Webinar on emerging global military trends

Islamabad: Dr Asma Shakir Khawaja, HoD, Department of Strategic Studies, National Defence University, has said that proliferation of hypersonic missiles may change deterrence equations and increase chances of escalation.

Dr Asma was speaking at a webinar on ‘Emerging Global Military Trends and National Security: Challenges and Options’ organised here by Institute of Strategic Studies (ISS). Dr Asma opined that the trend of information warfare, which is becoming increasingly sophisticated, creates a fog of war. The second trend is the use of cyber technology as a tool of warfare that has the potential to shut down offensive and defensive systems and command and control systems.

Prof Zafar Nawaz Jaspal from School of Politics and International Relations, Quaid-i-Azam University, said that military modernisation was about more than hardware and included organisational reforms and command, control and doctrines. Pakistan armed forces have been going through upgradation, he said and continued that Pakistan has to keep in mind the adversary’s capabilities like India had invested in offensive and defensive missile capability as well as hypersonic missiles with the help of the US and Israel.

He said that Pakistan needs to invest in technologies like hypersonic missiles, cruise and ballistic missiles, cyber-security, IA, area-denial capabilities and space capabilities. He emphasised the need to work with China and attract new partners like Russia to keep pace with Indian modernisation.

Dr Ivan V Danilin from Moscow State Institute of International Relations, Russia, that digital technology presently is 4-5 per cent of global GDP. The civilian high tech sector can affect the security of a state. He stressed the importance of knowing the globalisation of the digital sector. He observed that the globalised structure is a matter of regional and global security and features prominently in the policies of states. Air Vice-Marshal (r) Faaiz Amir said that interstate and intrastate conflicts show a decline. However, the space between war and peace is not empty.