Indian Hybrid Warfare in the Post-Truth Era and its Impacts on Pakistan’s Foreign Policy

Abstract

The maintenance of peaceful diplomatic relations with the outside world has become a potential challenge for government of Pakistan due to the rise of multiple advanced information communication channels worldwide. In other words, the arrival of the postinformation age in international relations has affected the conventional foreign policy mechanism of states, where Pakistan is not an exception. Under the intense South Asian regional security environment, the conventional mechanism of Pakistan's foreign policy has been undermined by the advancement of information communication technology and the rise of multiple non-traditional media channels around the world. The unstoppable forces of this digital revolution have changed the traditional patterns of New Delhi-Islamabad hostility. Under the shadows of hybrid warfare, the growing reliance of both nuclear rivals of South Asia on the advanced means of information communication technology has resulted in the transformation of India-Pakistan strategic competition in the new world of digital realities. In the hybrid domain of modern warfare, the challenges of the postinformation age have also hampered the role of Pakistan's diplomatic forces in the world. Beyond weakening the role of Pakistan's diplomatic community across the world, the existing framework of Islamabad’s mainstream foreign relations has started facing the challenges of Indian-supported worldwide disinformation campaigns. Therefore, the central theme of this paper seeks to maintain an analytical account of India-Pakistan hostility in the post-information age, in which the foreign policy of Pakistan has become a prime target of New Delhi's worldwide anti-Pakistan narratives. Furthermore, this paper is an academic endeavour to critically examine the inabilities of Pakistan's current foreign policy in addressing the Indian anti-Pakistani propaganda in the digital world.