The Third Eye: New shades of 'proxy war'

Wars were always fought outside of the 'battlefield' as wellthrough the classic operations of Espionage, Sabotage and Subversion conducted "covertly".

- DC PATHAK

'Open warfare' was always supplemented by Intelligence efforts to assess the strength and war plans of the enemy.

Post-Cold War, the world has seemingly passed into the era of “proxy wars", in which militants and terrorists could be secretly infiltrated with weapons into the enemy territory where they would covertly plan to carry out attacks on strategic and military assets of the adversary, causing them substantial damage. This was also termed as an "asymmetric war".

edge economy".

IT Revolution set the pace for 'Information Wars' of which 'Influence' operations are a part. Influence warfare is a strategic instrument that uses information and communication technologies to manipulate perceptions, shape public responses and achieve political and defense objectives, often without a direct military confrontation.

It involves influencing public opinion to undermine the adversary's legitimacy. This is done through "narrative building", disinformation and cyber operations.

In India's experience, social media is used by opponents at home and the adversaries abroad-particularly by the Sino-Pak axis, to run down the government and sully the country's image internationally.