “human brain + intelligent system”. The intelligent system will assist or even partially replace the role of humans in command and control. The intelligent command and control system will have relatively strong autonomous command and control capabilities, and can relatively independently obtain information, judge situations, make decisions, and deal with situations. Relying on the battlefield situation awareness system, with the help of big data, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and modeling and simulation technology, it is possible to accurately analyze and judge massive battlefield information, realize the transformation of combat command from “human experience-centered” to “data and model-centered” intelligent decision-making methods, and make combat planning more scientific and efficient. In the future, the super self-evolution and strategic decision-making capabilities of deep neural networks will realize the combat cycle of “human out of the loop”.
Integration of intelligence and mind, attacking the mind and winning the will. With the development of artificial intelligence technology, the boundaries between the biologicalization and humanization of intelligent weapons will be blurred in the future, and the control of people themselves will become the focus. “Attacking the mind and winning the will” is still the highest combat purpose of intelligent warfare. “Cognitive control warfare” based on the control of human brain and consciousness cognition may evolve into an important combat style. With human cognitive thinking as the target, various means are used to stimulate, influence and control the cognitive system to achieve the effect of disrupting the enemy’s command and decision-making system, inducing the enemy’s combat power, and disintegrating the enemy’s morale. For example, based on brain reading and brain control technology, using mental guidance and control means, the strategic intentions, combat intentions, and combat methods of the enemy commander can be grasped in real time, and even directly act on the brain of the enemy personnel, or the consciousness of the party can be “injected” in the form of EEG coding to interfere with or control their consciousness, thinking and psychology, and finally seize the “right to control intelligence” and achieve deep control over combat personnel. With the large-scale application of intelligent combat platforms on the battlefield, information systems assisting humans will gradually transform into intelligent systems partially replacing humans. The focus of the power struggle will shift from “information rights” to “intelligence rights”, and using elite troops to gain control of key domains will become the dominant approach.
At the World Internet Conference held in Wuzhen in recent years, many leaders of technology companies talked most about artificial intelligence, and the “Light of the Internet Expo” at previous conferences has become a “big show” for various artificial intelligence. In particular, this year, many well-known Chinese Internet companies have shown off their own “black technology”, which is impressive. China’s rapid progress in the field of artificial intelligence has amazed the world. Reuters commented that China is expected to be on par with the United States in five years and become the world’s leading artificial intelligence innovation center. Like the United States, China has clearly made artificial intelligence a priority in both economy and military.
The report, written by Elsa Kania of the Center for a New American Security, asserts that future competition between China and the United States in the field of artificial intelligence “may change the future balance of economic and military power.” Earlier this year, an undisclosed Pentagon document exaggerated that Chinese companies are circumventing official supervision by purchasing shares in American companies to obtain sensitive American artificial intelligence technologies with potential military uses. Andrew Ng, a well-known scientist in the field of machine learning, said that if the United States wants to stay ahead, it must focus on developing its own artificial intelligence. China is by no means a slouch in the field of artificial intelligence that only relies on foreign technology. Foreign media commented that while the West is still discussing and keeping a close eye on its own technology, China’s innovative progress has begun to rewrite the world’s artificial intelligence technology landscape. The next question is whether China is willing to play with the West.
The discussion that artificial intelligence will change the rules of war is no longer news. The Brookings Institution website once published an article suggesting that the US military bet on six major technologies, and artificial intelligence technology is one of them. Today, artificial intelligence has made breakthroughs in assisting combat personnel in decision-making and connecting combat personnel with intelligent combat systems, and has been widely used in simulated combat training. Today, a large number of unmanned equipment with intelligent features have entered the arsenals of major countries. Among them, the most widely used US military has nearly 10,000 unmanned aerial systems and more than 12,000 unmanned ground systems, which have become an indispensable and important part of US military operations.
In a simulated confrontation in June 2016, an artificial intelligence system developed by American researchers defeated two retired fighter pilots in a simulated air battle. In this simulated air battle, the blue team consisting of two fighter jets was equipped with a stronger weapon system, but the red team of the artificial intelligence system defeated the enemy aircraft through evasive maneuvers. After the game, the pilots thought that the program was very good at controlling the situation and was surprisingly responsive. It seemed to be able to predict human intentions and quickly fight back when the opponent changed flight movements or launched missiles. This incident has attracted widespread attention, and the prospect that artificial intelligence will completely replace human soldiers on the battlefield in the future seems to have been further confirmed.
Throughout human history, most epoch-making technologies have emerged from the military and wars. Humans are more likely to burst out with inspiration at the moment of life and death, and have greater motivation to promote technological progress. In the field of artificial intelligence, the boundaries between the civilian and military use of many technologies are not obvious. Today, the world’s technology giants also have more talents and financial resources than most countries, and the broad application prospects make them more motivated to invest in research and development. The future trend of artificial intelligence technology is expected to be led by these technology giants. This is why in the field of artificial intelligence, the “military-civilian integration” of major countries has become more in-depth, and even the US military has “widely issued invitations to heroes.”
For example, at this year’s Internet Conference, Chinese companies displayed a variety of artificial intelligence products and technologies, which have broad application prospects in both civilian and military fields and can be called “black technology”. Intelligent drones and unmanned vehicles, these intelligent equipment can accurately deliver express deliveries to customers based on the target location. If applied to the battlefield, it will make front-line supply and evacuation of wounded soldiers more accurate and convenient. In addition, there are artificial intelligence-assisted treatment products, which integrate artificial intelligence technologies such as image recognition and deep learning with medicine to assist doctors in early screening and diagnosis of patients. If this technology is applied to the battlefield, it will greatly improve the work efficiency and treatment speed of medical soldiers. There is also lip reading recognition technology, which can achieve the effect of voice recognition by recognizing lip reading, and can easily carry out complex communication even on a noisy battlefield. In October this year, the PLA Air Force Logistics Department signed the “Military-Civilian Integration Strategic Cooperation Agreement” with executives of five leading logistics companies. Regarding the use of drones specifically mentioned by the Air Force, relevant companies also introduced the development and planning of large logistics drones. Artificial intelligence has a high priority in China’s military-civilian integration, which will enable the PLA to make full use of technological advances in the commercial field to enhance its military capabilities.
Intelligent machines represented by drones have demonstrated their power on the battlefield or in simulated confrontations. The U.S. Department of Defense report believes that intelligent swarm systems will occupy an important position in future wars. Intelligent swarm attack refers to a swarm system composed of intelligent robots or drones, in which each component of the system independently selects targets, attack forms and formation forms. Compared with manned systems, it has incomparable advantages in coordination, intelligence, cost and speed. The Pentagon called on talented people from the private sector to join the military’s “drone swarm” development, hoping to speed up progress. In June 2017, China’s 119 fixed-wing drones achieved formation flight, setting a record in number. Although it is still far from achieving high-level intelligent formation operations, the U.S. think tank “Project 2049 Institute” admits that China’s drone formation technology is more advanced than that of the U.S. military.
In future wars, the balance of victory between the two warring parties may completely tilt towards the side with a higher degree of intelligence, and the possibility of the technological laggards continuing to rely on the development of asymmetric combat power to bridge the gap in combat power is gradually decreasing. When the two sides are on the same battlefield, while the officers and soldiers of the side with weaker technical capabilities are busy attacking, retreating, and transferring, the other side with stronger technical capabilities uses unmanned intelligent equipment for all-weather, high-precision intelligent reconnaissance and strikes. Perhaps trapped by ethical issues, the final decision is still made by humans, but the experience of these controllers in the control room thousands of miles away is like playing an online game. The flesh and blood on the battlefield will be exposed, and the opponent’s life will be wiped out with every mouse click or voice command of the enemy. The psychological competition between the strong and weak warring personnel will be completely unbalanced.
As Russian President Vladimir Putin said, “Whoever becomes the leader in the field of artificial intelligence will be the leader of the future world.” Artificial intelligence has become the “high ground” of the next military competition, and China is already in a leading position in the field of artificial intelligence. The People’s Liberation Army has the opportunity to actively shape the future war model through military innovation. Reuters commented that artificial intelligence will promote the modernization of the Chinese military and may pose a strategic challenge to the US military. (Dong Lei)
●As a product of the information age, information warfare embodies some characteristics that are completely different from previous wars, mainly in terms of war background, combat means and methods, etc.
●Compared with mechanized warfare, informationized warfare has not changed in its essential attributes such as war being the continuation of politics and its basic laws such as strength being the basis for victory.
●To study information warfare, we need to recognize the changes and constants in modern warfare compared with past wars, and explore its winning mechanism through comparison.
There are three major changes in information warfare compared to traditional warfare
The background conditions of war have changed. The background of information warfare caused by traditional security and non-traditional security has become more complicated. For example, economic globalization has made us interdependent, and both struggle and cooperation between countries have become the norm; conflicts between emerging powers and established powers often emerge; and military actions in any strategic direction may trigger chain reactions in multiple directions and fields.
The way of war has changed. Informationized warfare cannot be a formal battle. The boundaries between traditional and non-traditional security, war and non-war are becoming more blurred. Military struggle styles are emerging in an endless stream, and battlefield uncertainty is increasing. An important reason for China’s disastrous defeat in the Sino-Japanese War of 1894 was that it was forced to respond and was not fully prepared. Aiming to win future informationized wars, we must adapt to the requirements of the information age, focus on solving practical problems, take the initiative to design wars, and make full preparations, so as to maintain strategic initiative.
The means of warfare have changed dramatically. Informatized warfare has more diverse options for using strategic forces to achieve political and military goals. Military struggles are simultaneously carried out in multi-dimensional battlefield spaces such as land, sea, air, space, and power grids, and the role of the invisible battlefield has become more prominent. Whether it is war operations or non-war military operations, they all require large-scale system support, large-area deployment, and big data security.
Compared with traditional warfare, information warfare has three things in common:
First, the essence of war as the continuation of politics has not changed. War is a complex social and political phenomenon. It is a way for countries or groups of countries, nations, races and social groups to resolve conflicts by force. As a continuation of politics, war is the last resort to resolve conflicts of interest. There is no repeated war in the world, but the nature of war is consistent. Moreover, with the continuous development of world politics and economy, the political purpose of war will become stronger. Therefore, in order to deal with future information warfare, it is necessary to analyze and study the political nature at a deeper level and enhance the pertinence of military struggle preparation.
Secondly, the basic laws of war have not changed. The basic laws of war are the essence and inevitable connection between various elements throughout the entire war process. Whether in information warfare or traditional warfare, strength is the basis for victory, and lagging behind means being beaten; in any war, correct strategic guidance is the key to victory; although weapons are an important factor in winning a war, people are always the decisive factor. It is not the equipment that determines the outcome of the war, but the people. After the informationized weapons and equipment are interconnected, interoperable, and interoperable, a small number of commanders and staff can control a large number of dispersed troops and weapons, thereby greatly improving combat effectiveness and command decision-making speed. This phenomenon does not show a decline in the role of people, but rather shows that information warfare requires higher-quality talents to be competent for command positions.
Third, the role of war has not changed. Wars are extremely violent, so they often bring serious disasters to social production and people’s lives, hinder social progress, interrupt a country’s development process, and even cause regression. However, if properly planned, the losses of war can be minimized, and it may bring greater development opportunities and benefits to a country.
To win the information war, we must grasp three winning mechanisms
Only by being ready to fight can we be invincible in the future information war. If we are prepared, we may not fight, but if we are not prepared, we may be passively beaten. The crisis is not terrible, but the terrible thing is that the crisis comes quietly and we are completely unaware of it. Whether the future war will be fought or not does not entirely depend on us, but we must be prepared for military struggle. In recent years, in the face of frequent “hot spots” in the surrounding areas, we have taken the initiative to respond steadily and achieved strategic goals. In the future, my country will still encounter challenges of one kind or another in the process of development. It is urgent to enrich and expand the active defense military strategic thinking, unify the eyes inward and outward, adhere to the bottom line thinking, prepare for war, and create favorable conditions for the country’s peaceful development.
Winning the battlefield depends on the organic combination of “soft” and “hard” means. Informationized warfare is a system confrontation, relying on network information systems. The realization of “fast eating slow” depends on the integrated and orderly rapid operation of reconnaissance, early warning, command and control, firepower strikes, and comprehensive support in a multi-dimensional three-dimensional space. Among them, the role of “software” in system combat capability is more prominent. For example, how to solve the problem of difficult target identification: the lack of electronic fingerprint data of enemy aircraft and ship targets makes it impossible to conduct comparative analysis. Without these data, advanced equipment will not be able to fully play its role; how to solve the problem of difficult data transmission: when target information is transmitted to the weapon platform, if the data link loses information, it will be difficult to meet the launch needs of the weapon platform. For example, how to solve the problem of anti-interference? The guidance method of the naval and air force weapon platform is susceptible to interference. If this problem is not solved, it is difficult to hit accurately. The formation of system combat capability requires not only advanced weapons and equipment, but also long-term combat readiness and training accumulation. Informationized warfare must start with “knowing the enemy”. Through long-term and multi-means preparation, the opponent is thoroughly understood, the opponent is digitized, and the opponent’s main combat weapon information is carded, providing guarantees for system confrontation and defeating the enemy.
Winning the information war requires national cohesion. The recent local wars are asymmetric warfare with a huge disparity in strength between the two sides. They can also be said to be typical “fighting” wars, rather than evenly matched “fighting” wars. The wars we will face in the future are likely to be “fighting” wars. It is not feasible to use this “fighting” combat theory to guide future wars. In information warfare, people are still the basis for victory. Potential opponents are not afraid of our technological breakthroughs, but they are afraid of our unity. The development of science and technology and the research and development of advanced weapons and equipment require a process. Improving national cohesion often has immediate results. Innovating and developing the theory of people’s war under the new situation is our correct choice. Mobilizing the masses, relying on the masses, and for the masses can win future wars.
Editor’s Notes Zhou Feng
Seeing through the fog before Napoleon
Although Napoleon, known as the “giant of war” in the West, and Clausewitz, the “military saint”, did not have a face-to-face contest, they had several indirect confrontations. On November 9, 1799, the young general Napoleon became the supreme ruler of France and the representative of the capitalist forces in Europe at that time. Subsequently, in order to fight against the counterattack of the feudal forces in Europe, Napoleon organized troops to fight against the anti-French alliance several times. Among them, in the double battle of Jena-Auerstedt in October 1806, Napoleon defeated the fourth anti-French alliance dominated by Russia and Prussia, forcing Prussia to surrender. This battle was also the first time that Napoleon and Clausewitz fought on a mutually hostile battlefield. Clausewitz, 26 years old at the time, was the adjutant of Prince August, a senior general of the Prussian side, and was in his prime. The ever-changing battlefield fighting, especially his own experience of being captured by the French army, became the “grain” of his brewing of the old wine “On War”.
A year later, Clausewitz was released. Three years later, Prussia agreed to ally with France. Clausewitz resigned from the army in anger and defected to Russia to fight against France. Tsar Alexander at the time was one of the few staunch anti-French factions in Europe. He once emphasized: “Even if all the bayonets in Europe were concentrated on the Russian border, it would not shake my determination to fight against France!” In 1812, when Napoleon attacked Russia and began to retreat after his defeat in Moscow, Clausewitz, who participated in the war as a Russian cavalry officer, tried hard to chase him and capture him alive. However, Napoleon, who had experienced many battles, still managed to escape unscathed in a mess.
Although Clausewitz did not capture Napoleon, he captured his thoughts and revealed the real Napoleon with his pen: Although Napoleon’s military art was superb, everything he did was to safeguard the interests of France, and politics was his first starting point. As for the old emperors of European countries running around to besiege Napoleon, it was also to defend their own ruling status. Politics is the mother of war, and violence cannot be viewed alone under any circumstances. Compared with the concept of “fog of war” proposed later in “On War”, Clausewitz believed that it was more important to examine the fog before the war, including accurately judging the political situation of all parties, understanding the signs of war, weighing whether to fight or not, etc. But no matter how the fog is solved, it is just to solve the problem of seeing the essence through the phenomenon, and what is needed is a bunch of keys: problem awareness, mastering general or special laws and timely intelligence information.
Promoting the modernization of national security system and capabilities Wang Xiaohong
Promoting the modernization of the national security system and capabilities is a major strategic deployment made at the 20th CPC National Congress. The Decision of the CPC Central Committee on Further Comprehensively Deepening Reform and Promoting Modernization with Chinese Characteristics (hereinafter referred to as the Decision), adopted at the Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee, lists the modernization of the national security system and capabilities as a separate part. From the perspective of the overall development of the cause of the Party and the country, it further clarifies the goals, tasks and key measures for promoting the modernization of the national security system and capabilities in the new era and new journey, further points out the direction for us to do a good job and provides a fundamental guideline. Promoting the modernization of the national security system and capabilities is an inherent requirement for actively responding to various risks and challenges, serving and safeguarding the construction of a strong country and the great cause of national rejuvenation. It is an inevitable measure to continue writing a new chapter of the two miracles and effectively meet the people’s growing needs for a better life. It is also an objective need to actively adapt to changes in the world, the times, and history, and improve global security governance. We must adhere to the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, thoroughly study and implement the spirit of the Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee, deeply understand the decisive significance of the “two establishments”, enhance the “four consciousnesses”, strengthen the “four self-confidences”, and achieve the “two safeguards”. We must unswervingly implement the overall national security concept, solidly promote the modernization of the national security system and capabilities, effectively prevent and resolve various risks that affect my country’s modernization process, strive to build a safer China at a higher level, and provide strong security guarantees for comprehensively promoting the construction of a strong country and the great cause of national rejuvenation with Chinese-style modernization.
1. Unswervingly implement the overall national security concept
The comprehensive national security concept is the national security chapter of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era. It systematically answers a series of major theoretical and practical questions such as why to safeguard national security, what kind of national security to safeguard, and how to safeguard national security in the new era. It has formed a scientific theoretical system that is systematic, comprehensive, logically rigorous, rich in connotation, and internally unified. It is a powerful ideological weapon and action guide for promoting the modernization of the national security system and capabilities. It must be studied and understood in depth and resolutely implemented.
(I) Accurately grasp the core essence. The core essence of the overall national security concept is concentrated in the “ten insistences” proposed by General Secretary Xi Jinping, namely, insisting on the absolute leadership of the Party over national security work, insisting on the national security path with Chinese characteristics, insisting on the people’s security as the purpose, insisting on coordinating development and security, insisting on putting political security in the first place, insisting on coordinating and promoting security in all fields, insisting on putting the prevention and resolution of national security risks in a prominent position, insisting on promoting international common security, insisting on promoting the modernization of the national security system and capabilities, and insisting on strengthening the construction of the national security cadre team. These “ten insistences” are the deepening, expansion and sublimation of our Party’s understanding of the laws of national security work, and profoundly answer the major contemporary issue of how to solve the common security problems faced in the development process of major countries in the new era and the new journey, and deal with the special security problems faced in the critical stage of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. They are both political, theoretical, historical and practical. Among them, insisting on the absolute leadership of the Party over national security work is the “root” and “soul”. We must always adhere to the centralized and unified leadership of the Party over national security work, unswervingly implement the chairmanship responsibility system of the Central National Security Commission, improve the efficient and authoritative national security leadership system, and implement all decisions and arrangements of the Party Central Committee on national security work without fail.
(II) Accurately grasp the concept of comprehensive security. At present, the connotation and extension of my country’s national security are richer than at any time in history, the time and space scope is wider than at any time in history, and the internal and external factors are more complex than at any time in history. Against this background, the overall national security concept emphasizes the concept of comprehensive security, advocating that national security is comprehensive and systematic security, and is common and holistic security, covering politics, military, territory, economy, finance, culture, society, science and technology, network, food, ecology, resources, nuclear, overseas interests, space, deep sea, polar regions, biology, artificial intelligence, data and many other fields, breaking through the traditional concept of national security, and will continue to enrich with the development of the times and practice. We must always adhere to the overall priority, pay attention to understanding the diversity, relevance and dynamics of national security issues from an overall perspective, build a national security system that integrates security in all fields, and lay a solid foundation for security in all fields.
(III) Accurately grasp the principles and methods. In view of the characteristics of internal and external linkage, cross-domain transmission, and sudden amplification of security issues in the context of globalization and networking, the overall national security concept takes scientific coordination as an important principle and basic method of national security work. At the level of the Party and the state, it emphasizes the coordination of high-quality development and high-level security, pays attention to the synergy between national security work and various economic and social development work, plans and deploys together, and integrates national security into all aspects and links of the overall work of the Party and the state. At the level of national security itself, it emphasizes the coordination of external security and internal security, homeland security and national security, traditional security and non-traditional security, self-security and common security, and coordinates the maintenance and shaping of national security. It is necessary to coordinate development and security, promote the coordinated development and synchronization of all aspects of national security work, and effectively prevent the transmission and superposition of various risks.
II. Make every effort to implement key measures to modernize the national security system and capabilities
The Decision clearly requires that we focus on building a safer China at a higher level, improve the national security system, strengthen the integrated national strategic system, enhance the ability to safeguard national security, innovate the social governance system, mechanism and means, and effectively build a new security pattern. We must study and refine the key tasks deployed in the Decision one by one, and do a good job in promoting their implementation.
(I) Improve the national security system. The national security system is a concentrated reflection of the national security system and its execution capabilities. We must strengthen the coordination mechanism for national security work, improve the security guarantee system in key areas and the coordination and command system for important projects in accordance with the new characteristics and changes in the national security situation, improve the real-time monitoring, graded early warning, rapid verification, and prompt notification mechanisms for major risks across departments, improve the national security review and supervision system, crisis management mechanism, supervision and inspection, and accountability mechanism, and form a systematic synergy and combat effectiveness. We must improve the national security legal system, strategic system, policy system, and risk monitoring and early warning system, actively promote national security legislation in important areas such as space security, deep sea security, and data security, strengthen the inspection and supervision of the implementation of relevant laws and regulations on national security, and improve the level of legalization of national security work; strengthen national security strategic planning and top-level design, optimize the national security strategic guidelines, goals, and medium- and long-term plans, and make good use of various strategic resources and strategic means in a coordinated manner; adhere to the principle of acting according to the times and changing according to the situation, and improve the national security policy system and policy measures in key areas. We must improve the layout of national security forces and build a coordinated and efficient national security protection system. We must advance scientific and technological empowerment of national security, focus on major needs to strengthen research and development of key core technologies, comprehensively enhance the ability of science and technology to maintain and shape national security, and better play the role of scientific and technological innovation in supporting and guaranteeing national security.
(II) Improve the public safety governance mechanism. Public safety is linked to thousands of households on one end and economic and social development on the other end. It is a weathervane for social stability and order. We must adhere to safety first and prevention first, continuously improve the public safety governance mechanism, promote the transformation of the public safety governance model to pre-emptive prevention, and improve the level of public safety governance. We must improve the handling and guarantee system for major public emergencies, improve the emergency command mechanism under the framework of major safety and emergency, enhance the support and guarantee of human, financial and material resources in responding to public emergencies, strengthen the basic emergency foundation and strength at the grassroots level, improve the ability to prevent, reduce and eliminate disasters, and effectively prevent, reduce and eliminate hazards. We must improve the mechanism for the investigation and rectification of production safety risks and the responsibility investigation, strengthen institutionalized and normalized safety supervision, strictly implement the production safety responsibility system, prevent and resolve major safety risks from the source, and resolutely curb the occurrence of major accidents. We must improve the food and drug safety responsibility system, fully implement the main responsibility of enterprises for safety, consolidate the local management responsibility of local governments and the supervision responsibility of relevant departments, strengthen the safety supervision of the whole process and the whole life cycle, crack down on crimes that endanger food and drug safety in accordance with the law, and protect the “safety on the tip of the tongue” of the people. We must improve the biosafety supervision, early warning and prevention system, comprehensively improve the national biosafety governance capabilities, and weave a solid national biosafety protection network. We must strengthen the construction of the network security system, improve the laws and regulations on cyberspace governance, improve the network security level protection, key information infrastructure security protection, data security protection and other systems, prevent and resist cyber attacks, and build a solid network security “firewall”. We must establish an artificial intelligence security supervision system, accelerate the artificial intelligence legislation process, improve the science and technology ethics supervision rules, strengthen hierarchical and classified supervision, strengthen the dynamic analysis, assessment and early warning of relevant risks, and technical breakthroughs to ensure that artificial intelligence always develops in the direction of continuously improving people’s well-being.
(III) Improve the social governance system. Only when the social governance system is scientific and reasonable can national security work achieve twice the result with half the effort. We must adhere to and develop the “Fengqiao Experience” in the new era, improve the urban and rural grassroots governance system that combines self-governance, rule of law, and moral governance under the leadership of the Party organization, improve the social governance system of co-construction, co-governance, and sharing, form a situation of joint governance of problems, joint control of risks, and joint creation of peace, and improve the grassroots governance capacity and level. We must explore the establishment of a unified national population management system. We must adhere to the combination of professionals and the masses, and group prevention and group governance, improve the social work system and mechanism, strengthen party building to lead grassroots governance, strengthen the construction of the social worker team, promote the construction of the volunteer service system, better organize and mobilize the masses, and win the most reliable and solid mass foundation and source of strength for national security work. We must promote the legalization of petition work, focus on the goal of “clear rights and responsibilities, clear bottom line, handling in accordance with the law, good order, and satisfaction of the masses”, give full play to the normative, guarantee and leading role of the “Regulations on Petition Work”, promote the legalization of prevention, acceptance, handling, supervision and accountability, and maintenance of order, and ensure that every appeal of the masses is handled by someone and every appeal of the masses is promoted in accordance with the law. We must accurately grasp the requirements of major risk prevention and control in the city, fully integrate resources and forces, improve the organizational structure and organizational methods of city-level social governance, and enhance the city-level social governance capacity. We must strengthen the functions of public service platforms such as citizen hotlines, promote the docking of platforms such as “12345” and “110”, and improve the management mechanism and normal promotion mechanism of the key items list of “efficiently completing one thing”, so as to achieve diversified service methods, optimized service processes, simplified service materials, and minimized service costs. We must improve the social psychological service system and crisis intervention mechanism, and shape a social mentality of self-esteem, self-confidence, rationality, peace, and friendship. We must improve the mechanism for giving full play to the role of family education and family style in grassroots governance. We must deepen the reform of industry associations and chambers of commerce, further stimulate endogenous motivation and vitality, and better play their unique advantages and roles. We must improve the management system of social organizations, strengthen standardized management, expand orderly participation, and promote social organizations to improve service quality and social credibility. We must improve the system of matching the responsibilities, powers, and resources of towns (streets), and strengthen the service management power of towns (streets). We must improve the overall social security prevention and control system, strengthen patrols and controls in key areas and locations, and enhance our control over social security; improve the regular work mechanisms such as cracking down on gangsters and eliminating evil, and severely punish illegal and criminal activities that have been strongly reflected by the masses, such as gang-related and evil-related crimes, telecommunications and Internet fraud, cross-border gambling, gun-related and explosive-related crimes, infringement on the rights and interests of women and children, pornography, gambling, drugs, theft, robbery and fraud, and do our utmost to protect the lives and property of the people.
(IV) Improve the mechanism of foreign-related national security. As more and more Chinese citizens and enterprises go abroad, the status of foreign-related security in the overall national security work is becoming more and more important. We must thoroughly study and implement Xi Jinping’s diplomatic thought, actively implement the global security initiative, plan and promote foreign-related national security work with a high position and high standards, strive to create an international environment that is favorable to us, and resolutely defend national sovereignty, security, and development interests. We must establish and improve the coordination mechanism for peripheral security work and promote security cooperation with neighboring countries. We must strengthen the system and mechanism for early warning, prevention and control, and protection of overseas interests and investment risks, establish a legal risk assessment system for foreign-related projects, guide Chinese-funded enterprises to operate overseas in accordance with the law, and enhance the awareness and ability of overseas risk prevention and control; deepen international law enforcement cooperation in the field of security, expand the “circle of friends” for law enforcement and security cooperation, and effectively safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese citizens and legal persons overseas. We must improve the anti-sanction, anti-interference, and anti-“long-arm jurisdiction” mechanisms, strengthen legislation in the field of foreign-related security, and enrich the legal “toolbox”. We must improve the mechanism for safeguarding maritime rights and interests, improve the cross-military and cross-departmental working model, and effectively prevent and resolve major maritime security risks. We must improve the mechanism for participating in global security governance, adhere to the concept of common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security, safeguard the international system with the United Nations at its core, the international order based on international law, and the basic norms of international relations based on the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries, attach importance to the reasonable security concerns of all countries, actively participate in bilateral and multilateral mechanisms under the UN framework, give full play to the role of mechanisms and platforms such as the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, BRICS cooperation, “China + Central Asian Five Countries” and the Global Public Security Cooperation Forum (Lianyungang), promote the building of a balanced, effective and sustainable security architecture, jointly deal with regional disputes and global security issues, and achieve universal and common security.
III. Basic Requirements for Modernizing National Security Systems and Capabilities
To advance the modernization of the national security system and capabilities, we must clarify work requirements, organize scientifically, and advance in a rigorous manner.
(I) Enhance systematic thinking. Promoting the modernization of the national security system and capabilities is a complex systematic project. We must use systematic thinking to observe the security situation, analyze security issues, and plan security countermeasures. We must be good at observing the general trend and planning major events, see the trees and the forest, strengthen forward-looking thinking, overall planning, strategic layout, and overall promotion, strengthen coordination and efficiency, focus on system integration, break down departmental and local barriers, and promote the coordination and integrated promotion of national security work in all fields and aspects.
(II) Consolidate the grassroots foundation. If the foundation is not solid, the earth will shake. As the modernization of the national security system and capabilities gradually deepens, some basic and deep-seated problems have become increasingly prominent. We must accurately grasp the characteristics of the current situation and tasks, do a solid job of grasping the grassroots, laying the foundation, and benefiting the long-term, strengthen grassroots forces, basic work, and basic capacity building, improve mechanisms, innovate methods, and enrich means in a targeted manner, make great efforts to make up for shortcomings, strengthen weaknesses, and consolidate the foundation, and consolidate the foundation for maintaining national security.
(III) Strengthen publicity and education. Maintaining national security is a just cause. We must not only “do” it unswervingly, but also “say” it with confidence. We must insist on combining centralized publicity and education with regular publicity and education, innovate content, methods and carriers, carry out publicity and education activities that are popular with the people, and extend them to the grassroots, expand to various units, and cover the general public, create a strong atmosphere in which everyone is responsible for national security, and guide the general public to enhance their awareness of national security, assume national security responsibilities, and improve their ability to maintain national security.
(IV) Strengthen the implementation of responsibilities. Maintaining national security is the common responsibility of the whole society. We must overcome the mentality of “waiting, relying on, and asking for help”, take the initiative, take positive actions, clarify responsibilities, refine the division of labor, and form a work pattern of grasping each level and implementing it at each level, so that we have the responsibility to defend the territory, be responsible for the territory, and do our best to defend the territory. Especially for difficult problems, we must carry forward the spirit of nailing down the nails, strengthen research, concentrate on tackling key problems, and ensure breakthroughs. At the same time, we must strengthen communication and coordination, clench our fingers into a fist, take a step forward, leave no gaps, and form a strong synergy that brings together all aspects and levels of the party, government, military, civilians, and academics.
Strengthening the construction of military rule of law culture
■Wang Mei
introduction
President Xi stressed that we should carry forward the spirit of socialist rule of law and strive to cultivate socialist rule of law culture. Military rule of law culture, as an important component of socialist rule of law culture, is the spiritual support for the practice of military rule of law construction, and has important functions such as ideological enlightenment, behavior regulation and cultural nourishment. In the new era and new journey, we should regard strengthening the construction of military rule of law culture as a strategic and basic work for building a military rule of law system with Chinese characteristics, and provide a strong ideological guarantee and spiritual motivation for the in-depth implementation of the strategy of ruling the army by law.
Fully recognize the status and role of military rule of law culture construction
Culture is the product of human thinking and behavior, and in turn shapes human thinking and behavior. Military rule of law culture is an important component of building a military rule of law system with Chinese characteristics, and is also an important guarantee for mobilizing and stimulating the consciousness of military rule of law subjects.
Military rule of law culture is an important component of building a military rule of law system with Chinese characteristics. The military rule of law system with Chinese characteristics consists of a military legal system, a military rule of law implementation system, a military rule of law supervision system, and a military rule of law guarantee system. The military rule of law guarantee system mainly includes military rule of law organizations, military law governance theory, military legal talent teams, and military rule of law culture, providing organizational guarantees, theoretical support, talent support, and cultural nourishment for the construction of military rule of law. Military rule of law culture is closely related to other subsystems in the military rule of law system, and permeates the contents of these subsystems in the form of people, objects, information and other elements. In addition, the rule of law is not only a way of governing the army, but also a value choice, cultural thought, and spiritual power. The rule of law culture of the people’s army is embedded with the value standards of allocating power and responsibility and balancing rights and obligations. It is a culture that demonstrates the purpose of serving the people wholeheartedly. To comprehensively promote the rule of law in the army, it is necessary to lead and guide all aspects of the military rule of law construction with the core values of socialism and the core values of contemporary revolutionary soldiers, so that it can better reflect the national value goals, social value orientation, citizen value standards, and military personnel value requirements.
Military rule of law culture is an important guarantee for mobilizing and inspiring the consciousness of military rule of law subjects. Culture is created by people, and in turn cultivates, shapes and changes people, playing a vital role in guiding and supporting the all-round development of people. The realization of the rule of law depends on the foundation and power of the rule of law culture, and on the sincere recognition, sincere support and conscious practice of various subjects. Officers and soldiers are the main body of the army. The construction of the rule of law in the army needs officers and soldiers to promote it, and various laws and regulations need to be implemented by officers and soldiers. Strengthening the construction of military rule of law culture, strengthening officers and soldiers’ belief in and thinking of the rule of law, and improving officers and soldiers’ legal literacy and ability to handle affairs in accordance with the law are important aspects of deepening the rule of law in the army and strict management of the army. Strengthening the construction of military rule of law culture can create a good rule of law environment and establish a clear direction throughout the army that laws must be followed, laws must be strictly enforced, and violations must be punished, so that officers and soldiers always maintain awe of laws and regulations and military discipline, firmly establish the concept that legal red lines cannot be touched and legal bottom lines cannot be crossed, cultivate the habit of using rule of law thinking to think about problems, handle matters, and solve problems, and inspire the enthusiasm, initiative, consciousness and creativity of the majority of military personnel to participate in the construction of military rule of law.
Accurately grasp the contemporary requirements of building a military rule of law culture
To strengthen the construction of military rule of law culture, we should accurately grasp and highlight the basic characteristics of military culture construction, such as its political nature, people-oriented nature, moral nature, practical nature, and innovative nature, adhere to the corresponding work principles and requirements, and ensure that the construction of military rule of law culture is comprehensively guided and always followed.
Highlight the political nature of the construction of military rule of law culture. The rule of law is a way to express and distribute the interests of specific interest groups. The distinct political nature of the construction of military rule of law culture is closely related to and organically unified with the party’s nature and the people’s nature. To strengthen the construction of military rule of law culture, we must adhere to the party’s absolute leadership over the people’s army, thoroughly implement Xi Jinping’s thoughts on strengthening the military, thoroughly implement Xi Jinping’s thoughts on the rule of law and President Xi’s important expositions on ruling the military according to law, deeply understand the decisive significance of the “two establishments”, enhance the “four consciousnesses”, strengthen the “four self-confidences”, and achieve the “two safeguards”, implement the responsibility system of the Chairman of the Military Commission, and ensure that the construction of military rule of law culture is always promoted in the correct political direction.
Highlight the people-oriented nature of the military rule of law culture construction. Military personnel, especially officers and soldiers, are the main body of the military rule of law culture construction. The construction of the military rule of law culture must adhere to the people-centered approach, adhere to the subject status of officers and soldiers, mobilize and stimulate the various cultural needs of officers and soldiers, and provide basic support and create favorable conditions for meeting the needs. By improving the military rule of law system with Chinese characteristics that meets the only fundamental standard of combat effectiveness, we can improve the level of legalization of national defense and military construction, promote the generation and improvement of combat effectiveness and fully release it, and ensure the realization of the fundamental purpose of the people’s army to serve the people wholeheartedly.
Highlight the morality of military rule of law culture construction. “Law brings peace to the world, and virtue nourishes people’s hearts.” A distinctive feature of the rule of law path of socialism with Chinese characteristics is to insist on combining rule of law with rule of virtue, emphasizing that both rule of law and rule of virtue should be grasped with both hands and both hands should be strong. To fully implement the strategy of ruling the military by law, it is necessary to implement moral requirements into the construction of the rule of law, attach importance to the normative role of law, and embody moral concepts through the rule of law; attach importance to the educational role of morality, and nourish the spirit of the rule of law with morality, so as to realize that law and morality complement each other, and rule of law and rule of virtue complement each other.
Highlight the practicality of the construction of military rule of law culture. The process of cultural innovation and development is the process of constantly answering new issues raised by the times and practice. In order to turn the “law on paper” into the real and vivid “law in action” in real life, and to turn the “blueprint” of the construction of military rule of law culture into a real and tangible “high-rise building” in real life, we must pay attention to the unity of knowledge and action, guide and promote through the specific work of the construction of military rule of law culture, and rely on the universal, regular and long-term practice of the construction of military rule of law culture by relevant subjects, so as to guide the majority of military personnel to become loyal advocates, conscious abiders and firm defenders of the military rule of law with Chinese characteristics.
Highlight the innovation of the construction of military rule of law culture. Military rule of law culture is constantly gaining vitality and vigor in the process of evolution, development and continuous innovation. The construction of military rule of law culture should uphold an open and inclusive attitude, fully learn from and absorb the outstanding achievements of human rule of law civilization, and enhance the international influence and voice of the military rule of law culture with Chinese characteristics; adhere to inheritance and development, keep integrity and innovation, rely on the use of new technologies, new platforms, new models and new mechanisms, and continuously develop and prosper, spread and carry forward the military rule of law culture content in China’s excellent traditional military culture and socialist advanced culture, and promote the further creative transformation and innovative development of military rule of law culture.
Ideas and measures to comprehensively strengthen the construction of military rule of law culture
To strengthen the construction of military rule of law culture, we should insist on the coordinated efforts in the construction of military rule of law culture in spiritual form, institutional form, and material form, and effectively adopt ideas and measures that cover both goals and tasks and include implementation paths, and have their own focuses and are mutually integrated.
Strengthen the spiritual form of military rule of law culture. Thought is the forerunner of behavior, and theory is the guide to action. Military law governance theory and military rule of law thinking are both requirements and indicators for the construction of military rule of law culture, and are also important contents of the construction of military rule of law culture. We should strengthen the research on military law governance theory, support it with discipline construction, promote the research and interpretation of the military rule of law system with Chinese characteristics, convince people with thorough theories, and give play to the guiding role of theoretical identification on emotional identification and behavioral identification. We should strengthen the rule of law thinking of military personnel, thoroughly study, publicize and implement Xi Jinping’s thoughts on the rule of law, deepen the rule of law education and training of the entire army, incorporate the goals, objects, system, content and methods of education and training into the track of the rule of law, let the thinking of respecting rules, the thinking of rights and obligations, the thinking of limiting power and governing power, and the thinking of justice and science take root in their minds, and make respecting and practicing the rule of law the way of thinking, working and living of military personnel, especially leading cadres.
Strengthen the military rule of law culture in the form of system. Only by formulating scientific systems and making them run smoothly can the value orientation of the rule of law culture be established and consolidated. We should strengthen the construction of the military legal system, adhere to scientific legislation, democratic legislation, and legislation in accordance with the law, fully reflect the interests of the people and the standards of combat effectiveness in the legal system, establish institutional rules and clear directions that laws must be followed, laws must be strictly enforced, and violations must be investigated, and create a persuasive and credible cultural form. The military legal system should run smoothly, and in the implementation, supervision, and guarantee of military rule of law, we should establish the prestige of the rule of law, cultivate integrity, and lead a new style. We must attach importance to the activities of creating a rule of law military camp and jointly building the rule of law between the military and the local government as an important starting point, take safeguarding national defense and military interests, and the legitimate rights and interests of military personnel and their families in accordance with the law as a breakthrough point, and enhance the military personnel’s experience of the rule of law in laws, regulations, and their operation.
Strengthen the military rule of law culture in material form. Military rule of law cannot be separated from a solid material foundation, and institutional and spiritual culture cannot be separated from solid material conditions. To this end, the construction of military rule of law facilities should be strengthened, including facilities related to all elements and processes of rule of law such as legislation, law enforcement, judicial affairs, legal governance research, education and training, such as venues and items for legal publicity and education. The rule of law information platform should be expanded, and hardware and software construction should be improved. We should enrich cultural products, comprehensively use traditional methods as well as technologies such as artificial intelligence and virtual reality, tell good stories about military rule of law, let military rule of law elements and figurative cultural symbols permeate and permeate the military environment, enable military personnel to always be in the information field and strong atmosphere of military rule of law, be influenced by what they see and hear, and constantly enhance their awareness of respecting, learning, abiding by and using the law.
(Author’s unit: College of Military Management, National Defense University)
