Gp Capt A.K. Sachdev (retd)

Some anthropologists have famously proposed the concept that the territorial instincts of animals apply likewise to human territorial aggression. They have been critically assessed by some others to be erroneous in their conclusions but there is no doubt whatsoever that human beings, for as long as human memory goes, have been instinctively compelled to possess and defend territory. That instinct has been the cause of conflict: at the man to man level, at the familial and tribal level, and at the province or country level.

As the nation and the nation state evolved, the nature of the conflict grew dimensionally and assumed the mantle of ‘warfare’. Again, the history of warfare is as old as human history. The ‘art of war’ and the skills that went into armies to wage wars successfully evolved fairly discernibly; armies fought other armies gladiatorially in wars—garnering for the nations they championed either victory or defeat, largely decisively. With the war making might of nations expanding to include air and sea forces, the nature of war evolved further.

Conversely, the nature of war appears to have devolved in recent decades into many disparate constituents to the extent that some voices declare conventional warfare to be extinct. Undoubtedly, conventional warfare has been brushed into the background by more recent additions to military vocabulary; some of the prominent ones are Military Operations Other Than War (MOOTW), Low Intensity Conflict Operations (LICO), Irregular Warfare (IW), Hybrid Warfare (HW), Asymmetric Warfare (AW), Small Wars, Grey Wars, Little Green Men (refers to Russian soldiers in masks and unmarked green army uniform, carrying Russian military weapons and equipment who materialised during the Ukrainian crisis in 2014 and brought about the annexation of Crimea), Political Warfare, Mosaic Warfare and Prototype Warfare.

While the spectre of another world war is not of immediate concern to the geopolitician, warfare in some form flourishes around the globe even as we read this; and it will continue to flourish as long as human beings inhabit it. This article looks at the domains that warfare is conducted in.

Domains of Warfare

The land-based territorial aspirations of man were limited to areas proximate to him and those accessible by foot march until he developed the art and skill of sailing high seas. The capability to navigate oceans opened up the potential of seeking territories beyond reach by land.

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