Redefinition of War and the Weapons of Mass Destruction in the 21st Century

Abstract

War needs science and advanced technology to evolve. Until the time of the technological revolution, the war did not have such a large-scale to cover the whole world. But nowadays, communication became a tool that determines the potential of expanding threats. Modern military forces can change an environment faster than ever, but in a decentralized area, the army is unnecessary to war. This article shows the concept of a new idea of decentralized war as a civil and hybrid warfare conducted in the countries in which human rights are repeatedly violated. As evidenced by recent studies, decentralized war uses new generation technology as a weapon of mass destruction based on globally available mass communication tools. Thus, the study concentrates on the issue of these weapons as not only nuclear weapons are likely to play a more significant role in the international security environment, and constraints on the proliferation and use of chemical and biological weapons seem to be inefficient. There will be greater scope for terrorism, though it is not possible to predict the frequency or severity of any future employment of the weapons of mass destruction. New forms of the weapons (beyond chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear weapons) are likely to emerge. This is namely cyber weapons that is capable of inflicting a widespread disruption and generating high costs to deter large-scale cyber attacks. As a consequence of war redefinition, the article is also a trial of reconsidering the term of weapon of mass destruction, by explaining the role of cyber attacks, political fanaticism and hateful propaganda.