Unlimited warfare: Chinese perception of modern warfare

Abstract

The end of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st century is recognizable by the great changes and dynamics of these changes in different spheres of human activities. One of such spheres is the field of defense and security. Once again, a classical critical attitude that the military usually prepare for the past war is being on an authenticity test. The main message of this view is that the understanding of the present and prediction of the future is the consequence of the experience so far and the well-known knowledge collection. This warning truth is, of course, known to researchers in the field of defense and security and being such it is the driving force for acquiring insight into the physiognomy of contemporary wars and conflicts. One of the first steps on this way is authentic identification of relevant factors. Observations and analyses of the physiognomy of contemporary conflicts point to consideration of important differences in relation to the already known understanding of the phenomena of war and conflict in general. Due to abundance and specificity of new factors and emerging forms of contemporary conflicts, researchers are prone to introducing new terms that would mark this new reality. This paper presents a Chinese view of the specificity of modern warfare known as the concept of unlimited warfare. The analysis of the concept of unlimited warfare points to great similarities to the concept of hybrid warfare that is somewhat newer. The special value of the concept of unlimited warfare and its characteristic of being interesting from the perspective of researchers and experts in our country is reflected in the specificity of the time period of its occurrence.

Keywords

• unlimited warfare
• unconventional warfare
• hybrid warfare
• special warfare
• security
• decision-making