Just Finished Reading: The Weaponisation of Everything – A Field Guide to the New Way of War by Mark Galeotti (FP: 2022) [229pp] 

The classic image of modern war, that of tanks rolling across fields (or deserts) accompanied by helicopter gunships engaging enemy units at range is, seemingly, a thing of the past – and not just because of the drone experience in Ukraine. War is incredibly expensive as the US is finding out in Iran. Even so-called Superpowers are not gifted with infinitely deep pockets or weapon production lines that can be sped up at a moment's notice. What Great Powers (again so-called) are finding out, or more accurately re-learning, is that apparently overwhelming military power does not always or easily translate into victory – especially quick victory. Apparently 'weak' countries can still hit back and hit back HARD. Knowing that they are weak by almost every metric means that when they fight, they need to avoid facing a much stronger enemy on the battlefield and most especially avoid fighting an enemy on the battlefield of THEIR choosing. To defeat a much stronger enemy you have to fight elsewhere, and this is where hybrid or asymmetrical warfare comes into play. 

It does seem quite strange, even frankly bizarre, that countries fully capable of destroying the world couldn't seem to defeat guys in sandals carrying AK-47's but we have the example of Vietnam. Likewise, it was assumed by many experts that the Russian invasion of Ukraine would be over in a few weeks or a month at most. Afterall, Russia boasted probably the second-best military in the world. Unfortunately for them time and technology had moved on. The Russians fought as if the Cold War had never ended while the Ukrainians fought increasingly in the 21st century so that a four-week war has now lasted more than four years. Unable to win on the battlefield Russia has deployed other tactics (on top of regular ballistic missile strikes) both in Ukraine and across Europe including employing locals to sabotage factories and other infrastructure targets, fund opposition parties on both the Left and Right to undermine political stability and spread disinformation across the world using the megaphone that is Social Media. Of course they are not alone in this. Countries across the world are using the Internet to spread propaganda to bolster their own position and undermine their perceived enemies. Effectively mercenaries are being hired to cause problems elsewhere who might even be unaware who they are working for. Contractors spy for the highest bidder (or even multiple bidders) to acquire political, personal or financial information to use against their handlers' opponents... and so it goes on, and on.  

This is the message of this disturbing and equally fascinating book. War hasn't gone away, quite the opposite. War, as politics by other means, has simply adapted to the new reality of very expensive weapons systems and limited budgets. Where a $10K drone can kill a million-dollar tank who is going to send that tank into harm's way? Instead, why not pay some disaffected group to plant a bomb under your opponent's car and take advantage of the resulting political chaos? Such new(ish) modes of warfare certainly go a long way to explain some of the seemingly random issues showing up across the world from air traffic control failures, denial of service attacks, plane crashes, and timely 'accidents'. The 'upside' to all of this – if you can call it that – is the reduction of cities being carpet bombed with the resultant death toll. The downside is that such methods of war become both ubiquitous and perpetual. We are always at war and war is everywhere. That's not exactly a pleasant way of being.  

This was definitely an eye-opening read showing how things have changed in the relatively recent past and how military decisions going forward are going to have to change. It's never going to be cost effective to use $5 million dollar missiles to shoot down $20K drones and you have to start wondering if $100 million dollar jets have much functionality on a modern hybrid battlefield (never mind a $10 billion dollar aircraft carrier). Definitely a recommended read for anyone interested in modern/future warfare and who wants to understand some of the stranger headlines and news stories of our increasingly complicated and dangerous world.