Contemporary warfare and national security are essential concepts for any country to make policies that favour both
War is perhaps one of the most common features of the human civilisation.
Thomas Hobbes, the English philosopher had stated that as human nature is largely pessimistic and because human beings are materialist by nature, so war was a common feature of the state of nature which was characterised by him as “nasty, brutish and short”.
Having said that war and its nature has evolved over time.
The Psychology of Contemporary Warfare
The psychology of actors involved in contemporary warfare is quite diverse, human nature is in this age quite docile.
Steven Pinker in his excellent book Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism and Progress has argued that we are living in perhaps the most peaceful of all times since the dawn of human civilisation.
Nevertheless the war oriented of Homo sapiens has not gone away. Nation-states are after all composed of human beings.
The psychology of the actors is a romanticised vision of an imperial and glorious past where that particular nation-state had been a powerful force; attempts are made to revive such a nation-state by the means of war.
Relationship Between the Two Concepts
National security is defined as the security of a state in both its internal as well as external dimensions. National security is today’s buzzword.
It is a tool of both statecraft and academic interest.
National security of nation-states differs from time to time depending on the domestic and international political circumstances.
Its relationship with contemporary warfare is a complex matter, the nature of national security is now-a-days more technology driven.
As new threats in the form of spyware, malware, disinformation spreading tools are being increasingly used so the domain of national security requires continuous vigilance.
Contemporary Warfare-The Bharatiya Perspective
Carl Von Clausewitz, the Prussian military officer and strategist in his masterpiece On War (Von Kriege in German) argued that showing benevolence is a sign of weakness which may end in disaster for any side.
He therefore approved the use of short but strong destructive means to defeat the enemy, shatter his will and win the war.
Contemporary warfare is based exactly on this perception. However for a country like India which prides itself in calling a moralpolitik great power adopting this realist approach to war is not easy, but the Indian strategic and foreign policy elites’ thinking has changed.
Certainly in the last nine years.
The present government has made it clear that without hard power it is difficult for a nation-state to survive the ruthless competition of the international political system.
The rapid modernization of our armed forces symbolised by the dynamic INS Vikrant shows that Bharat is leaving no stone unturned in transforming the Indian forces into a sleek tech savvy force.
That is why contemporary warfare and national security are interlinked and important.