By Ron Raskin
“War is merely the continuation of policy with other means.”
Carl von Clausewitz
In a simpler world, people often relied on fighting and demographical change as the primary means to achieve their goals. These were the main battlegrounds between different groups, societies, and nations. As the world evolved, so did the nature of the battlefield. It expanded and became more complex.
First, the economy and technology became new battlefield, sometimes sufficient on their own to subdue other nations to the will of the dominant nation, and sometimes serving as decisive factors in traditional warfare. For a time, it seemed like an ideal way to eliminate conventional wars by redirecting human competitive energy towards economic wars (or competition, rather). The Western World embraced this approach, defining the rules of the game. In its quest to create a peaceful and prosperous global community, it promoted globalization as a means to share a comfortable lifestyle and establish common values among all nations.
However, this plan has failed. Countries like China, while playing by these rules and achieving significant success, did not embrace Wester World values. Other countries, unable to compete within this framework, sought alternative strategies. Now, the rules of the game are changing, with each side trying to impose its own. Consequently, new battlefields have emerged: information and legal warfare.
Information, which moved very slowly a few hundred years ago, became significantly faster and far more influential in the 20th century. Nazi Germany, Soviet communists, and others exploited the power of information domestically to brainwash minds, boost societal morale, and reinforce government loyalty. However, until recently, the flow of information was confined by national borders and could not serve as a direct tool of warfare between nations. Not anymore.
Why send tanks and aircrafts to fight when you can control your enemy’s mind instead? The Western world is especially vulnerable to this tactic. It is difficult to penetrate Russian, Chinese, or Iranian information fields, but European and American information fields are easily breached. When another nation’s army crosses the border, the attacked nation stands ready to fight. But when lies and propaganda cross the border, the Western world does nothing. The West struggles to adapt to these new rules of engagement, finding itself caught between a rock and a hard place: freedom of speech and information warfare.
As if that weren’t enough, challengers of the Western world have found another way to fight by using its own laws against it. Without laws, there is no society, but with them, some laws can destabilize nations, causing a society’s immune system to turn against its own body. It appears that humankind has become even more innovative than nature itself, which created viruses.
The fight is inevitable. This is not the time for compromises or consideration, but for combat and absolute victory. The time for consideration will come… but later.