Russia and China are waging a ‘political war’ to ‘break our willpower’

Russia and China are waging a “political war” against the West with the express aim of “breaking our willpower”, Britain’s highest ranking army officer warned today.

Defense Chief of Staff Gen. Sir Nick Carter said hostile powers “cannot afford” a militarized conflict and are therefore resorting to cyberattacks and disinformation.

He said such actions fall outside the traditional parameters of declaring war, but nevertheless aim to sow division and undermine “economic, political and social resilience.”

Announcing the biggest change in UK defense strategy “for a generation”, Sir Nick said: “We must fundamentally change the way we think if we are not to be overwhelmed.”

Defense Chief of Staff Gen. Sir Nick Carter said hostile powers “ cannot afford ” a militarized conflict and are therefore turning to cyberattacks and disinformation.

He told the Policy Exchange think tank on Wednesday: “These regimes believe that they are already immersed in an intense form of conflict that is predominantly political rather than kinetic.

Its “political warfare” strategy is designed to undermine cohesion, erode economic, political and social resilience, and compete for strategic advantage in key regions of the world.

“His objective is to win without going to war: to achieve his objectives by breaking our willpower, using attacks below the threshold that would provoke a warlike response.

“These attacks on our way of life by authoritarian rivals and extremist ideologies are very difficult to defeat without undermining the very freedoms we want to protect. We are exposed through our openness. ‘

His speech, in which he launched the Integrated Operating Concept 2025, identified Russia and China as potential threats.

In addition to amassing an impressive arsenal of weapons including state-of-the-art ballistic missiles, Sir Nick said that China has organized technological forms of attack.

He said: “Command the satellite information attack and defense forces, electronic assault forces, and Internet assault forces, campaign information operations forces, including conventional electronic warfare forces, anti-radiation assault forces and anti-radiation forces. cyber warfare on the battlefield “.

He added that Beijing is “forging a future of mass surveillance … and is rapidly exporting these tools to other parts of the world.”

In Russia, Sir Nick pointed to the ‘St. Troll farm of the St. Petersburg-based Internet Research Agency involved in the overseas seeding division.

And it highlighted the evidence of how rogue actors are exploiting the coronavirus pandemic, including the ‘pro-Russian vaccine policy whose disinformation narratives are designed to permeate anti-vaccination social media groups.’

Announcing the biggest change in UK defense strategy ‘for a generation’, Sir Nick said: ‘We must fundamentally change the way we think if we don’t want to be overwhelmed’

Sir Nick also said that rival powers have observed Western military tactics and are adapting their methods to exploit weakness.

He said: ‘Our adversaries have studied our’ Western way of warfare ‘, identified our vulnerabilities and modernized their own capabilities to attack them. The campaigns of the last 30 years have been developed in global media networks.

‘From the first Gulf War in the early 1990s to the airstrikes in Bosnia and Kosovo, the response to the terrorist attacks on the embassies in Kenya and Tanzania and of course the campaigns in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya, everything has been closely watched by our rivals. ‘

Sir Nick even said that “Russia has created battle laboratories from real life events to develop its tactics and strengthen the battle of a new generation of soldiers.”

To combat these rapidly evolving threats, the Integrated Operating Concept will bolster defenses that fall below the “threshold” of typical storage.

He also stressed the need to cement international alliances, forge better cooperation with the various branches of the armed forces, and modernize the British Army.