Royal Malaysian Navy: Challenges with hybrid warfare

ASSIGNMENT IN CONFIDENCE

ROYAL MALAYSIAN NAVY NEW CHALLENGES IN FACINGTHE HYBRID WARFARE

SECTION 1 : INTRODUCTION

1.Since time immemorial, human understanding of war is subject to intellectual disputes. Records of the dispute in the form of writing has been viewed since thousands of years ago. Evidence of that can be seen is the result of writing by Chinese General Sun-Tzu (500BC), and Niccolo Machiavelli's book that tells a lot about war and politics. Although the principles of war is still be a reference until now, most of the tactics of war at the time was not suitable for use in the present. , For example, the phalanx of the Greek tactics and the lines and columns by the Napoleonic was no longer applicable to the modern battlefield. In addition, some previous authors have seen trying to understand the nature of war, and not so much to be able to see or assess how it should be fought, and use the methods and weapons that are appropriate.

2.The famous Prussian Military Philosopher Carl von Clausewitz wrote,“War Is More Than A True Chameleon That Slightly Adapts Its Characteristics To The Given Case.”[1] He also mentioned that the war was remarkable trinity made up of violence and hatred, the chance and probability, and political considerations play elements through interaction of the people, the army and the government.[2] These factors have become part of the history of the war that occurred in one time. However, as the war in the twenty first century is going on in a form that seems unfamiliar, it also involves a combination of regular and irregular forces in the same battlefield, this has created where some defense analysts have suggested the emergence of a new kind of war called Hybrid War.[3]

3.We have entered a period when various concepts of war used in simultaneously. The war can still be considered as flexible, adaptable, including rogue and a sophisticated enemy and according to their goals, some analysts call this Hybrid Wars. Today’s and tomorrow’s enemies will certainly employ irregular forms of warfare. It is crucial to prepare our armed forces to be ready for the full spectrum of conflict. Hybrid Warfare is something that is rarely heard, especially in this country. This war is not a concept that has been recognized, but which in fact, is not the concept and essence of war who really original. In the early nineteen century, guerrilla forces fought along with conventional forces in the Peninsular War. A similar strategy was used during the Vietnam War.

4.Actually, this hybrid warfare is not new, but they are differences. In this kind of war is blurred effect the same or a similar use in the battlespace. The combination of irregular and conventional or integrated strategy, quite challenging, but history is not necessarily a unique phenomenon. Hybrid warfare tactics consist of the blending of conventional, unconventional, and irregular approaches to warfare across the full spectrum of conflict. Engagement in or the activities involved in war or conflict. Hybrid warfarealso meaning a military strategy that blends conventionalwarfare, irregularwarfareand cyber warfare. In addition,hybrid warfarecan used to describe attacks by nuclear, biological and chemical weapons, improvised explosive devices and informationwarfare.

5.Hybrid threats incorporate a variety of methods and views, including conventional warfare capabilities, implementation of irregular tactics and formation, random acts of violence and coercion and includes criminal harassment. This hybrid war could occur by both the state and various non-state actors, whether with or without state sponsorship. These activities may be conducted by different teams, or with the same team, but in general the operational and tactical directed and coordinated in a major battle to achieve synergy effects in terms of physical and psychological dimensions of conflict. The effect can be obtained at all levels of war.[4]

AIM

6.The aim of the paper is to discuss and expose the existence of Hybrid War to Royal Malaysian Navy (RMN) , in addition to assessing the ability of RMN to address this threat.

PROBLEM STATEMENT

7.Frank G. Hoffman in his article Conflict in the 21^st Century: The Rise of Hybrid Wars, summarizes the background and character of war has changed in this contemporary world. Hoffman also argues that we are going through a period in which various types of warfare will be used at the same time by the enemy with a flexible and powerful. In addition, he also noted that it is too easy to simply classify the conflict as Big and Conventional versus Small or Irregular.[5] As we know, enemies nowadays will use various combination of all kinds of warfare concept, this will become the latest challenge for the Royal Malaysian Navy in handling and is it able to prevent this hybrid threats.

8.For example, Lahad Datu incident that occurred in March 2013, involve non-state actors who have crossed the maritime border to launch a rebellion and a war against. It also indicates that non-state actors, particularly capable of doing in the form of irregular warfare, but at the same time also will support, promote, and participate in conventional conflict if it can meet their goals. Similarly, countries may engage in irregular conflict in addition to the conventional type of warfare to achieve their goals. Taking the example of the incident of Lahad Datu, if the Sulu faction which also can be categorized as non-state actors are capable and have taken the conflict with the maritime waters of Sulu Sea, is the Royal Malaysian Navy with military structure and capabilities at present able to meet the challenges of this Hybrid War.

RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

9.In making this paper, several research objectives were outlined as:

9.1To expose and understanding to the RMN about existence of the concept of Hybrid Warfare.

9.2To identify the ability of RMN in addressing the threat of Hybrid Warfare.

9.3To identify the issues and challenges that will arise in preparing for the emergence of this hybrid war

9.4To provide recommendations to the RMN on preparations for the challenges of Hybrid threats.

10.As mention above, the purpose of this paper is to analyze the existence of this concept of Hybrid Warfare and the extent to which the Royal Malaysian Navy is ready to face this new challenges. In order to ensure that this paper can provide some input and achieved the objectives outlined, a number of research questions have been formulated. The questions are as follows:

10.1What is the Hybrid Warfare and Hybrid Threat?

10.2Why is it so important for the Royal Malaysian Navy to prepare and maintain the highest operational readiness in the face of this Hybrid Wars?

10.3What are the issues and challenges that will arise in preparing for the emergence of this hybrid war?

10.4Does the Royal Malaysian Navy was able to meet the challenges of this hybrid war?

10.5What is the appropriate framework or approach that can be used to address the issues and challenges?

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

11.The Conceptual Framework will analyze this paper and begins with research philosophy based on the concept of epistemology. The Epistemology is derived from the Greek word Episteme, which means knowledege and logos, also means, roughly, learning or science. Logos can be said to be the root cause of all terms ending in-ology such as psychology, anthropology and logic also has many others related meanings.[6] Blaikie (1993) describes epistemology as The Theory Or Science Of The Method Or Grounds Of Knowledge expanding this into a set of claims or assumptions about the ways in which it is possible to gain knowledge of reality, how what exists may be known, what can be known, and what criteria must be satisfied in order to be described as knowledge.[7] Consistent with that, Carl Von Clausewitz and Sun Tzu are two examples of strategic authors selected as theoretical reference for this paper.

12.As we know, most of the papers or studies on Hybrid Warfare has been committed by several authors. Among these writers Frank G Hoffman seen most written about this concept of warfare. For the information, Frank G Hoffman was a Senior Research Fellow at the National Defense University in the United States is also a former Lieutenant Colonel in the US Marines. I took him as a model in this paper is to facilitate access to information and reference throughout this paper. The finding will obtained through this conceptual framework lead to an assessment of the Royal Malaysian Navy in the face of this new warfare concept from various angles which will be described in this paper thus fulfilling the aim of the study. The Conceptual Frameworks flow is simplified in Figure 1.0.

Figure 1.0 : Conceptual Frameworks

CONTRIBUTION OF THIS RESEARCH

13.This paper can be considered a new research field for the Royal Malaysian Navy and the least studied academically. The importance of this study is to give exposure to the Royal Malaysian Navy towards a dimension or a new concept in the war and to analyze the readiness of the Royal Malaysian Navy in fighting the Battle of the Hybrid. The study will map the availability and performance of sustenance mechanism Navy assets will also submit a correlation between high levels of readiness and national security assets. The opposite can also be made from the analysis. It will create awareness and appreciation of the importance of higher preparedness assets and their importance in running the affairs of national security.

LIMITATION

14.The main shortcoming of this paper is the unavailability of primary data that be collected from elite interviews due to time constraints and availabilities of respondents. Hence it has to rely heavily on secondary data and physical resources from libraries in the Klang Valley and online scholarly resources. The time has been given for the completion of this paper are the main constraints can lead to lack of findings. The writer are given approximately one month and a half to complete the writing of this paper and can only be started after the proposal paper was evaluated and approved by the supervisor. Timeline or Research Schedule for completion of this paper as shown as Table 1 below:

Table 1: Timeline or Research Schedule

SCOPE

15.The purpose of this paper is not to resolve the debate about the existence of hybrid warfare. It also does not propose to verify whether there is any reason to use the term hybrid warfare or not in the RMN. This paper attempts to analyze only a concept brought forward in military discourse theory recently. This paper will also not show any change in doctrine or training for war hybrid concept. It will not propose any changes to the current power structure in the RMN. The scope of this paper will only involve awareness despite the existence of the concept of this war so far has not been recognized by any organization in the world. In addition, this paper tries to see the status of preparedness assets RMN if faced with this war.

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ASSIGNMENT IN CONFIDENCE

[1] Michael Howard and Peter Paret (eds and trans), 1976, Carl von Clausewitz:On War. New Jersey: Princeton University Press, p 89.

[2] Ibid, p89.

[3] Williamson Murray and Peter R.Mansoor (eds), 2012, Hybrid Warfare: Fighting Complex Opponents From The Ancient World to the Present. New York:Cambridge University Press, p 1.

[4] Hoffman G, 2007, Conflict in the 21^st Century: The Rise of Hybrid Wars, Virginia: Potomac Institute, p 8.

[5] Ibid, p 5.

[6] David A. Truncellito, 2014, Epistemology, The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy: ISSN 2161-0002, viewed 4 June 2015. < http://www.iep.utm.edu/epistemo/>

[7] Paul Flowers, 2009, Research Philosophies – Importance and Relevance, Cransfield: School of Management, viewed 3^rd June 2015. <http//www.networkedcranfield.com/cell/Assignment Submissions/research philosophy – issue 1-final.pdf>