by Lieutenant Colonel Ehsan Mehmood Khan
Download the full article: Information Sharing for Irregular Warfare
A sturdy string of irregular warfare is the planet holding tight today. From Palestine to the Philippines, Columbia to Cambodia, and N. Ireland to India, the non-state irregular militant groups (IMGs) are waging resilient irregular war in face of a Technowar in James Gibson's terms. These groups are fighting under three main banners: Islamic groups engaged in Palestine, Somalia, Yemen, Chechnya, Dagestan, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Thailand and the Philippines; communist groups in Peru, Columbia, India, Nepal, Thailand and the Philippines; and local centrifugal groups such as the Irish Republican Army (IRA) in the UK, Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA) in the Basque region of Spain, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in Sri Lanka, and various national and sub-national groups in Africa (in République Démocratique du Congo e.g.).
Irregular war is fought in the population battlefield and hence involves abundant non-kinetic tools alongside the kinetic ones. Kinetic means are used in brawls between state armies and the IMGs, while non-kinetic means are used not only to strike the opponents but also to engage the people in order to align them with IMGs and alienate them from opponents. The irregular warfare phenomenon is turning so complex with each click-of-the-clock that strategists and theorists of our age are aptly terming it as a "New War". While it has not lost the weight and value of military ascendancy, and thus the utility of force in conventional terms, the currency of confrontation is now information, not ball ammunition, as advocated by General Sir Rupert Smith.
As time elapses, irregular war turns into a war of ideas fought in physical, moral, psychological and information battlespaces. Numerous ideas and notions start occupying the information landscape further complicating an already complex environment. When nation states attempt to spread their side of the truth in order to keep the population on a path to normalcy, the IMGs insert new facts within the existing facts in order to win the contest of legitimacy in keeping with their mass line strategy. The information environment is further compounded if foreign forces are also involved militarily in a state or region (ISAF in Afghanistan e.g.). At any rate, the importance of ascendancy in the information space is times more than kinetic superiority as the bullet once fired cannot come back but the words continue to echo in the information space for generations to come.
Download the full article: Information Sharing for Irregular Warfare
Lieutenant Colonel Ehsan Mehmood Khan hails from Pakistan and is pursuing a Masters in Strategic Security Studies at National Defense University, Washington D.C. His research papers and op-eds frequently appear in prestigious military magazines and national newspapers. He writes on current affairs, security issues and military strategy.
