Land Control in the Age of Information Warfare, Breakthrough in QKD, Strategic Deception in Cognitive Warfare
Issue 30, 9 May 2022
I. Military and Warfare
Land Control in the Age of Information Warfare
When wars are fought, taking control of land or adversary’s territory is an important marker of the advances and victories. But in information warfare, where the fight is for intangible space and minds of people, how does the control over physical land factor in? Gao Kai and Chen Cheng (affiliation unknown) explain how land is still important in the era of information warfare.
Authors assert that in the age of information warfare, new three rights have emerged. These are:
Right to control information
Right to control intellectual property
Right to control cognition
Authors assert that land control still matters in the era of information warfare because of three reasons:
Control over land ensures comprehensive control - Since the command center, support resources, and technical personnel are still on land, security, and control on land means the security of operations.
Control over land ensures systemic confrontation - As authors have pointed out, "no matter how the strategic pattern and the form of war evolve, the land area is still an important area that determines the outcome of a war, and land control will still be a systemic confrontation." The land system is also effective to reduce the "entropy" of the system and ensure that the "entropy value" of each system within the system is the lowest.
Controlling land becomes the foundation of victory and defeat - Writers have acknowledged the importance of obtaining control over land as an important factor in defining victory.
Further, the way control over land is viewed in the intelligent era is also changing in the following ways (excerpts from article):
Expansion from flat land system to a three-dimensional land system: The acquisition of land control in modern warfare is no longer a "patented" project of the Army, but a joint power seizure operation by various services and arms.
Expansion from traditional land control to new quality land control: "With the advent of precision operations and multi-domain operations, long-distance combat forces such as army aviation, special warfare, and long-range fire will become the focus of army construction in various countries, and will gradually become the protagonists of future land based battlefields."
Expansion from "visible" land control to "invisible" land control: Modern War is affected by the mixed constraints of the physical domain, the information domain, and the cognitive domain. In modern warfare dominated by information and intelligence, the land battlefield is not only a wrestling field for the release of mechanical, chemical, and other tangible energies, but also an arena in which invisible forces such as information and cognition will inevitably promote the expansion of the competition for land control from "tangible" land control to "invisible" land control.
Expansion from manned land to unmanned land: Refers to acquiring control of land using unmanned systems.
Lastly, Gao and Chen emphasize that controlling land in the intelligent era requires multi-domain policies. To do that,
First, gather elite troops to control the land locally.
Second, quickly and accurately control the land with wide-area firepower.
Third, to build a network, build a chain, and control the land in multiple domains.
Fourth, control the entire cognitive domain.
Another interesting article written in 2019 by Xu Yan and Fu Wanjuan (affiliation) on concepts of control and power in the information war. Full text in Manadrin Chinese - "What kind of view of control and power should be in the information war".
Strategic Deception in Cognitive Warfare
Strategic deception refers to the manipulation of perceptions to gain an advantage over an adversary. Authors Chen Xiaoqian, Xin Song, and Qiu Hao have explained the importance of strategic deception in cognitive warfare. The following excerpt from the article sums up key arguments.
"Strategic deception is an important means to achieve political and military goals and maintain the security of strategic decision-making. It is an important form of cognitive confrontation. It has become a powerful weapon to seize the strategic initiative and improve strategic positions.
Historical practice shows that strategic deception serving the grand strategy can often deceive the opponent in making decisions, consume the opponent's energy, delay the opponent's time, divide the opponent's alliance, and even have the effect of affecting the game trend." (战略欺骗是实现政治军事目的、维护战略决策安全的重要手段，是认知对抗的重要表现形式，已成为夺取战略主动权、改善战略势位的有力武器。历史实践表明，为大战略服务的战略欺骗往往能够诱骗对手决策、消耗对手精力、迟滞对手时间、分化对手联盟，甚至产生影响博弈走势的效果。)
So, the article is long, but the key takeaways are:
Strategic deception offers a better return and cost advantage over other methods
Intelligent systems play an important role in providing strategic advantage, especially with algorithmic warfare and data warfare.
Strategic deception can be obtained using decoys and peripheral penetration using methods like social informatization and cognitive networking.
The key to whether the strategic deception operation can achieve the strategic purpose mainly consists of five steps:
Analyzing the situation and tasks
Confirming the target of the deception action
Analyzing the cognition and behavioral expectations of the deceived object
Designing the deception complex
Confirming the feedback channel and feasible alternatives
Cognitive modeling can help design an appropriate strategic deception.
Deepfake technology and virtual reality can facilitate dynamic strategic deception targeted toward a specific person.
II. SinoSync
Quantum Key Distribution
In a continuing series of breakthroughs in quantum technology, Chinese scientists have reportedly achieved quantum key distribution over 658 km fiber. According to Chinese media, this sets a new distance record for quantum key distribution. The research paper on Twin-field quantum key distribution (TFQKD) was published in the peer-reviewed journal Physics Review Letters. Here is the link to the full paper.
Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) is a secure communication method that works on principles of Quantum Mechanics.
Nebula-M Aircraft
A Chinese aerospace company's self-developed aircraft "Nebula-M" successfully completed a 1-km vertical takeoff, vertical landing (VTVL) test recently. This reportedly marks China's breakthrough in the development of reusable rockets and a solid step towards the rocket's orbit launch and recovery.
There are some stories from China's tech field. These are not from Mandarin Chinese sources, but important nonetheless.
Chinese Tech Giants Quietly Retreat From Doing Business With Russia (Read Issue 28 of China Tech dispatch to know why this is relevant.)
Ameya Paleja has written about a drone swarm developed by researchers at the Zhejiang University in China. This drone swarm can fly through uncontrolled environments like forests autonomously.
Policy Reversal on Big Tech? The Chinese government is possibly planning new policies to support Big Tech platforms. If true, this would be a change from the policy of crackdown and regulatory tightening going on for the last two years. This messaging comes after the Politburo meeting of the Communist Party of China (CPC). Read the SCMP report by Tracy Qu.
III. Before You Go
I recently had a discussion on PLA Navy's 73rd anniversary with my friend and former colleague Suyash Desai. Check out our podcast episode on All things Policy.
To those who are interested in PLA, I highly recommend reading Suyash Desai's newsletter "PLA Bulletin." Here is the latest edition.
Megha Pardhi is a Research Analyst at The Takshashila Institution. She tweets at @pardhimegha21.