Narrative Warfare, Drones for Maritime Operations, Military Theory in Information Age

Issue 11, 13 Dec 2021

I. Military and Warfare

Language as a weapon - Narrative Warfare (叙事战)

This article in PLA Daily written by Shen Wenke and Xue Yanxing is about the importance of "Narrative Warfare" (叙事战) and equates language to a weapon and as a prerequisite for cognitive warfare. Successful narratives and concepts are attractive. Of course, the author warns against mindless copying of concepts and not falling into "concept traps" since a lot of rebranding has been done in name of new strategies and concepts. For example, the author notes the concept of "blitzkrieg" was a rebranding of the "Hutier" or "infiltration" tactic.

The authors divide narrative warfare (叙事战) into three types (based on objective):

• Offensive narrative (进攻性叙事)

• Defensive narrative (防御性叙事)

• Narrative as a deterrent ( 威慑性叙事)

Division of narrative warfare (叙事战) based on means:

• Combat concepts narrative (作战概念叙事)

• Military theory narrative (军事理论叙事)

• Military discourse narrative (军事话语叙事)

• Military deceptive language narrative (军事话术叙事)

 Narrative power works for the military in four ways:

• Combat concept narrative influences the future military construction and development.

• The narrative of military theory can influence the formulation of military strategy.

• Military discourse narration can shape the military cognitive environment.

• Military narratives can dominate the power of discourse.

Idea of using language as a weapon is not new. The propaganda departments of all countries involved in war try to weaken the opponent's civilian and military will to fight. For example, during WWII the US aircraft would drop leaflets in enemy territory with coupons providing "safe passage" for those who would surrender. The leaflets would also warn citizens of enemy states of the incoming bombing. The motive was to create fear among the citizen and affect the morale of the enemy troops. Similar attempts were made using all types of communication methods like TV and radio. (Read Propaganda: The Art of Persuasion in World War II by Anthony Rhodes for more such examples).

In the age of the internet, leaflets and radio have been replaced by social media. One does not need a squadron of aircraft to carry out propaganda, a click of a button can do that now. Propaganda is always an important, but supplementary war effort.

What strikes me differently in this article is how the language as a weapon has been talked about as a part of "warfare", not as a supplementary effort. Classifying narrative warfare as "offensive", "defensive", and "deterrent" underlines the emphasis being placed on developing narratives along with the actual combat capabilities.

Let's entertain this classification for a moment. So the offensive narrative could be the one targeted against the opponents of PLA. Let's say the military of Taiwan and India. The defensive narrative could then prevent Chinese citizens from reading and influenced by the opponent's propaganda.

How can narrative be used as a deterrent? Thoughts ?

Improving Battlefield Situation Awareness

This article by Xu Jingcheng and Liu Jianmin considers a future where unmanned mixed formations will become mainstream and make the battlefield coordination situation more complicated. In such a situation, decision-making time is sharply reduced. The authors suggest the following options to improve situational awareness on the battlefield:

• Improve information processing capabilities

• Convert information advantage to decision making advantage - process and analyze a large amount of data quickly

• Ability to shape battlefield situation - should be able to predict the trend and direction of the battlefield development. Simulate real-time battlefield situations using advanced simulation technology

Use of Drones in Maritime Warfare

Next, we have an article written by Xu Hao, Zheng Longxin, and Lu Zhiming (affiliation not given) on the importance of drones in the maritime domain, especially for joint maritime operations.

• First mover advantage: Drones can be sent before combat forces and with integrated reconnaissance, surveillance, attack, and evaluation functions. Using drones, one can prioritize, concentrate forces for actions, and control the rhythm of actions. 

• Payload selectivity and flexibility: Drones can be modified with specialized payloads as per the operation. 

• Cross-domain collaboration and overall control of enemy: This can be achieved via planned coordination and supplemented with ad-hoc coordination and independent coordination. 

• Strengthen protection: Joint maritime operations can be protected better with a decentralized configuration of drones, integration with technical warfare, and improving the precision of drones. 

The use cases to similar to that inland combat situations. However, the power endurance of the drone will be an important factor to consider in maritime operations. The salty water and the corrosive atmosphere of the sea might also affect the durability of the drone.

Innovating Military Theory in Information Age

After the military reforms and reorganization, the PLA is focussing on developing new concepts of how to conduct joint operations, use new technology, combat operations, tactics, etc. Beijing is comping up with doctrines to guide PLA operations and will continue to refine these doctrines to increase combat effectiveness, operations, training, etc. This is "military theory" innovation. This article by an author from 61001 Troop advocates the use of information science to innovate military theory.

First, to win future wars, one should focus on information, strengthening information integration, information analysis, and extraction. The information here also includes open-source information like popular websites, professional communities.   

Second, the author emphasizes the importance of information technology to solve problems in military theory. For example, using big data to shift from experience-based to data-based thinking, predict trends and opportunities for battle, assist in decision making, assess the battle situation for combat operations, and reshape how one perceives the battlefield.

Third, "networked thinking" is at the core of innovation in military theory. The author views that the innovation of military theory should be based on the perspective of the concept of war and should be internalized with speculative philosophical weapons to cultivate evolving cyberspace.

Fourth, the digital revolution has empowered precision in combat systems and algorithms have become important for improving the quality and efficiency of innovation in military theory. In an era where the digital revolution is based on "data + computing power + algorithms" is driving military competition, the author highlights the following ideas to win (using algorithms):

• Strengthening the concept of algorithm warfare: This means recognizing that attack and research algorithms are also part of combat operations. Hence military should encourage research in this area.

• Strengthening philosophy of algorithmic warfare: This means that theories such as "36 strategies" (三十六计), "war theory" (战争论), "protracted war"(论持久战) and "cognitive warfare" (认知战) can all be regarded as algorithmic warfare.

• Using algorithms for winning mechanism: This means refining the use of algorithms that can be used to become victorious. Hence, needs to focus on data standardization, developing bid data analysis technologies, and improving the speed of calculations. The algorithm should also be able to perform realistic calculations while considering political, economic, military, and diplomatic factors. 

Fifth, the author highlights the importance of visual clarity on the battlefield. Various technologies can be used to improve this visual clarity. The author lists satellites, networks, big data, artificial intelligence, and brain control technology. The article places a special emphasis on the integration of the "human brain" and "machine brain" and suggests the military theory framework should focus on such integration. Additionally, the author suggests that Cyberspace integrates the physical domain, electromagnetic domain, information domain, and social domain, and cannot be measured by the physical space coordinate system. It needs to be examined and perceived from a new dimension and a new perspective. The next emphasis is on cognitive capabilities. The author attaches great importance to the tracking and actual application of cognitive domain technologies such as holographic projection, brain-computer integration, subliminal perception, and brain control, as psychological power tools of the intelligent battlefield. Lastly, the focus is on virtual to the real mapping of information. For example, clarification of the relation between real and virtual objects.

Lastly, the author acknowledges the limitation of AI in its present form but proposes that the innovation in military theory can be started using AI as a reference point. This would include using AI as a base while developing a basic theory of intelligent warfare. To keep the military intellectually advanced, the author advocates the advancement of organizational changes in the military's system, scale structure, force formation, and operational mode, so that it has the characteristics of an intelligent era and meets the requirements of intelligent warfare.

A lot of concepts and ideas in this article. A key theme is using technology in the information age to develop a strong theoretical base for military operations. Developing a strong theoretical base for military operations, especially joint operations, has become important since the military reform started.

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II. Additional Reading

• Shambaugh, David. "China’s propaganda system: Institutions, processes and efficacy." Critical Readings on the Communist Party of China (4 Vols. Set). Brill, 2017. 713-751.

• GARY D. RAWNSLEY, Old wine in new bottles: China—Taiwan computer-based ‘information warfare’ and propaganda, International Affairs, Volume 81, Issue 5, October 2005, Pages 1061–1078, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2346.2005.00502.x

• Brady, Anne-Marie. "Authoritarianism Goes Global (II): China’s Foreign Propaganda Machine." Journal of Democracy, vol. 26 no. 4, 2015, p. 51-59. Project MUSE, doi:10.1353/jod.2015.0056.

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Megha Pardhi is a Research Analyst at The Takshashila Institution. She tweets at @pardhimegha21.