Throughout modern warfare, cognitive games have become the focus of offense and defense. Whether one is proficient in planning operations in the cognitive domain will greatly affect the direction and outcome of the war. A deep understanding of the connotation, extension and category style of cognitive domain operations, and an accurate grasp of its winning mechanism and development trend are the keys to understanding the context of the battlefield and winning modern wars.
Cognitive domain operations are the new focus of war games
Different from traditional operations, cognitive domain operations are no longer limited to land, sea, air, space, electricity, network and other fields. It breaks through the traditional physical domain and information domain. It has unique advantages, presents new characteristics, and expands the modern Battlefield new frontier.
Cognitive domain operations expand the war domain space. First of all, the battlefield space in the cognitive domain is broad, mainly reflected in people’s spirit, psychology, thinking, beliefs and other cognitive activities. Its combat targets are mainly hostile heads of state and political figures, military personnel, social elites and the general public. Secondly, cognitive domain operations take a wide range of forms, including but not limited to political and diplomatic pressure, economic blockade and sanctions, cultural penetration and erosion, etc. Thirdly, the goals of cognitive domain operations are wide-ranging, mainly to shake the enemy’s belief, disintegrate the enemy’s will, influence and change the opponent’s decision-making, thereby causing the enemy’s social chaos, decision-making errors, demoralization of the military, and even subversion of its national power.
Cognitive domain operations blur the boundaries of the war domain. The main body of cognitive domain operations is people. People are the most active factor in war, especially the cognition of high-level decision-makers, which embodies the overall will of the war, directly affects the overall situation of the war, and determines the outcome of the war. The cognition of state leaders and military generals is the key target of cognitive domain operations. Popular will, social foundation, and international public opinion are usually the basis for cognitive domain operations and are the key forces that promote the process and direction of war. Cognitive domain operations mix conventional and unconventional operations, blurring the boundaries of the war field. They aim to cognitively induce and attack information recipients, bypassing the traditional battlefield and reaching the weakest link – people. Tactical actions can achieve strategic goals, from Fundamentally change the battlefield environment and change the outcome of the war.
Cognitive domain operations reach the ultimate strategic goal. There is a saying in the ancient Chinese art of war: “The way to use troops is to attack the heart first, and to attack the city below; to fight the heart first, and to fight soldiers lower.” Operations in the cognitive domain aim to occupy cognitive dominance and influence the enemy’s decision-making and behavior. Achieve maximum combat effectiveness at minimum cost. As Clausewitz mentioned in “On War”, “War is an act of violence that forces the enemy to obey our will.” Since cognitive domain operations are not hard kills against living forces, but soft kills against invisible targets, they can not only “force the enemy to obey our will”, but also objectively enable the enemy to destroy itself from within, making it unable to resist, disintegrate, and ultimately Achieve the strategic goal of “complete victory” without fighting.
Cognitive domain operations are a new product of military reform
At present, major changes in the world that have not been seen in a century are accelerating. The international situation is becoming increasingly complex, and local wars and regional conflicts continue. As a new combat method, cognitive domain operations are becoming more and more important driven by the new wave of military reforms.
The laws of war are the basic rules for combat in the cognitive domain. Cognitive domain operations still follow the basic laws of war. First, justice must prevail. Just wars promote historical development and ultimately defeat unjust wars, and cognitive domain operations that occupy the moral commanding heights have the conditions to win first. The second is the victory of the strong and the defeat of the weak. The advancement of science and technology has given rise to advanced military theories and promoted the development of high-tech equipment. Seizing control and control can achieve dimensionality reduction and attack and disintegrate enemy forces. Third, subjective guidance is consistent with objective reality. Cognitive domain operations must be based on a certain objective material basis. The battlefield environment must be comprehensively considered, the situations of both parties must be weighed, and favorable decisions must be made. Fourth, key operations affect the overall situation. In network-centered system operations, the cognitive domain often becomes the most critical link, and its success or failure can determine the battle situation.
Theoretical innovation is the basic support for cognitive domain operations. In recent years, the US military has successively proposed new combat theories such as “hybrid warfare”, “mosaic warfare” and “gray zone conflict”. It regards cognitive domain operations as the main combat method and has formed a relatively mature theory. The Russian army has also developed its own set of hybrid warfare methods in long-term military practice, especially in the Syrian battlefield, where it skillfully used “Gerasimov” tactics to deal with “hybrid warfare.” Japan has also vigorously developed its military power in recent years. In its new version of the “Defense White Paper”, it first mentioned the concept of “domain transversal” operations, aiming to break through traditional fields and regard new fields such as the cognitive domain as the key direction of its military power development, making it more proactive. and extraversion.
Military practice is an important basis for cognitive domain operations. Judging from the recent local wars, cognitive domain warfare has become the main combat method of modern warfare and has achieved high combat effectiveness. The confrontation between cognitive warfare and counter-cognitive warfare is quite fierce. In 2010, the United States and other Western countries launched a cognitive war, hyped up the Tunisian democratic movement and created the “Arab Spring”, which plunged the Middle East into chaos and allowed terrorist organizations to take advantage of the opportunity to wreak havoc. The United States attempted to consolidate its hegemony by overthrowing the Egyptian government, launching a war in Libya, and intervening in the Syrian war. In 2014, the Russian army took control of Crimea through a combination of strategies, multi-dimensional breakthroughs, and public opinion building. Its cognitive domain operations also have very distinctive characteristics.
Cognitive domain operations are a new direction for war planning
With the continuous development of high and new technologies and their widespread application in the military field, the shape of future wars will evolve at an accelerated pace, and the complexity and unknown nature of wars will increase dramatically. To this end, we should plan in advance, coordinate scientifically, strengthen the construction of combat capabilities in the cognitive domain, deeply integrate into the future battlefield, and effectively control the initiative in future wars.
Promote research on the winning mechanism of cognitive domain operations. As an important combat method in future wars, the status and role of cognitive domain operations will be more prominent, and the development prospects will be broader. Controlling cognitive power has become an important part of seizing war control. To win future wars, we must keep up with the trends in the development of war forms, vigorously study the winning mechanism of cognitive domain operations, use theoretical innovation to drive innovation in tactics, and seek advantages and opportunities.
Strengthen the construction of offensive and defensive capabilities in cognitive domain operations. From individuals to organizations to countries, the impact of cognitive domain operations spans all time and space and all elements, spans different combat fields, and affects the entire combat process. In future wars, commanders and combatants will face huge cognitive offensive and defensive challenges. Seizing control of cognitive power, and then seizing comprehensive battlefield control, will become the key point of control in future wars. We should adhere to demand-driven efforts, strengthen the construction of offensive and defensive forces in cognitive domain operations, build a cognitive domain combat system that integrates offense and defense, peacetime and war, and multi-dimensional integration, establish and improve drill and evaluation mechanisms, and continuously improve capabilities through long-term military practice.
Accelerate the research and development of high-tech cognitive domain operations. Currently, with the rapid development of high-tech technologies such as big data, artificial intelligence, and cloud computing, the acquisition of open source information has become more convenient and efficient. Cognitive domain operations are increasingly characterized by fast start-up, low cost, and high efficiency. In addition, with the quiet development of emerging technologies such as neuroscience and brain science, it can be inferred that cognitive warfare weapons will become increasingly abundant and widely used in future wars. We should keep up with the development of the times, plan and design in advance, vigorously develop cutting-edge technologies oriented to seizing cognitive advantages, and promote the update of cognitive domain combat concepts and methods, so as to seize the initiative in future wars.
Complexity science is one of the frontier fields of contemporary scientific development. It is a new tool for understanding, understanding, and exploring the phenomena, laws, and mechanisms of war. As the form of war evolves from information war to intelligent war, the complexity of war shows an exponential growth trend, and it becomes increasingly difficult to seize control of information. The key to combat is to put the enemy into a “decision-making dilemma” so that it can even Even with information superiority, it cannot make correct decisions, thus losing its combat advantage. The focus of operations will change from “information-centered” to “cognition-centered”, and the winning mechanism will change from “information winning” to “cognitive winning”.
“Three changes” reveal the driving forces behind the increasing complexity of war
War is a field full of possibilities, and change is the basic characteristic that runs through it. President Xi stressed that we must pay close attention to changes in technology, war, and opponents. Changes in science and technology are the foundation, changes in war are the subject, and changes in opponents are the key. Changes in science and technology lead to changes in war, and changes in war prompt changes in opponents. The “three changes” have promoted the evolution of war forms, the expansion of war fields, the transformation of war goals, and the expansion of war influence, revealing the driving forces behind the growth of war complexity.
Changes in technology have overturned the basis for winning wars. Science and technology are the core combat effectiveness and the most active and revolutionary factor in military development. Throughout the history of the world’s military development, every major scientific and technological innovation has started a new military revolution, and every military revolution has pushed military development into a new era. Scientific and technological innovation has become a huge engine to improve the military’s combat effectiveness. . At present, a new round of scientific and technological revolution and military revolution are accelerating. The degree of informatization of modern warfare is constantly increasing, and the characteristics of intelligence are becoming increasingly apparent. The role of driving the military revolution is becoming more and more prominent. The rapid development of some cutting-edge technologies may fundamentally change the face of war and war. According to the rules, the military game between great powers is more embodied in technological subversion and counter-subversion, raids and counter-raids, offsets and counter-offsets. The U.S. Navy’s “Nemesis” project includes reconnaissance, decoy, jamming and other systems. The decoy system covers air, surface and underwater. Under the scheduling and control of the distributed artificial intelligence engine, it can complement each other, coordinate deception, and truly create a A “ghost aircraft carrier formation” completely subverted traditional electronic deception methods and raised information deception to an unprecedented level. It can be said that science and technology has never had such a profound impact on the overall situation of national security and military strategy as it does today. It has profoundly intervened in, supported, and dominated the evolution of war forms and the innovation of combat styles, and has even subverted the mechanism of winning wars.
The U.S. Navy’s “Nemesis” project is based on networked collaborative electronic warfare
Concept, integrating different systems and utilizing unmanned distributed
Clusters of electronic warfare platforms enable large-scale collaborative electronic warfare
The changes in war highlight the complexity of war. Modern warfare is undergoing profound changes, showing unprecedented diversity and complexity. This super complexity stems from many reasons: first, various advanced technologies or weapons are constantly emerging, bringing many uncertainties; second, the battlefield covers land, sea, air, space, network, electricity and cognitive and other multiple third, multiple combat objects, combat styles, combat areas, and combat methods are cross-correlated and combined to form a complex “hybrid war”; fourth, artificial intelligence algorithms build a large number of combat elements into a complex logic, and use human Machine speed beyond the reach of thinking prompts the combination, deconstruction, and recombination of various elements. In the Ukraine crisis in 2022, on the surface it is a confrontation between Russia and Ukraine, but in essence it is a “hybrid war” between the United States and Western countries and Russia; the Russian and Ukrainian armies extensively use military and civilian drones to expand The “unmanned +” application model shows the prototype of future unmanned intelligent operations; with the support of U.S. NATO air and space situational intelligence, the Ukrainian army frequently uses low-cost unmanned equipment to carry out raids on important Russian weapons platforms, highlighting its new qualities Combat forces have asymmetric attack advantages against large weapons and equipment in traditional combat systems. Changes in technology will eventually lead to changes in war. The impact of a single element on war will become weaker and weaker. The joint combat system composed of multiple elements will have a complex impact on war. War is non-linear, uncertain, chaotic and open. Complex characteristics such as adaptability and confrontation will increase exponentially, which will make it more difficult for people to judge the progress and outcome of the war.
Changes in opponents accelerate the growth of war complexity. Changes in war prompt changes in opponents. Currently, we are experiencing major changes unseen in a century. Major military powers are actively making strategic adjustments and promoting a new round of military reforms, which exhibit the following characteristics: first, the trend of joint, miniaturized, and autonomous institutional establishments has become more obvious; second, The first is that weapons and equipment are showing a development trend of digitization, precision, stealth, unmanned, and intelligence; the third is that the combat form is moving towards the “four nons” (non-contact, non-linear, asymmetric and irregular) and the “three nos” (Invisible, silent, unmanned) combat; fourth, the military command form is developing in the direction of flattening, automation, networking, and seamlessness. The United States regards China as its main strategic opponent and strives to suppress and contain China. It has vigorously strengthened the innovation of operational concepts and has successively proposed new operational concepts such as “hybrid warfare”, “multi-domain warfare” and “mosaic warfare”, claiming that it will fight to defeat its opponents. A high-end war in which “technology cannot be understood, strikes are difficult to predict, and speed cannot keep up.” The core of the US military’s “mosaic warfare” is unmanned, low-cost, fast, lethal, flexible and reconfigurable. It is based on distributed situational awareness, with the help of intelligent auxiliary decision-making tools and the concept of building blocks and jigsaw puzzles to adaptively formulate mission planning. , dynamically reorganize combat forces, decompose the functions of the combat platform into a larger number of single-function nodes, and build a combat system with a large number of functional nodes. Replace the “kill chain” with a “kill network”. Several nodes will fail or be missing, and the combat system can be adaptively reorganized.
The increasing complexity of war drives the transformation of the winning mechanism of war
With the rapid development of national defense science and technology, the upgrading of weapons and equipment, and the rapid evolution of war forms, modern warfare has shown exponential and explosive complex changes. These changes may seem dazzling, but there are rules to follow behind them. The fundamental thing is that the winning mechanism of war has changed. Only by thoroughly understanding the winning mechanism of modern war can we accurately recognize changes, respond scientifically, be good at seeking change, and firmly grasp the initiative in future wars.
The form of war has changed from cold weapon warfare to intelligent warfare . The shape of war is a holistic understanding of war. So far, human war has generally gone through four historical stages: cold weapon war, hot weapon war, mechanized war, and information war, and is moving towards intelligent warfare. The history of cognitive warfare is almost as old as the history of human warfare. In the era of cold weapon war, hot weapon war, and mechanized war, cognitive warfare appears more in the form of public opinion warfare and psychological warfare. As mankind enters the information age, the development of cyberspace technology has greatly expanded the space for cognitive warfare, enriched the technical means of cognitive warfare, and greatly enhanced the permeability, timeliness, and deterrence of cognitive warfare. The status and role of Zhizhan have been unprecedentedly improved. In the future, the form of war will enter intelligent warfare, and a large number of intelligent weapon systems and platforms will be equipped with the military and put into combat. Cognitive warfare can not only interfere with and deceive the cognition of enemy personnel, but also attack the cognition of smart equipment through algorithm deception methods such as “adversarial input” and “data poisoning”. Its application scenarios and scope will be further expanded. , the status and role will be further improved.
Drones have gradually become the protagonist of war,
Combat complexity further increases
The purpose of war has changed from conquering by force to conquering by spirit. The winning mechanism of modern war has undergone great changes compared with the past. The violence of war has been curbed. The purpose of combat has changed from the original siege of cities and territories and annihilation of the enemy’s effective forces to making the opponent obey one’s own will. The means of combat have changed from conquering by force to conquering more areas. The emphasis on psychological and spiritual conquest and transformation has made cognitive warfare increasingly prominent in its status and role in modern warfare. In recent years, “hybrid warfare” has become a major means of great power competition. More and more countries have begun to focus on using new fields and new means to achieve political, military, and economic goals that are difficult to achieve with traditional warfare. “Hybrid war” is a mixture of war subjects such as states, non-state actors and individuals, a mixture of conventional warfare, unconventional warfare and other war styles, a mixture of military operations such as combat, stability maintenance and reconstruction, and a mixture of political, military and economic The mixture of multiple fields such as military and people’s livelihood is a mixture of multiple combat goals such as defeating the enemy and winning the hearts and minds of the people. This is highly consistent with cognitive warfare. The operational field of “hybrid warfare” has expanded from the military field to politics, economy, culture, people’s livelihood and other fields; the combat methods have expanded from firepower warfare and troop warfare to diplomatic warfare, economic warfare, cyber warfare, psychological warfare, public opinion warfare and other directions. This is highly consistent with cognitive warfare. Its core essence is to “make profit out of chaos”, its main purpose is to win people’s hearts, and its combat guidance is to win by cleverness.
The winning domain of war changes from the physical domain and information domain to the cognitive domain. Modern war occurs in three fields: physics, information and cognition at the same time. The physical domain and information domain are separated from the material domain, and the cognitive domain is separated from the spiritual domain. The physical domain is a traditional war domain, consisting of combat platforms and military facilities, which provides the material basis for information warfare. The information domain is a newly emerging war field, that is, the space for information generation, transmission and sharing, and is the focus of information warfare competition. Cognitive domain is the scope and field involved in human cognitive activities. It is not only the space for human feeling, perception, memory and thinking activities, but also the space for knowledge generation, exchange, association, storage and application. It is also the space for perception, judgment and decision-making in combat activities. and spaces of command and control. The cognitive domain exists in the field of consciousness of combatants and affects their judgment and decision-making. It is a rising field of warfare. With the development of technologies such as network information and artificial intelligence, the scope of the cognitive domain has greatly expanded, and is expanding from the field of human consciousness to the field of modern cognitive tools and artificial intelligence. The development of military technology has expanded the scope of the cognitive domain, providing more advanced, faster, and more effective material and technical means for cognitive warfare, greatly enhancing the permeability, timeliness, and deterrence of cognitive warfare, and fundamentally It has changed cognitive warfare, making the cognitive domain a new winning field that transcends the physical domain and information domain, and has become the ultimate domain for great power games and military confrontations.
The mechanism for winning wars changes from information victory to cognitive victory. In the final analysis, war confrontation is a game and confrontation of cognition. Mastering the right to control cognition will largely control the initiative in war. Losing the right to control cognition will put you in a passive position of being beaten in the war. Obtaining higher and stronger control rights is the key to defeating powerful enemies. Finding ways to control cognitive power and then seize comprehensive battlefield control, so as to achieve maximum victory at the minimum cost, is an important mechanism and inherent law of modern warfare, especially cognitive warfare. In recent years, the U.S. military has successively proposed new concepts of future warfare represented by “decision-centered warfare” and “mosaic warfare”, intending to use complexity as a weapon to create multiple dilemmas for opponents, requiring it to ensure its own tactical “selective advantage”. At the same time, by creating highly complex decision-making influences on the enemy and interfering with its decision-making capabilities, it can achieve a subversive advantage over the enemy in the cognitive domain. In the primary and intermediate stages of information warfare, the key to combat is to seize network control and information control, which runs through the progressive model of “network advantage → information advantage → decision-making advantage → combat advantage”. After information warfare enters an advanced stage, it becomes more and more difficult to seize control of information. The key to combat is to make the enemy fall into a “decision-making dilemma” so that even if it has information superiority, it cannot make correct decisions, thereby losing its combat advantage and having recognition. Only by knowing the advantages can you have the combat advantage. In future wars, cognitive advantage will be the most important strategic advantage, and cognitive confrontation will be the most important form of confrontation. It can be said that “without cognition, there is no war.”
Coping with complex wars has given rise to the concept of cognitive-centered warfare
In order to cope with the exponential growth trend of the complexity characteristics of modern warfare, we must use the theories and methods of complexity science to change the concept of platform-centered warfare where firepower is supreme and killing is king, and establish a cognitive-centered combat thinking. Cognition-centered warfare refers to taking the cognitive domain as the winning area, taking the cognitive advantage as the operational goal, and focusing on interfering with cognitive means, suppressing cognitive channels, affecting cognitive production, and conducting cognitive operations on enemy personnel and intelligent equipment. Interference, suppression, deception and inducement are a new operational concept that obtains combat advantages by seizing and maintaining cognitive advantages. Its main winning mechanisms are as follows.
Sun Tzu mentioned in “The Art of War” that “there is no constant force in an army;
Water has no permanent shape; those who can win due to the changes of the enemy are called gods.
Use cyber deterrence to destroy the enemy’s will to fight. Targeting the enemy’s political, economic, military, diplomatic, and cultural contradictions and weaknesses, disseminate deterrent information through cyberspace, or publish military parades, large-scale military exercises, new weapons and equipment research and development and other information through the Internet, so as to cause extreme cognitive and psychological changes in the opponent. Great fear and shock, deterring the enemy is not conducive to the implementation of my actions. Comprehensive use of network and electricity attack methods to carry out point strikes and warning attacks against the enemy’s important network and electricity targets and key core nodes, destroying the enemy’s system combat capabilities, affecting the normal performance of the enemy’s weapons and equipment, and providing psychological deterrence to the enemy. The US military’s “gray zone operations” theory relies on its own technological advantages and mainly takes actions such as cyber and electronic countermeasures to respond to the opponent’s “gray zone provocation” and deter the opponent from giving up “confrontation” or escalating the conflict, putting it in a dilemma.
Use information deception to induce the enemy to make misjudgments. Aiming at the enemy’s reconnaissance equipment, intelligence agencies and command systems, use cyber attacks, electronic deception and other means to conceal one’s military intentions, military operations and military objectives, and transmit to the enemy erroneous and false combat plans, troop configurations and operations. capabilities, combat plans, battlefield situation, etc., or use the enemy’s command information system to send false orders and information to induce the enemy to make wrong judgments and disrupt the enemy’s combat command. Implement new attacks such as “adversarial input” and “data poisoning” against artificial intelligence algorithms, allowing them to obtain preset conclusions through deep learning training, or causing them to fall into local optimal solutions and ignore the global optimal. Use technologies such as computer imaging, video synthesis, virtual reality, and artificial intelligence to synthesize sounds, videos, images, text information, etc., or use “deep fake” technology to generate false information that is difficult to distinguish between true and false, and transmit it through the Internet Spread in large quantities to confuse and deceive opponents and influence their decisions and actions.
Use information suppression to block the enemy’s cognitive means. Target the enemy’s important network targets, as well as core routers, switches, gateways, key servers, etc., and use “soft” and “hard” attack methods to destroy their network nodes. Based on the networking characteristics of wireless links such as the enemy’s command and control network, communication transmission network, weapon hinge network, and early warning detection network, comprehensively use technologies and means such as electronic jamming, GPS spoofing attacks, command link takeover, and data hijacking control to suppress them. Data communication, blocking its communication links and interfering with its combat command. Implement cyber-paralysis attacks on enemy command and control, military communications, early warning detection, aerospace information and other military networks, destroying core networks that affect their operations and weakening their combat capabilities.
Use public opinion propaganda to create a favorable public opinion environment . Cooperate with the country’s political, military, and diplomatic struggles, vigorously promote one’s own justice in the war, and stimulate the enthusiasm of all people to fully support the war. With the help of new media platforms such as instant messaging tools, online forums, podcasts, Twitter, and WeChat, we can systematically disseminate information that targets the enemy’s weaknesses. After gaining widespread attention and consensus, we can then promptly report information, create new hot spots, and repeatedly build momentum. Enhance the influence and form a resonance effect to expand the effect. Propaganda “sets the tone” by cleverly setting agendas, building public opinion through powerful media, setting off a “spiral of silence”, controlling and guiding public opinion, and changing people’s opinions and behaviors.
Use psychological attacks to undermine the morale of enemy soldiers and civilians. Through the Internet, processed and processed information is widely disseminated to promote one’s justice, demonstrate one’s strength, will and determination, vilify the enemy politically and morally, gather the thoughts and will of the military and civilians internally, and strive to win externally. The commanding heights of law and morality can “soften” and “weaken” the enemy spiritually. Use a variety of network communication methods and technical means to send various deceptive, disruptive, inductive, and deterrent messages to the enemy’s military and civilians in a targeted manner to attack the enemy’s psychological defense line, promote an ineffective confrontation mentality, and then lose combat capabilities. . Through the Internet, we can create, guide, plan, build, and expand momentum to create a “momentum” that is beneficial to ourselves but not beneficial to the enemy, causing a psychological impact on the other party’s people, thereby affecting or changing their psychological state, and implementing effective psychological attacks.
Use legal struggle to obtain legal and moral support. Use legal weapons to curb the enemy’s possible or future illegal acts, declare the legality of our actions, affirm our power of military counterattack, declare our determination to pursue war responsibilities, and deter the enemy. By exposing the illegality of the enemy’s provocative behavior, criticizing the legal basis for the enemy’s combat operations, and condemning the enemy’s illegal behavior, it causes the enemy’s strategic defeat and our own strategic gain. Use legal means to restrict the enemy’s possible actions, limit the possible interference of third parties, and block other parties from interfering with our own actions. Formulate the laws and regulations necessary for our operations to provide legal protection for our operations, or take legal remedial measures to reduce the possible negative impacts of our operations and ensure that combat operations are carried out in accordance with the law.
With the rapid development of intelligent technology and its widespread application in military affairs, intelligent warfare is becoming a new form of warfare after information warfare, and dissipative warfare has become a typical method of intelligent warfare. The so-called dissipative warfare refers to a combat method in which the intelligent warfare system achieves comprehensive combat power integrating material consumption, energy release and information diffusion through internal integration and integration and external mutation. Strengthening research on dissipative warfare will help us deeply reveal the winning mechanism of intelligent warfare and win the initiative in future war games.
Dissipative war is the inevitable result of the development of the times
Dissipative warfare is manifested in the comprehensive confrontation of the physical domain, information domain and cognitive domain in the intelligent era. It is reflected in the high degree of unity in the form of political contest, economic competition, military offense and defense, cultural conflict and diplomatic checks and balances, reflecting the intelligent war system. openness, complexity and emergence.
Adapt to the security situation requirements of the intelligent era. Entering the era of intelligence, technologies such as wide networks, big data, big models, cloud computing, and deep learning are developing rapidly, and the connections between political groups, countries, and ethnic groups have become more extensive. Under the influence of multiple factors such as political pluralism, economic integration, social openness, and technological revolution, non-traditional security has emerged and is intertwined with traditional threats. The subjects and categories of intelligent warfare have continued to expand. The time and space of war have continued to expand. War and peace are like shadows. As they become more integrated, the war system will further transcend local geographical restrictions, move from a relatively closed world to a more open one, and form a higher-level and wider-scale confrontation. Dissipative warfare emphasizes the comprehensive development of intelligent warfare systems in the physical, information and cognitive domains. It highly unifies political contests, economic competitions, military offense and defense, cultural conflicts and diplomatic checks and balances into the scope of confrontation between ourselves and the enemy, adapting to the The requirements of the times as the world security situation develops.
It is in line with the objective laws of the evolution of war forms. The dissipation phenomenon of the war system has always existed since the birth of war. However, before the emergence of intelligent warfare, due to technological constraints, it has always been in a relatively low-level and simple state. War confrontation can only be manifested in material consumption and energy release. A form of dispersion and information diffusion. In the agricultural era, the main form of war was cold weapon warfare dominated by material elements and centered on the human body. In the era of industrialization, the main forms of warfare are thermonuclear weapons and mechanized warfare dominated by energy elements and centered on platforms. In the information age, the form of war is mainly information-based war dominated by information elements and centered on the network information system. Entering the era of intelligence, intelligent technology highly unifies the cognitive advantages, decision-making advantages and action advantages in the confrontation between ourselves and the enemy. In essence, it highly unifies matter, energy and information. Through intelligent empowerment, intelligent energy gathering, Interpreting energy through intelligence has formed an intelligent war form dominated by intelligent elements and centered on intelligent algorithms. The main form of expression is dissipative warfare that reflects the confrontation of the complex systems of intelligent warfare.
It is supported by a solid philosophical theoretical foundation. Social form is the matrix of war forms. To explore and understand intelligent warfare, we must be based on the basic principles of historical materialism and dialectical materialism, comprehensively examine the evolution of war forms and the social form in which intelligent warfare occurs, and construct a new war concept and context system. From a philosophical perspective, matter, energy and information are the three major elements that make up the world. Material embodies the existence of the source, energy embodies the existence of movement, and information embodies the existence of connections. The three progressively and alternately dominate the formation of social forms and war forms. Evolve and run. According to the principle of negation of dialectical materialism, in the intelligent age after the information age, the dominant element of society will be material again after matter, energy, and information. However, this material is formed after a spiral of high informatization. The main characteristic of new materials is that they have intelligent technical properties. Therefore, in essence, dissipative warfare is the intelligent element that highly unifies the characteristic advantages of matter, energy and information in previous low-level warfare forms, and highly integrates the common forms of material consumption, energy release and information diffusion in war. Unified, it reflects the typical characteristics of intelligent warfare.
Deeply grasp the inner essence of dissipative warfare
Dissipative warfare is based on the real world and covers the virtual world. It adapts to the rapid development of intelligent technology, the rise of non-traditional security threats, and the continuous expansion of war subjects and categories, and presents many new characteristics.
Against comprehensive games. As the form of intelligent warfare accelerates to develop to a higher depth and breadth, the political, economic, cultural, diplomatic and other fields are more interconnected and have more extensive influence. The focus of war begins to shift from the military system to the social system, and the war stakeholders The confrontation will be reflected in various forms of comprehensive games such as political competition, economic competition, military offense and defense, cultural conflicts, and diplomatic checks and balances. The pursuit of war advantages is no longer limited to the field of military confrontation. The winner of the war must adapt to the openness, complexity and emergence requirements of the war system, transform from the extensive consumption and use of single materials, energy and information to the dissipation of the war system dominated by intelligent advantages, and strive to compete in comprehensive games in multiple fields Gain the initiative and advantage.
Subjects are diverse across domains. The subjects of intelligent warfare are becoming increasingly generalized, and the potential war forces that need to be mobilized for traditional warfare will be in a state of normalized confrontation. Political forces, various institutions and personnel, together with the troops and soldiers fighting on the battlefield in the traditional sense, constitute the main body of the war. Diversified war subjects will span the real domain and the virtual domain, appearing in land, sea, air, space, electricity, psychology and other spatial domains, covering the physical domain, information domain, cognitive domain, etc., covering politics, economy, culture, Diplomacy and other social fields. For example, civilians can use smartphones to collect information on military battlefields and pass it on to war stakeholders, causing the spread of key war information, which in turn affects war decisions or the victory or defeat of a campaign or battle.
Strength is gathered into one body. Virtual and real power are integrated. Focusing on the purpose of war, all possible real and virtual forces that may be used will be integrated with the support of intelligent technology, and they will perform their duties and act according to regulations on parallel battlefields; they will be integrated with and without forces. Unmanned combat forces will achieve a high degree of autonomy after going through the stages of manual operation, manual authorization, and human supervision. They can be deployed and combined with various manned forces on demand, and can effectively coordinate and operate in parallel under the constraints of common war rules. Symbiosis; multiple forces integrated into one. Based on the extensive connections in various fields and the common purpose of the war system, the party, government, military, police and civilians and other forces closely coordinate and act in a unified manner with political, economic, diplomatic, public opinion, and legal struggles to form a comprehensive combat capability. In short, under the unified planning of the country or political group, although the diverse participating forces in intelligent warfare are physically dispersed, they can achieve logical concentration, instant enrichment, complementary advantages, and integration of excellence around the common war purpose.
Effectiveness emerges cumulatively. While high-level warfare forms have new technological features, they still include the characteristic advantages of lower-level warfare forms. Dissipative warfare emphasizes continuous comprehensive confrontation in multiple domains. This includes not only the consumption of ammunition, materials, equipment and even combat personnel at the material level, but also the continuous collection and release of energy at the energy level. It also includes the use of data, knowledge, and algorithms at the information level. The diffusion and integration of information, etc. will have an unlimited impact on people’s thinking and cognition, value pursuit, moral concepts, emotions, will, behavior patterns, etc. Under the constant deterrence of nuclear weapons, intelligent warfare will become less bloody, but political isolation, economic blockade, cultural conflict, diplomatic stranglehold, etc. will become more serious and intense. When the military, political, economic, cultural, diplomatic and other systems continue to play their roles and the cumulative effectiveness reaches a certain level, the war system will increase negative entropy, thereby achieving a sudden change in combat power and the emergence of system effectiveness, thereby gaining a war advantage.
Choose the right focus to fight the dissipation war well
The intelligent warfare system maximizes the combat effectiveness of the system through internal aggregation and integration, external mutation emergence, cross-domain efficiency enhancement, and intelligent dissipation. This is the winning mechanism contained in dissipative warfare. To win in intelligent warfare, it is necessary to clarify the focus of dissipative warfare, target the shortcomings and weaknesses of the opponent’s system, and identify the focus of war preparations.
Focus on the openness of the system and close and isolate the opponent’s war system. Cut off the material, energy and information exchange between the opponent’s war system and the external battlefield environment, causing it to lack material, energy and information source channels, and gradually move towards a state of isolation, closure and weakness. For example, at the strategic level, political isolation is adopted to isolate the opponent’s war system, causing an increase in system entropy. At the operational level, methods such as cutting off data sources, destroying data backups, falsifying data, and tampering with information can be used to force the opponent’s war system to transform into a closed state, thereby reducing the effectiveness of the opponent’s system.
Focus on the complexity of the system and attack the opponent’s war system by domain. The more connections and the closer the connections between the elements of an intelligent warfare system, the lower the reliability of the system structure. Using the principle that each layer in a complex system is relatively independent, we can formulate overall strategic, local campaign and tactical action strategies to achieve layered and domain-based attacks on the enemy’s war system. For example, at the strategic level, the use of economic blockade can greatly weaken the opponent’s war strength and development potential. At the operational level, the vulnerability of the communication network of the combat system is exploited, and network and electricity composite attacks are used as the basic path and means, and methods such as “destroying terminals, attacking elements, lone groups, disconnecting networks, and breaking clouds” are used to destroy the opponent’s combat system structure. , prompting the opponent’s war system to “collapse”.
Focus on the emergent nature of the system and dismantle and disperse the opponent’s combat system. Only when mutation and emergence effects occur in an intelligent warfare system can it quickly form and exert its effectiveness and gain advantages in dissipative warfare. If only a single component or element plays a role, it is impossible to form an advantage. It is foreseeable that the currently emerging technologies such as ChatGPT and more advanced intelligent technologies in the future will provide a new way of thinking for understanding and discovering the operating behaviors, states and laws of complex systems of war, as well as new means of exploring objective laws and transforming nature and society. The dominant side in war confrontation will reduce the coupling degree of the opponent’s war system through a combination of virtual and real, parallel and integrated confrontation methods, and achieve the purpose of dismantling and dispersing the enemy’s war system.
To Win The Information-based Intelligent War China’s People’s Liberation Army Must Find Science and Technology Integration Point To Evolve Innovation of Tactics
Find the integration point of theory and technology for innovative tactics
Tactic, that is, combat methods, refers to the strategies and techniques used in combat. To innovate tactics, we must not only think deeply about “strategies”, but also study “techniques”. If there is “strategy” but no “skill”, the mind will be more than sufficient but the strength is insufficient; if there is “skill” but no “strategy”, no matter how hard you try, you will not be able to achieve the goal. It requires both strategic guidance and technical support to be victorious in every battle. To win information-based and intelligent wars and carry out strategic innovation that puts strategy first and wins by outsmarting, we must implement both “policy” and “technique” to effectively solve problems such as the disconnect between theoretical innovation and technological application, and the derailment of combat operations and technological paths.
“Integration” of thinking and cognition. The rapid development of modern science and technology is promoting the evolution of future combat to high-end warfare. It is necessary to seize the theoretical commanding heights and create new technological advantages. In-depth integration of science and technology and innovative tactics are the keys to victory on the battlefield. As the main body of innovation in tactics, military personnel must have a deep understanding of the winning mechanism of modern warfare, root the concept of integrating science and technology, and expand the thinking of integrating science and technology. At present, two outstanding problems and tendencies are worth noting: First, insufficient scientific and technological literacy, which can easily lead to an in-depth understanding of new forms of warfare. Only relying on past experience and routines to study tactics, and which technologies are effective and which technologies in the combat system. I don’t know much about how effective it is, where to start to form a technological advantage over the enemy, what are the technical differences with powerful enemies, how to avoid being suppressed by the enemy’s technology, etc. We emphasize tactics over technology, emphasis on “wisdom” over “intelligence”, and innovative tactics. It seems to work, but in fact it lacks technical support and is highly risky. The second is that the combat needs are not accurately grasped, and the future battlefield scene is not clearly described. Although the technical principles and winning mechanisms are understood, the application of science and technology in combat operations is not known enough, and the decisive role of human subjective initiative in combat effectiveness is ignored. Function, focusing on technology over tactics, researching technology based on technology, or only studying technical performance without considering the application of tactics, or only knowing the efficacy of technology without trying to innovate tactics. In this regard, officers and soldiers should learn, understand, and use science and technology and science and technology personnel should learn military affairs, understand warfare, and study warfare methods in a coordinated and coordinated manner, establish an integration and innovation mechanism for combat technology experts, conduct joint research on winning mechanisms, and collaboratively embed the concept of science and technology integration , interactively help and improve the quality of tactical innovation, form an ideological understanding that combat operations drive the application of science and technology, and use science and technology application to support combat operations, and lay a solid foundation for integrating theory and technology to carry out tactical innovation.
Combat design “integration”. There are never two identical wars in the world. Innovation in tactics can be inherited and learned from, but cannot be copied. At present, the pace of military theoretical innovation is accelerating, advanced science and technology are developing at a rapid pace, and the form of warfare is undergoing profound changes, showing the distinctive characteristics of being mixed, diverse, and unpredictable. Subversive technologies, innovative concepts, and reshaping theories are emerging one after another. Only by integrating science and technology to design future operations can we find and improve the starting point for tactical innovation. We must have the courage to lead the world and break through the stereotypes, use forward-looking and unique perspectives to innovate combat theories, develop and implement combat concepts, conceive combat scenarios, innovate tactics, and first outline the “base map” of the future battlefield. Well, in this way, we can connect the application of modern science and technology and promote the research and development of advanced technology. At the same time, the design of future operations cannot be too far-fetched and “utopian” beyond the limits of science and technology. It should be based on the feasibility of science and technology within a certain period of time, and on the premise of having the support of realistic or foreseeable technology application and having a path for technological implementation, innovate tactics and integrate technology. Interdiction, technological surprise, technological suppression, and technological control are embedded in combat operations.
“Integration” with superior skills. In modern wars, the status of people as the decisive factor has not changed, but the impact of technology on the outcome of wars has become more prominent. The fight for technological victory determines the outcome of wars to a large extent. The use of science and technology must always be embedded in the combat chain and throughout the entire combat process. , use technical effects to support the application of tactics, and use technical advantages to drive combat effectiveness. At present, the main contradiction in the integration of theory and technology in the innovation of tactics is not the lack of theory in technology, but the lack of technology in theory. The most urgent thing is to promote the integration of cutting-edge technology into combat theory. It is necessary to strengthen the substantive integration based on weapons and equipment platforms, focus on activating combat effectiveness to the maximum extent, carry out extensive research on the combat application of equipment based on operational effectiveness release, equipment combat testing and identification, and test the effectiveness of combat operations through simulation deductions and data analysis. , verify the “probability of winning” with “number calculations”. It is necessary to strengthen the in-depth integration of technical means to select “optimal solutions” based on combat tasks. From studying combat opponents and determining action methods to formulating combat plans and organizing confrontation exercises, we must fully consider the technical strength comparison between the enemy and ourselves, and implement asymmetric The operational philosophy takes the superiority of the inferior and the avoidance of the strong to attack the weak as the basic principle, seeks technological suppression and prevents the enemy from suppressing it, seeks technological blockage and prevents the enemy from blocking it, seeks technological subversion and prevents the enemy from subverting it, maximizes the use of technological advantages, and does everything possible. Make every effort to limit the enemy’s technological performance in order to create a favorable situation and support the use of tactics.
Gather wisdom and strength to “integrate”. In the era of informationization and intelligence, both theoretical research and scientific and technological innovation show the remarkable characteristics of open linkage and cross-penetration. The integration of science and technology carries out strategic innovation, and open sharing is an important growth point. Promote the innovation of man-machine integrated tactics, where people use their ingenuity and machines do calculations, and use the calculation results to revise the results of tactics, and realize the integration of science and technology in human-computer interaction; promote the innovation of team-based tactics for finger-technical talents, and form a ” A mixed group of “scientists + commanders” and “combatants + technicians” implements joint debugging and testing, joint exercises and training, and joint calculations and calculations, and seeks joint victory with the scientific nature of tactics and advanced technology; promotes open source and mass Tactics innovation, integration within and outside the military, online and offline interaction, with a broader vision and more flexible form, pool the wisdom of officers and soldiers and various professional talents to carry out “makers” in the field of tactics innovation “Activities, develop and gather new tactics “resource pools” and “results libraries” to achieve maximum benefits from the integration of science and technology.
Practice iterative “integration”. Theoretical achievements have been tested and sublimated in practical applications, and scientific and technological means have demonstrated their functions and benefits in combat operations. Innovation in tactics is not something that can be accomplished in a day, and the integration of science and technology should also be iteratively progressed and developed on a rolling basis. It is necessary to focus on the integrated application of information technology and intelligent technology, to virtually construct future combat scenarios, and to innovate tactics while feeling and experiencing the intelligent combat environment; it is necessary to carry out in-depth virtual simulation demonstrations of the innovative results of tactics, and fully verify them through virtual experiments and simulation tests. The feasibility of tactical design and the effectiveness of combat operations; technical performance testing must be carried out in conjunction with drills and training activities, and the efficacy and flaws of technical applications must be fully tested by analyzing the actual energy collection and release of weapons, equipment and information systems. Therefore, problems can be discovered and solved dynamically during review discussions, repeated demonstrations, and data testing, and we can modify theories where the theory is not applicable and upgrade technologies where technology is not feasible, so that tactics can introduce new field technologies, and technology can subvert traditional tactics and achieve success. The organic combination of technology and combat continues to promote the spiral and rolling development of tactical innovation.
In late April, the Institute of War Research of the Academy of Military Sciences successfully completed the submission of project demonstration proposals for two major combat issue research projects. This is a concrete practice of the institute focusing on fulfilling its core functions and always aiming at scientific research and preparation for war.
The War Research Institute is a scientific research institution specializing in the study and design of war in the entire military. As a newly established unit, the main characteristics of their scientific research work are many major tasks, many temporary tasks, and many demonstration and application tasks. At the beginning of the year, in response to the actual situation where there were few people and urgent tasks and scientific research tasks were being pushed forward, the party committee of the institute put the scientific research work aimed at strengthening the army and winning the war in an important position in accordance with the combat effectiveness standards. Based on the criteria of urgent need for war preparation, urgent need for war, and urgent need of troops, they adjusted and established key scientific research tasks in the research of war and combat issues, and the compilation of doctrines and regulations, etc., and reduced more than 10 topics that deviated from their main responsibilities and main business, and added new A batch of research on war forms, combat styles and other topics focusing on war preparation and combat were carried out. According to the leader of the institute, the party committee of the institute requires team members to both take command and go out on major scientific research tasks, so that the main energy should be devoted to key tasks, and force allocation and financial support should be tilted towards combat research.
At the same time, the institute continues to deepen the collaborative research of “small core and large periphery” and continuously innovates the scientific research organization model. They carry out “bundled” research by military theoretical personnel and military scientific and technological personnel within the institute to break down barriers to scientific research; they exchange experts with sister units such as the Military Medical Research Institute and the National Defense Engineering Research Institute to participate in major project research to achieve complementary advantages; organize scientific research Personnel participate in various major exercises and training activities to identify scientific research needs; multilateral military exchange activities are held to keep scientific researchers informed of the latest military science and technology trends. In addition, they also actively cooperate with local scientific research institutes to use local high-quality scientific research resources for their own use, forming a closed loop of researching war, designing war, operating war, and verifying war.
Since last year, the institute has completed more than 100 scientific research projects, made important breakthroughs in the development of core operational concepts and joint operational experiments, submitted more than 60 national high-end think tank research reports and important issue assessment reports, and launched a number of strategies. Innovative results that are highly innovative, original and forward-looking.
With the development of psychological warfare, cyber warfare, social media warfare, cognitive warfare and other theories and their application in combat practice, the competition for military discourse power has become increasingly fierce. Using language as a weapon, a strong narrative can not only suppress the opponent to form discourse dominance, but also subtly shape the opponent’s thinking habits, guide the opponent to follow suit, and form an asymmetric advantage in discourse, thereby achieving “conceptual attack.”
Narrative can strangle the “throat” of military theory
Language is also a weapon. In addition to using hard means such as aircraft and tanks, military struggles can also use language and rhetoric as a means to achieve military goals. Unlike discourse, narrative is broader. Recognizing the connotation and characteristics of military narratives is of great significance to constructing future military theories.
Language is a loaded pistol. “Narrative warfare” refers to military theoretical innovation and competition that uses language as a weapon and aims to dominate the world’s military discourse. According to the goal, it can be divided into offensive narrative, defensive narrative and deterrent narrative. According to the means, it can be divided into operational concept narrative, military theory narrative, military discourse narrative, military rhetoric narrative, etc. The content involves not only the narrative of national defense and army construction and military strategy, but also the narrative of operational concepts at the strategic, operational, and tactical levels. It also includes the authoritative formulation and agenda setting of operational standards and operational rules. Grasping narrative dominance is the prerequisite and foundation for winning the cognitive war. By grasping the dominance of narrative, we also grasp the initiative and leadership of the international ideological struggle, and then gain the dominance of military discourse.
Successful narratives require appeal. Rather than strictly logical arguments, narrative engages the audience through a compelling story, as was the case with the German “Blitzkrieg” myth of World War II. This unexpected tactic was actually a replica of the “Hutier tactics” or “infiltration tactics” in the late World War I. However, under the gorgeous packaging of the military circles and various media, it quickly became the “magic” that allowed Germany to sweep across Europe. Currently, all branches of the U.S. military are launching dazzling combat concepts. Although many of them are refurbishments and packaging of previous combat ideas, this marketing method with a “concept stock” meaning has successfully attracted the attention and pursuit of the world’s military circles. , and even influenced the direction of military reforms and the formulation of military doctrines in other countries.
Narrative is the “designer” of military development
Narrative is not only the thinking thread in the minds of theoretical researchers, but also the reporting style in the media. It constitutes the habit of theoretical research internally, and it becomes the writing standard for describing opponents externally, involving theories, concepts, propaganda, rhetorical techniques and many other contents. . The way narrative works in the military can therefore be understood in four ways.
The operational concept narrative affects future military construction and development. The combat concept is not only a combat concept, but also a weapon and combat method. The narrative competition of operational concepts has led both combatants to pursue the co-evolution of the application of military technology and operational methods, striving to bring the operational concepts, methods and means of both sides to a similar level. When there is a huge gap in national military strength, the more powerful country strives to dominate the design of the battlefield and achieve dimensionality reduction against combat opponents. When the gap in national military strength is not obvious, the outcome of the game of combat concepts between the two sides may be chaotic and unknown. All parties tried their best to fully describe possible combat methods and means within the framework of the times. In the “narrative war” where operational concepts come and go, new methods of warfare will eventually be born in the “brainstorming” of military theorists on both sides, finalized in training practices, and finally tested in battlefield duels.
Military theoretical narratives can influence the formulation of military strategies. Military theoretical narrative helps to determine national security interests, identify actual and potential threats, and also helps to plan national defense and military development strategies in a targeted manner. For example, the proposal of Mahan’s “Sea Power Theory” not only effectively met the country’s naval development needs, but also became an important ideological source for countries to compete for maritime interests and develop maritime power after World War II. The U.S. military’s narrative of high-tech warfare since the 1990s has led the world’s new wave of military revolution and brought about major changes in weapons, equipment, and troop establishment systems. In recent years, the US military has successively proposed new operational concepts such as “multi-domain warfare” and “distributed maritime operations”, reflecting its intention to continue to occupy the forefront of world military development and lead the direction of military transformation with the help of advanced operational concepts.
Military discourse narratives can shape the military cognitive environment. By constructing terminology, military discourse sets the agenda for military theoretical content, shapes the military context, internalizes the opponent’s thinking direction, allows them to recognize the combat environment and combat methods within the established military framework, and then creates a familiar combat ” Script”, allowing the opponent to fall into it without knowing it. For example, the U.S. military’s numerous operational concepts not only serve the needs of competing interests of the service, but also involve trial-and-error operational concept deductions. They also intentionally or unintentionally create “conceptual traps” for opponents.
Military narrative can dominate the discourse and confuse right and wrong. Through discourse techniques such as noun construction, strong narrators can make new expressions of existing concepts, blurring people’s understanding of the original concepts, and forming a strong discourse that suppresses weak discourse. Through high-profile propaganda, one-sided interpretation, beautifying packaging, and selective use of policies and regulations, it not only demonizes opponents, but also demonstrates the “justice” and “legitimation” of the powerful narrator’s own actions. In recent years, Western countries have transformed the political language narrative model in the ideological field into military discourse power for export, and covertly embedded value evaluations into military-level narratives. For example, when describing combat operations of the same nature, Western countries themselves will use neutral and just terms such as “low-intensity war” and “freedom of navigation operations”, but disparage other countries’ operations as “gray zone operations.”
Good at competing for “microphone” dominance
From the content point of view, narrative belongs to the category of language art and is not mysterious. On the basis of understanding its characteristics and mode of action, how to win victory in the struggle dimension of military narrative is an important theoretical and practical issue before us. The author believes that when fighting for dominance in “narrative warfare”, four principles should be paid attention to.
Pay attention to tailor-made services to serve the national strategy. The military is subordinate to politics. The military narrative cannot be arbitrary and must be consistent with the national strategic narrative, otherwise the split between the two will seriously damage national security interests. On the eve of World War II, the defensive military narrative represented by the “Maginot Line” pursued by France was unable to support its political alliance strategic system with Eastern European countries, causing France to lose its credible ability to respond to the German threat. Therefore, the importance of military narratives revolves around the national strategic goals of “using local materials” and “you fight yours, and I fight mine.” Combat concepts such as “Sparrow Warfare”, “Single-Group Warfare” and “Small Group Multi-Road Warfare” in the history of our army have strongly supported our army’s combat practice. Nowadays, the Russian military has creatively developed the “hybrid warfare” theory based on its own actual conditions, seeking a combat method that is completely different from the US military but suitable for Russian characteristics, and has effectively safeguarded its national strategic interests in operations such as the Russia-Georgia conflict.
Cleverly dismantle words to create reverse narratives. Word construction is to make new expressions of existing concepts and blur the understanding of original concepts, so as to achieve the purpose of guiding public opinion. It is one of the commonly used means to build a discourse system. A large number of so-called new combat concepts in the US military today are often old wine in new bottles. For example, “distributed maritime operations” is actually a linguistic upgrade of “dispersed forces” or “wolf pack tactics” borrowing concepts from the cyber domain, while “maritime expeditionary base operations” are a waste of “island hopping tactics”. When dealing with these operational concepts, we must not follow others’ opinions. Critical thinking should be used to squeeze out the moisture in the narrative of the combat concept through reverse narrative, and see through the clouds and fog to see the true face.
Actively seize cognitive space and resist narrative hegemony. The ultimate goal of “narrative warfare” is to seize the right to speak and control the brain in the cognitive field. Nowadays, the Internet is the main battlefield for narrative, and self-media, social networks, live videos, etc. are important platforms for cognitive confrontation and “narrative warfare.” Relying on the advantage of occupying the commanding heights of global public opinion, Western military powers use a set of hegemonic rhetoric to construct a system of values and standards that serve capital interests and maintain hegemonic status, forming a selective narrative orientation that favors cyber hegemons. In this unfavorable narrative environment, we should focus on exploring the means of discourse in the weak narrative space, construct a discourse linkage mechanism in narrative platforms such as media and think tanks, gradually expand the narrative space, and win more social recognition, more public favor, and Influence.
Avoid falling into the narrative trap of operational concepts. Being advanced in operational concepts does not mean leading in military strength. In war duels, combat concepts are never the winning weapon, let alone the outcome of the war. The several wars launched by the United States after the Cold War all relied on absolute asymmetric advantages to defeat the weak with the strong and win with the superior. The code behind this is: strength + new combat concepts. Which of these is the decisive factor remains to be discussed. Therefore, we should avoid falling into the narrative trap of our opponents’ operational concepts, and avoid being led by our opponents to pursue innovations in operational concepts, leading to being led astray. We must adhere to the principle of “you fight yours and I fight mine”, use a clear mind and rational thinking to seek a military theoretical narrative with Chinese characteristics, and develop excellent “internal strength” to defeat powerful enemies.
