The Wars of 21st Century So Far: Operational Lessons

Chairperson: Dr S Kalyanaraman
Discussants: Professor Srinath Raghavan, Sq Ldr RTS Chhina and Wg Cdr Gregory Hammond, RAF

Examining the wars of the 21st century – Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Georgia and Libya, as well as the new trend of Cyber War – the paper argued the use force will continue to be a factor in international relations. Col. Gautam noted that the lessons to be learnt from the Afghanistan and Iraq war are in terms of the importance of close contact battles, the role of air power including close air support, UAVs, Special Forces, academics in policy making, human terrain mapping, and inadequacies of the Revolution in Military Affairs for land battle.

The Lebanon War has taught several lessons to Israel like the core competence involved in combined versus jointmanship, plasma effect, and superficial intellectualization. The Russo-Georgia War has imparted lessons at the tactical level, close air support by the air force and basic training including SEAD and electronic warfare operations. Further, the implementation of Tactical Command, Control, Communications and Information (TC3I) has faced excruciating delays given stiff resistance from certain quarters due to narrow vested interests of intra-army regiments and corps. Military reforms in Russia have led to a change in civil-military relations.

In the section on Cyber War, the paper emphasised that the internet is becoming important just as air, water and food, and is also leading to the increasing vulnerability associated with a “risk society”. Stuxnet 2010 is a recent example of Cyber War. In Libya, the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1973 authorised the protection of civilians, but specifically ruled out the use of ground forces. As a result, the alliance in effect became the insurgent’s air arm.

Some of the consolidated lessons learnt from these wars were:

1. Intelligence has crept in as the 11th Principal of War.
2. The importance of a central Organization to overseas RMA, Transformation and Network Centric Warfare.
3. The importance of the use of minimum force
4. The need to decrease procurement.

Major Points Raised During the Discussion

• Although the study is very important particularly for the Indian Army, its ambit is too vast for a single paper. Further, an inter-disciplinary understanding of the issues involved is necessary.
• It was suggested that the structural discrepancies need to be looked at to make the paper more comprehensive. Lessons can be presented in a consolidated format.
• The paper is more in the nature of a study of the principles of war rather than an empirical study of the wars of the 21st century.
• There is a lack of understanding of the character of war.
• It is important to focus on the political context of war and the important role that political leaders played with respect to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
• Modern Warfare is also a battle of narratives. Strategic communications is important for shaping popular opinion and this aspect played a key role in Afghanistan and Iraq.
• Cyber Warfare is being discussed using the vocabulary of traditional warfare.
• Lessons for India are important; however the paper’s contextualisation of these lessons is limited.
• Cyber Warfare is likely to play a key role in future conventional war. The Russian experience in Cyber Warfare suggests that the targets of attack should be clear. Given changing methods in wars, the principle of proportionality is also being used in cyber warfare.
• Cyber Warfare is likely to bring down the operational cost of war.
• The aspect of winning the peace is extremely important and needs to be factored in.
• It is also important to bring out the lessons in terms of fighting in a populated environment and how far lethal weapons can be employed in such contexts.
• The paper can be divided into two sections, one focusing on the analysis of the wars and the second about applying these lessons in the Indian context. Further, the case studies should be concise and more emphasis should be placed on learning from our own internal conflicts.

Report prepared by Soumya Tiwari, Research Intern, IDSA