Indian Hybrid Warfare in Pakistan: Spin off Ramifications for Pakistan’s National Security

Abstract

The swift technological advancements in the spheres of means of communication, transportation, information technology and military technology have made standard warfighting methods obsolete, to some extent. The strategic and security atmosphere in the 21st century is most intricate and volatile. Now states, because of the development of weapons of mass destruction and the aggravated influence of non-state actors, fancy to operate in non-conventional and non-kinetic domains. States‟ amplified aptitude to blend linear and non-liner tactics against their adversaries has instigated a completely different and complex form of warfare i.e., hybrid warfare. Hybrid warfare envisions the convergence of conventional and non-conventional warfare tactics against an adversary to annihilate it completely or at least to deteriorate it gradually. Indo-Pak ties, that have always been turbulent, have become more complex with the insertion of the hybrid warfare in the equation. Pakistan‟s attainment of nuclear deterrence, after the explicit nuclearization of South Asia in 1998, against its conventionally grander rival has brought India to its wits end. Subsequently, India- owing to its strategic paralyses- has been in hunt of different methods to undermine Pakistan‟s national security. The surfacing of hybrid warfare has rejuvenated Indian ambitions, as the quintessence of hybrid warfare is to hurl little punches at the opponent without being interlocked in a major war. The hybrid warfare strategy espoused by India against Pakistan is critically threatening latter‟s national security. Hence, the research paper aims to underscore foremost threats and challenges to Pakistan‟s national security by the virtue of Indian hybrid warfare and put forward viable countermeasures.