5TH GENERATION WARFARE AND SOCIAL MEDIA

Our history has a story to tell and a lesson to learn. In 1989, military scholars of United States, William
Lind with Colonel Keith Nightengale (USA), Captain John F. Schmitt (USMC), Colonel Joseph W.
Sutton (USA), and Lieutenant Colonel Gary I gave the concept of warfare generations. The world has
undergone several incidents that were analyzed in the later years. Analysis results describes the features
of all the respective warfare generations that are categorized accordingly. Warfare generations takes a
new blend of advancements due to technological achievements in the fields of military equipment’s,
weapons and ammunition, territorial extensions, media encroachments, political ideologies, nuclear
proliferation, intelligence agencies, close air support, cyberspace penetration and psychological
manipulations. The structure of warfare is evolving. There is an expanding change in the traditional
aspects of pursuing a war: conventional warfare techniques are in decrease and more up to date strategies
and devices of war, like information warfare, asymmetric warfare, media propaganda, and hybrid warfare,
are filling the gap, blurring the lines between combatant and noncombatant, and between wartime and
peacetime.
Warfare generations have transformed throughout the years with respect to changing technology and war
perspectives. From soldiers fighting for states, military combats and increasing war possibilities to using
social networking sites and cyberspace to reconstruct ideas of states depicts the transformation of 1 st
generation warfare to 5th generation warfare. A new form of warfare, named as Hybrid warfare is being
generated that includes all forms of warfare’s used according to the circumstances. In modern conflicts,
media is proving to be a major catalyzing factor that is also stated as 4 th pillar of a state. Media is a social
institution and " a social institution is an organization that is critical to the socialization process; it
provides a support system for individuals as they struggle to become members of a larger social
network’’. To the world it maybe a platform with various benefits but in reality its power is known to
some. Media has ability to change perceptions, develop a vision, provide information and reconstruct
ideas of nations so that they could be misguided for a bigger combat. This change in the conduct of
warfare is marked by the introduction of new material tactics in warfare. For instance, improvements in
computers and electronics, information, communication, weapons, greater speed, capable sensors, rapid
deployment, stealthier technology, fuel efficiency, enormous lethality, space-based systems, biochemical
agents, and artificial intelligence this dramatic change in the future of warfare.
Media plays its role as a state within a state. Politicization and institutionalization occurs within the state
which develops state narratives. State policies and narratives are shaped by the media, in case of Pakistan
and India, even both the countries having biased media the international media and forums significantly
portrays its owns narrative which ultimately binds the states to shape their narrative accordingly, they
could be either attacking or defensive. This warfare mends the mindsets of people by slowly changing
their viewpoint, it deliberately attempts to manage public perception on subject through sensitization.
With new technology, mind control is not a science fiction any more. The targeted audience usually fails
to decide the propaganda behind artefacts of social media and they are hit through cultural manipulation,
political diversification and behavioral control. Nations are undergoing 5 th GW without even realizing. It
is considered to be the most damaging among all other generations as it works silently in a non-kinetic
manner. No physical mobility has to be done to achieve its outcomes. With a universal approach and
reach, this manipulative technology controls the human behaviors through mind controlling techniques.
Cyber warfare gives simple interruption alternatives to the malfunctioning of government and monetary
establishments without discovery of the originators. Cyberspaces are huge sources of personal data
gatherings that creates an insecurity among masses related to its activity management. Media and digital
platforms works hand in hand to track record of all the information sharing, digital activity of its users,
cyberattacks, sectarian strife, creating unrest by raising popular religious slogans and political instability.
 5TH GENERATION WARFARE AND SOCIAL MEDIA

There are different suggestions that, whenever executed, can assist nations with moderating the
difficulties exuding from this new type of warfare:

 Media Management both through inside standards, morals, and restriction of information against
public interests/foundations.
 A healthy investigation of the dangers confronting us in the range of 5GW, Hybrid Warfare to
smooth out reaction boundaries.
 An extraordinary survey of our unfamiliar relations and shutting of fronts to center assets towards
the most powerful threat(s).
 Update of educational program from essential to bosses to incorporate the teaching of public
moorings, and philosophy.