Modern Technology and Old-School Spycraft Are Redefining War

Ukraine's strike against Russian bomber fleet, Israel's decapitation of Hezbollah herald the transformation of warfare

- Yaroslav Trofimov, Drew Hinshaw & Joe Parkinson

Deception, infiltration, and spycraft have played a major role in warfare at least since the ancient Greeks gifted a wooden horse to the citizens of Troy.

In more recent times, such operations rarely had a strategic effect, but the spectacular operations of Israeli intelligence against Hezbollah in Lebanon last fall and of Ukraine against Russia's strategic bomber fleet last weekend have brought them back to the forefront of conflict in the 21st century.

Both showed how technological advances—such as drones, communications networks, and smaller but more powerful batteries and explosives—can potentially alter the course of a war when they are coupled with superior tradecraft.

"Technology today allows you many new possibilities: There is a larger surface where you can actually detect places where your enemy is vulnerable due to the fact that you can bypass a lot of physical barriers that in the past you couldn't bypass," said Eyal Tsir Cohen, a former senior division director of Israel's Mossad intelligence service.

Yet, he added, many of the same technologies can also empower one's opponents. "It always works both ways—it depends on which side is more sophisticated in exploiting the vulnerabilities of the other side," Cohen said. "You need good people to work with technology—technology rides on the shoulders of the human factor and not vice versa."

Ultimately, success in this rapidly changing world depends on the ability to anticipate the new opportunities—something that big powers such as Russia and perhaps the U.S., can be slow to understand as the very nature of warfare evolves.