Abstract
This article explores the continued relevance and transformation of five
foundational military strategies – extermination, annihilation, exhaustion,
intimidation, and subversion – within the context of twenty-first-century conflict.
While rooted in classical theories of warfare, these strategies have evolved
dramatically due to technological advancement, cyber capabilities, and shifting
geopolitical dynamics. Extermination, once associated with large-scale battlefield
destruction, now manifests through precision drone strikes and cyberattacks
aimed at critical infrastructure, as seen in Azerbaijan’s integration of UAVs into
battlefield during the 2020 Second Karabakh War. Annihilation strategies have
embraced multi-domain integration, combining air superiority, precision artillery,
special operations, and electronic warfare to dismantle enemy forces with speed and
precision. Exhaustion, traditionally achieved through prolonged attritional warfare,
has shifted toward non-kinetic tools such as economic sanctions, cyber sabotage,
and disinformation campaigns designed to degrade a nation’s resilience and public
morale over time. The Russia-Ukraine conflict exemplifies this modern approach
to exhaustion, incorporating conventional warfare alongside cyber and economic
pressure. Intimidation has similarly evolved, now operating prominently in digital
spaces through psychological operations and disinformation amplified by social
media and cyberattacks. These tactics seek to undermine trust in institutions, sow
confusion, and reduce an adversary’s will to resist. Subversion, perhaps the most
insidious of the five strategies, has become central to hybrid warfare. Through cyber
espionage, election interference, and proxy warfare, states can destabilize adversaries
from within while maintaining plausible deniability. Contemporary examples such
as Russian election meddling and Iranian support for regional militias underscore
how subversion challenges legal and normative frameworks of conflict.
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