Pakistan’s entering 5th generation warfare has exposed a number of weaknesses inherent to the state security apparatus. On a central footing, most of these failings stem from a fundamental misunderstanding of the modes of tactically conducting such skirmishes within cyberspace; shortcomings that continue to be exploited routinely by what is often construed as the ‘wily’ eastern neighbour.
Simply put, 5th generation warfare overtly relies on the public disseminating medium of the Internet to carry out its propagandist wares. These tactical onslaughts are strategically subtle in their approach, cashing in on the target’s innate (subliminal) weakness at effectively discriminating between literature (TV, film, music, print media, and other popular culture artifacts) issues from its domestic discursive field and those intentionally perpetuated by an aggressing state bent upon changing the former’s perceptual narrative as espoused by both resident citizens as well as the members of the global polity.
Humanist discourse, when conflated insidiously with propagandist tinkering (as attested to by the lessons of the Cold War), wields a potent influence on the non-discerning and the impressionable. It tricks the human target’s psychological ‘soft spots’ into believing in the projected humanity of the perpetrator; endowing the latter with an additional layer of cognitive shielding in the eyes of the commoner.
During ‘hot’ warfare scenarios, which see heavy troop deployments in combat zones, this perceptual framework allows the issuing state to receive relatively little dissonance flak from outside purveyors of the conflict. These spectating bodies can be aid agencies and international relief effort concerns which, following effective initiation, would potentially be more easily swayed into adopting a strategic, aggressor-sponsoring, course than in the opposite case (which would comprise no rendering of a similarly indoctrinating effort from any side).
Currently, one of the most effective strategies deployed by combat headquarters in both military and civilian intelligence quarters has to do with establishing thought leadership in all knowledge areas of popular national inquiry. Practically, this entails government agencies compiling a list of strategically important semantic keywords from a number of well-frequented online forums and then producing expert content samples centered on their defining themes. The dialogical briefs employed in their crafting are geared towards narrative shifting/reframing, in a broad-based effort to steer the conversation within a specific locus and toward the pursuit of a decided endpoint.
These content forms encompass viral spread over all available digital propagation mediums; specifically those that receive significant visitor footfall within ever-shortened timespans.
The endeavour requires an expansiveness of vision and understanding which is currently lacking in both military and elected government top cadres. So as a launch prescription, to channel progress in the right direction, a top-down organizational programme of strategic awareness comes highly recommended for initiation on a priority basis; followed by, in logical conclusion, an initiative of pragmatic feedback redressal.
Recently, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) began to dabble in the media-fronted corollary of information warfare, a tactic enabled, in its efficacy, to a large degree by the persistent press and media censorship forced on private avenues of entertainment publication. An ARY Digital production titled Aik Hai Nigar, eponymously named after the current Surgeon General of the Pakistan Army (a three-star career officer), is the latest exemplar of this trend; showcasing the efficacy of the state media machine in communicating nationalistic tropes, often bared unapologetically; unconcerned with the expected dissecting takes of cultural theorists, for the consumption of unsuspecting audiences.
As a testament to the said telefilm’s impact, a recent poll conducted by Reuters Pakistan revealed a significant upswing in the number of intermediate students applying for preferential induction in the Army Medical Corps. And to add further insult to injury, when judged from the foe nation’s standpoint, even the Indian mainstream media picked up on the current; adulating the good general, the first Pakistani female to reach the coveted office, to its own propagandist detriment; fanning the flames of celebrity across borders.
The ISPR, in recent years, has also released a number of ‘patriotic’ clamour-songs, disseminated by force, in some instances, on the local (private) airways. As a countermeasure to the rising popularity of its initiated stratagems, the Indian side, capitalizing on its best resources (in line with historical precedent), has resorted to the arena of Bollywood film and song-making to check the one-sided tide. But this attempt, inspired as it is by patriotic design, has done little to foster much public endorsement to its open cause; mostly because of the narratological nature of the Indian media fraternity.
The average Indian, simply put, is more interested in taking stock of the fictional romanticization/ perpetrated by plot characters on a personal footing .typical of Bollywood productions than in absorbing the thrust of state machinations inherent to the same issues.
From the Pakistani side, however, this message-absorption disability provides little cause for complacent jubilation; because the enemy is still in charge of the offensive. So in order to address this concern, a number of local content production agencies, euphemistically referred to as ‘Think Tanks’, have started orchestrating a well-formulated plan of virtual astroturfing based on digital marketing best practices. Narrowly, a lot of their effort is presently vested into compiling lengthy lists of niche keywords with high search volumes and relatively little ranking difficulty; which are then meticulously seeped into publishings carried on popular digital news avenues.
So far, this occupation has borne a lot of low-lying fruit; with a number of international media outlets even carrying the same pieces for ‘authoritative’ current affairs explication on their platforms. The opposite side is still working on rebounding from these scores, which include such Pakistan-sided narrative scoops as the CNN, ABC, NBC, and (surprisingly) FOX International ‘specials’, recently aired, on the Kashmir Issue, nuclear non-proliferation, the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, and ongoing Pakistan Government-Tehrik Takiban Pakistan talks, among the region’s other sociopolitically pressing affairs.
The continued success of Pakistan’s fifth generation warfare effort, if we are to be honest in our consideration, is predicated on the state’s continuation of a field-discerning policy tethered to constant targeting innovation. These ends require both a knowledge-seeking and skills acculturation approach, to be fomented as part of the going disposition of field analysts and executives tasked with seeing to their fruition.
Overall, the endeavour requires an expansiveness of vision and understanding which is currently lacking in both military and elected government top cadres. So as a launch prescription, to channel progress in the right direction, a top-down organizational programme of strategic awareness comes highly recommended for initiation on a priority basis; followed by, in logical conclusion, an initiative of pragmatic feedback redressal.
Because it is (as they say) only after we get our own house in order that we can think of tarnishing the abode of the usurper. The homefront would be well advised to take this assessment under consideration; if it is indeed strategic thought dominance that is the endpoint here.
