CLAUSEWITZ, LORD KRISHNA, AND THE CLOUD WARFARE IN THE AGE OF EMOTION AND DECEPTION

In his lecture on “Future Wars and Warfare” at Pune, General Anil Chauhan, India’s Chief of Defence Staff, reminded the nation that Clausewitz’s timeless trinity—emotion, reason, and chance—remains the bedrock of warfare.

- Maj Gen Sanjeev Dogra (Retd)

Today, however, this trinity operates not just on battlefields, but in feeds, frames, and fractured attention spans. Wars are no longer declared by formal communiqués—they simmer and spread through sentiment, shaped in real-time by social media, memes, and manipulated emotion. It is in this crucible of perception that modern war is forged.

Clausewitz assigned emotion to the people, reason to the state, and uncertainty to the military. Today, emotion has been weaponized. Outrage, grief, and fear spread at the speed of algorithms, often forcing policy reactions before facts emerge. Managing narrative is no longer optional—it is a strategic imperative.

This idea isn’t new. On the battlefield of Kurukshetra, Lord Krishna didn’t arm Arjuna with new weapons but with a new worldview. He reoriented Arjuna’s emotional compass, transforming doubt into purpose. This wasn’t divine intervention—it was narrative warfare: reshaping perception to reinforce willpower.