Chansoria, Monika

Abstract
Information Warfare (IW) especially in the digital ether of cyberspace has become a realm that defies borders, challenges state boundaries, and most significantly, provides the military of a nation to realize certain political goals, allowing for a more precise form of propaganda. With the world heavily slipping into, and relying upon, the age of information, a future conflict within Asia, more specifically East Asia, could witness tactics of cyber war becoming a key component and feature. Potential future conflicts of the 21st century will not simply be restricted to the traditional military sphere, and growing reliance on cyberspace has made issues pertaining to national security even more susceptible. The tactics of cyber war are relatively low-cost and readily available, thus making it all the more attractive for states as well as non-state actors to exploit the skills of hackers or so-called ‘patriotic cyber-warriors’. The increasing use of asymmetric techniques which will define future conflict, exhibits the use of cyber warfare as the foremost tool. The central premise in current Chinese military thinking tends to revolve around the scenario that if Beijing needed to win future wars, it would have to prepare for conducting warfare “beyond all boundaries and limitations.” Perhaps the most crucial among the ‘beyond rules’ criteria is manifested in the form of “asymmetric warfare,” for instance, guerrilla war (mostly urban), terrorist activities and cyber attacks directed against data networks. China in all probability is likely to develop greater depth and sophistication in its understanding and handling of information warfare techniques and information operations. Given that China views the Middle Kingdom as the center of the world, it would attempt to dominate the information space, and gain an “information advantage.”
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