The War of Narratives: Towards an Indian Doctrine for Information and Narrative Warfare
By Major General (Dr.) S. B. Asthana, SM, VSM, PhD (Veteran)
International Strategic and Military Analyst
“Integrating strategic communication and media including social media with kinetic war has become an essential component of National Strategy and modern operational Art”
Abstract
The twenty-first century has transformed warfare from battlefields to minds, where narratives, perception, and information dominance determine victory. The War of Narratives: Towards an Indian Doctrine for Information and Narrative Warfare explores how strategic communication—integrating media, diplomacy, and psychological operations—has become a decisive instrument of statecraft. Drawing on ancient precedents from Arthashastra and Sun Tzu to modern “Three Warfares” and “Unrestricted Warfare,” the paper underscores how control of narratives shapes legitimacy and global influence. It analyses Western media dominance, China’s information strategy, and India’s vulnerabilities amid its democratic openness. Advocating a comprehensive “whole-of-nation” approach, it calls for an Indian Information-Warfare Doctrine encompassing legal-ethical frameworks, rapid rebuttal mechanisms, indigenous digital platforms, and media literacy programs. Ultimately, it argues that in an era of disinformation and cognitive warfare, securing the information frontier is as vital as defending territorial borders for safeguarding India’s strategic autonomy and global standing.
From the Battlefield to the Mind
The twenty-first century marks a profound transformation in the nature of conflict. Traditional wars of attrition and kinetic engagements now coexist with non-kinetic, non-contact forms of warfare—waged in the cognitive, informational, digital and economic domains. The era of geopolitical turbulence blends remnants of Cold War 1.0 (Between NATO and USSR/Russia) with the emerging Cold War 2.0[i] (Between USA and China), producing a global landscape defined by proxy conflicts, durable disorder, and incessant competition for narrative dominance.
Before a soldier takes position on the battlefield or a diplomat enters the negotiation room, narratives shape expectations, legitimacy, and outcomes. This War of Narratives is fought in the minds of multiple audiences—domestic populations, adversaries, diasporas, and international institutions. Strategic communication has, therefore, evolved into a decisive instrument of statecraft and national power, shaping perceptions, maintaining cohesion, resolve and international legitimacy, and defining the political space within which kinetic action succeeds or fails.
In such a scenario, ‘Integrating strategic communication and media including social media with kinetic war has become an essential component of National Strategy and modern operational Art’and needs to be practiced as such.
Historical Roots of Narrative Warfare
Although narrative warfare may appear contemporary, its philosophical roots lie deep in ancient strategic thought. The deceptive announcement of death of Ashwathama in the epic battle of Mahabharat was an example of narrative warfare.
Chanakya’s[ii] Arthashastra emphasized psychological dislocation of the enemy even before physical deployment of troops—a precursor to modern cognitive warfare.
Sun Tzu[iii], in The Art of War, famously stated that “the supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.” Both perspectives underline the primacy of perception over confrontation.
More recently, China’s 1999 treatise Unrestricted Warfare[iv] by PLA Colonels Qiao Liang and Wang Xiangsui expanded this logic into the information age. It argued for the fusion of statecraft with non-military tools—economic coercion, legal manipulation (lawfare), and media influence—to erode adversary resolve below the threshold of conventional war.
The doctrine evolved into the “Three Warfares[v]” strategy to include Public-Opinion Warfare – shaping global and domestic perceptions; Psychological Warfare – undermining adversary morale; and Legal Warfare (Lawfare) – justifying actions within manipulated legal frameworks.
In the West, Sean McFate’s notion of durable disorder[vi] and the “shadow wars” waged by NATO echo similar recognition that perception, legitimacy, and information are the real currencies of modern power. In Russia Ukraine War, NATO’s hold on global media and social media instruments have repeatedly tilted the balance of information war in their favour.
Why Narratives Matter?
We live in a post-truth era where emotions often outweigh facts. Narratives—whether accurate or manipulated—determine political choices, mobilize societies, and sometimes affect military morale in some cases. The recent examples of protests triggering in Nepal due to social media ban[vii] and subsequent regime change through campaign over Accord app is a case in point about the relevance of narrative and impact of social media.
Weaponisation of Media: Western media conglomerates like CNN, BBC, and Reuters dominate the global information ecosystem, shaping international opinion. The West’s control of narrative during the Iraq War or the Arab Spring illustrates how selective framing legitimized interventions. Counter-campaigns by adversaries—Russia Today (RT), China Global Television Network (CGTN)—aim to offset this dominance by projecting alternative realities.
Social Media as Force Multiplier: Platforms such as X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, TikTok, and YouTube have converted ordinary citizens into broadcasters are mainly controlled by Western countries giving them an edge over others on information dominance. During the Russia–Ukraine war, real-time videos from combat zones blurred the line between reportage and propaganda.
Narrative Competition in Great-Power Rivalry: China’s slogan of a “Community of Common Destiny”[viii] seeks to reframe global governance around Chinese characteristics while simultaneously exporting censorship norms abroad. The West, meanwhile, claims to champion democracy, human rights and rule based order—often selectively. The glaring example of USA historically siding with military dictatorship in Pakistan over democratic India, siding with Israel’s alleged genocide and claiming Greenland, striking Venezuela ships citing security needs indicate shifting stances in perceptions of rule based order. This ideological duel defines the cognitive battlespace of modern age.
Strategic Communication: The Weapon of Words
Strategic communications[ix] is the intentional process of delivering messages designed to influence, inform, and engage specific audiences in alignment with an organization’s overall goals. It has become an important instrument in war of Narratives. It thus coordinates use of communication activities—across government, institutions, and society—to shape understanding, influence perceptions, and align public support with national objectives. It integrates information, government messaging, diplomacy, and psychological operations into a coherent narrative campaign across all instruments of national power.
The key elements of strategic communication encompass a wide range of tools and platforms that together shape perceptions, influence narratives, and advance national objectives. They include effective media engagement, both in mainstream and digital spaces—exemplified by China purchasing space in Western journals to refine its global image. Another critical component is public diplomacy, which spans from assertive “wolf warrior” diplomacy to broader cultural outreach designed to project influence and cultivate soft power. Equally vital are psychological operations and information warfare, which focus on moulding the adversary’s perception and decision-making environment through calibrated messaging and psychological pressure. Finally, the strategic use of diaspora networks, academic forums, and entertainment industries serves as a potent soft-power instrument; China’s deep cultural footprint in Hollywood, for instance, demonstrates how entertainment can become an effective vehicle for subtle influence and image management.
In the information age, controlling the narrative is often as critical as controlling territory. Information travels faster than military convoys or diplomatic cables; thus, perception often precedes policy.
Role of Media in Narrative Building
Traditional Media as Strategic Actor: Traditional media has become a strategic actor impacting strategic choices and viewed as the gatekeeper of legitimacy. The Vietnam War demonstrated how televised images impacted public sentiments and forced American withdrawal—dubbed the “TV War.” The Gulf War introduced the “CNN Effect[x],” where real-time coverage shaped both strategy and public opinion.
Agenda Setting: Media decides what issues dominate national discourse. Headlines, editorials and TV debates can magnify or dilute policy narratives, influencing diplomacy and domestic politics alike.
Global Projection: Coverage of India’s rise as an economic power, democratic resilience, and pandemic response shaped perceptions worldwide. Conversely, negative portrayals during the farmers’ protests or the Citizenship Amendment Act debates highlighted human-rights critiques that impacted international criticism.
Accountability vs. National Interest: Democracies face a paradox between press freedom and need to maintain strategic unity in national interest. Unlike authoritarian systems that centrally script narratives, democracies must balance transparency with coherence—a dilemma India confronts daily.
Media in Humanitarian Narrative: Media’s role in humanitarian crises is dual: it can amplify calls for aid and ceasefires, but biased framing hinders equitable response. Western mainstream outlets (e.g., CNN, BBC, New York Times) have excelled in amplifying narratives aligned with their geopolitical interests, at the expense of balanced reporting and credibility. In Russia-Ukraine War the coverage was to demonize Russia as an aggressor, with vivid, emotionally charged humanizing stories of Ukrainian resilience. It resulted in arrest warrant against President Putin by ICJ, lauded by NATO. In Gaza, Western media has built a narrative framing Israel’s actions as “self-defence” against Hamas, downplaying the genocidal assault by Israel killing over 65,000 civilians, over 250 journalists and over 1000 aid workers. Interestingly when ICJ signed arrest warrant for Netanyahu, USA[xi] threatened to sanction it. Western media treats Ukrainian suffering as a moral imperative while rendering Palestinian lives expendable, fuelling Global South resentment and accusations of “selective humanity” is a case in point.
Social Media and the New Battlespace
Social media platforms bypass traditional gatekeepers, empowering direct interaction with millions within seconds, transforming individuals as broadcasters . Leaders like Prime Minister Modi, President Trump, and President Zelensky effectively used social platforms for public mobilization and narrative projection.
Personalization of Narratives: Hashtags, memes and influencers’ localized narratives often make complex issues more relatable to public than official press releases—e.g., #DigitalIndia or #IStandWithUkraine.
Mobilization and Disruption: During the farmers’ protests in India, social media created global awareness as well as misconceptions, leading to polarized domestic debates. Influencers like Greta Thunberg[xii] having no understanding of the complexity of this issue were airing opinions aiding disruptions. In Ukraine, TikTok and Telegram channels became real-time battlegrounds of perception, shaping global solidarity.
Manipulation and Deepfakes: Algorithmic amplification, troll farms, bots and AI-generated content blur truth, fuelling polarization and mistrust, distorting organic discourse.
Disinformation Operations: The Cambridge Analytica scandal (2016) exposed how private data manipulation could reshape elections in the US and UK. During COVID-19, misinformation spread faster than WHO advisories, illustrating the fragility of truth in a hyper-connected world. The disinformation campaign by China to confuse investigation about origin of coronavirus and by U.S to cover up gain of function research are cases in point resulting no conclusion on origin of COVID-19.
Challenges in Strategic Communication
Credibility Crisis: Persistent propaganda or half-truths erode trust. Credibility once lost, credibility is hard to regain.
Fragmented Audiences: Multiple media ecosystems create different echo chambers, making it difficult to deliver a unified national narrative.TV channels and other media outlets are often divided in biases for variety of reasons.
Information Overload: Excessive content desensitizes audiences and allowing misinformation and falsehood to thrive.
Cross-Border Influence: Foreign actors exploit open societies, information eco system—interfering in elections, fuelling protests, or spreading conspiracies.
Technological Asymmetry: Democracies often play by norms of transparency; but authoritarian adversaries exploit opacity and information manipulation without any restraint.
India’s Narrative Landscape: Opportunities and Vulnerabilities
As the world’s largest democracy and a rising global power, India stands at the intersection of opportunity and vulnerability in the information domain and has to work through these challenges. India faces a dual challenge; Externally, it has to shape global perceptions of its policies, achievements, and values to counter narrative of big powers not happy with its rise; Internally, it has to manage diverse narratives across 1.4 billion citizens with varied aspirations.
Opportunities
Vibrant Media Ecosystem: India’s free and diverse press and dynamic social-media base provide unparalleled capacity to project national narratives. Events like Chandrayaan-3’s lunar landing showcased India as a cost-efficient space power, while the G20 Summit 2023 amplified the theme “One Earth, One Family, One Future.”
Democracy’s Credibility: Open debate enhances authenticity compared to authoritarian censorship. India’s pluralism itself is a narrative asset.
Digital Diplomacy: With over 700 million internet users, national integration campaigns like #DigitalIndia and #VocalforLocal globalized India’s innovation story.
Demographic Advantage: A digitally connected youth population and influential diaspora amplify India’s messaging worldwide. The Indian diaspora defended India’s position after Article 370’s abrogation, countering hostile media frames in the West.
Soft-Power Assets: Bollywood, yoga, cuisine, and democratic culture naturally project India’s image of pluralism and creativity.
Vulnerabilities
The same diversity, openness, free press and freedom of speech introduces many risks, challenges and vulnerabilities.
Ethnic and Religious Diversity: India has vast diversity in every sphere of life. Disinformation can easily exploit India’s plural society to create social fissures and fault lines, which can fracture social harmony. The fragmentation of the audience makes it difficult to follow any unified narrative, leading to some compromise in national interest. The North South divide over languages and education syllabus, resentment to Uniform Civil Code illustrate this challenge.
Political Polarization: Over-politicization of media and echo chambers weaken the credibility of mainstream communication leading to trust deficit. Excessive politicization of narratives weakens unity of purpose during crises, giving adversaries the opportunities to exploit.
Cyber Vulnerability: India is overdependent on foreign owned search engines and social media giants challenge information sovereignty, leading to data insecurity. Weak regulation expose citizens to manipulation, surveillance and exploitation.
External Influence Operations: Both state and non-state actors—ranging from hostile neighbours to global disinformation networks—exploit India’s open digital space and social media vulnerabilities.
Information Disorder: Fake news, deepfakes, and targeted propaganda can transform domestic disputes into international controversies—as seen in the #FarmersProtest episode amplified by Rihanna and Greta Thunberg.
Operational Art in the War of Narratives
Almost all the principles of traditional warfare—selection and maintenance of aim, offensive action, cooperation, security, surprise, economy of effort, concentration, and flexibility—apply equally to information warfare and war of narratives. A few examples are indicated below.
Centre of Gravity (COG): Target audiences whose perceptions can change the tides of geopolitical discourse or war, or themes which can bring social transformation or unrest in target country/population.
Pre-emptive Strike: Time and seizing opportunity is of essence in information contested environment. There is a need to shape own narratives before the adversaries do.
Seizure and Maintenance of Initiative: Like any other war gaining and sustaining control of the information tempo through proactive storytelling pais rich dividend in the final outcome.
Flexibility of Force: There is a need to employ diverse channels like media, social media, diaspora, academia, for the maximum impact.
Counter-Narrative and Counter-Disinformation Campaigns
In the durable disorder or ‘No War No Peace’ scenario of today, information attacks in terms of fake narratives and disinformation campaigns by adversaries/potential adversaries is a new normal. To successfully fight back without undermining our own democratic norms, it requires agility and credibility. There are several interlocking approaches in underlying paras.
Rapid Rebuttal and Factual Adjudication: There is a need to deploy credible authorities to fact-check viral misinformation using geolocation, timestamps, and verified data. When false claims appear, the designated authority must quickly publish verifiable facts — documents, geolocation of images, timestamps, eyewitness corroboration. The speed of correction is often as important as correctness.
Pre-bunking/ Inoculation. Before an adversary’s narrative lands, expose audiences to the tactics and likely false claims they may encounter. Psychological studies show “pre-bunking” reduces the uptake of disinformation. Anticipate false narratives; educate audiences on disinformation tactics.
Narrative Pre-Positioning: Build and propagate your core story before crisis peaks: your strategic rationale, legal position, moral and legal justification, and likely evidence. Then rapid facts can be slotted into an existing, trusted narrative frame.
Platform Partnerships and Takedown: Collaborate with social-media companies /social platforms to flag, label, and limit the spread of coordinated inauthentic behaviour while protecting legitimate speech.
Localization and Multilanguage Outreach: In a country like India which has 22 official languages, there is a need to communicate targeted messages in local languages and cultural idioms to reach varied domestic audiences in regions where the conflict’s narrative will influence neutral audiences as well as global audiences.
These approaches balance the need for truthful communication with the agility required in modern information environments.
Why India Needs an Information-Warfare Doctrine?
India’s strategic environment is complex: asymmetric competitors, proxy actors, vast digital savvy population, a large diaspora, social polarisation, and a vibrant but fragmented media ecosystem. We face sustained state and non-state influence operations in our region. For these reasons, India needs a formal, coherent information-warfare doctrine. The goal is not censorship or curtailing free speech, but to organise capabilities, legal guardrails, and civil-military cooperation to protect national security and national interest in the information domain. The doctrine should lead to organising credible organisational structures and procedures to implement it. The Indian has a “Joint Doctrine on Perception Management and Psychological Operations[xiii]” of 2010 vintage, which seems to be outdated in the current context.
Suggested Components
Clear Strategic Objectives: Define political ends for information actions (deterrence, denial, shaping operations) within acceptable legal framework. The clarity prevents mission creep and aligns ministries, services and platforms towards well defined objectives.
Unified Command Structure: A national nodal agency/authority integrating civil and military for crisis communication and coordinated messaging. On practical note its important to coordinate various aspects before the crisis like — who speaks, what is released and what gets debunked, which will improve the credibility of official communication.
Legal & Ethical Framework: Rules for engagement, oversight, data protection, and transparency to preserve democratic norms and enable accountability must be enunciated. There is a need to lay down clear red lines preclude abuses and increase international legitimacy when proactive measures are used.
Integrated OSINT & Forensics Cell: Permanent real-time verification capability to geolocate imagery, verify videos, trace social botnets, and produce rapid forensic reports. Forensic debunking of fake battlefield footage limits adversary propaganda impact.
Cyber-Information Integration: Synchronize cyber operations (defence and limited offensive) with truthful messaging campaigns. Cyber actions that degrade an adversary’s propaganda channels should be synchronized with truthful information releases and carefully crafted information leaks. Creation of Defence Cyber Agency[xiv] in India is a good begining in this direction.
Strategic Communication Design: Like operational contingency planning, In information war too there is a need to have pre-crafted narratives for predictable contingencies: legal, moral, and operational messaging tailored by audience e.g., Pre-positioning the legal case for any cross-border strike reduces ambiguity and builds diplomatic space.
Rapid-Response “Truth Cell”: India needs a 24/7 fact-checking and rebuttal capability. Such a organisation/unit should be able to issue verified rebuttals within the first hours of an incident. Speed blunts viral falsehoods and verification preserves credibility.
Public Resilience & Media Literacy Programmes: A time has come to promote long-term investments in public literacy, journalistic standards, and digital critical thinking because a resilient public can reduce the efficacy of adversary narratives.
Platform Engagement & Global Partnerships: Cross-border disinformation often runs on multinational information infrastructure; hence, partnerships are essential. Formal liaison with major social platforms and with friendly states for shared threat intelligence and coordinated responses is needed.
Offensive Capabilities: There is a need to have prepared counter-influence measures and legal options for clandestine or overt influence operations against adversary’s audience, wherever strategic aims justify so. It should operate under transparent oversight frameworks to avoid embarrassment.
Measurement & Wargaming: Like military wargaming, there is a need to include information warfare in national exercises; assess reach and sentiment metrics and resilience. Its noteworthy what we cannot measure, we cannot manage.
Training & Doctrine Development: Build capacity among diplomats, military communicators, and media professionals on information warfare. This aspect can be incorporated in existing training programmes or new ones could be instituted.
Legitimacy and Proportionality. Legitimacy and proportionality must remain guiding principles. Legitimacy keeps domestic audiences trusting the messenger; proportionality ensures responses do not escalate unnecessarily.
Way Forward: Building a National Strategic-Communication Ecosystem
Whole-of-Nation Approach: Strategic communication must involve government, academia, think-tanks, civil society, media houses and diaspora networks. India must adopt a multi-domain, multi-agency strategy in this regard.
Strategic Communication Command: There is an urgent need to establish a central agency like a ‘Strategic Communication Command’ for information warfare and counter-propaganda, integrating capabilities from the armed forces, MEA, MIB, and cybersecurity institutions. It should conduct national-level wargame that includes an information-domain. A national Truth & Resilience Cell with OSINT (open source intelligence) forensic capacity should also be created under its umbrella.
Credibility as Core: Narratives rooted in verifiable truth and transparency outlast propaganda. Transparent briefings—like India’s communication after the Balakot strikes as well as Operation Sindoor neutralized adversary disinformation to a great extent. India must leverage its credibility as a force multiplier. Transparent COVID-19 vaccination campaign reporting building global trust is another success story.
Media Literacy & Resilience: Educating citizens to recognize fake news through media awareness campaigns is a positive step. There is a need to strengthen fact-checking establishments such as PIB’s Fact Check Cell/Unit. Building societal resilience against fake news through a combination of education, fact-checking, and awareness campaigns is vital.
Civil-Military Fusion in Information Domain: During Operation Sindoor[xv], Pakistan deployed fake videos, fabricated casualty figures, and a barrage of disinformation to manipulate international perception. Western and Chinese defence lobbies hijacked it, underplaying Pakistani military setbacks, to promote their platforms and commercial interests. India did counter it with fact-based briefings, digital campaigns, and controlled messaging. However, the delayed announcement of the ceasefire allowed foreign powers to capture narrative space—highlighting the need for more agile, real time strategic communication mechanisms in the future. A ceasefire announcement immediately after decision by India could have saved lot of effort put in later to fight the hijacked news and fake propaganda. India needs to establish protocols for coordinated, timely messaging during crises is utmost important.
Indigenous Platforms & Technology: Promote domestic search engines and social-media platforms, and invest in Artificial Intelligence, big-data analytics, and predictive tools to monitor narrative shifts and provide timely counter-messaging. Indian platforms will need government and public support/promotion/handholding to compete with international social media giants to survive to push self-reliance and data protection. Koo App tried as alternative to twitter could not survive because of lack of support is a case in point.
International Partnerships: Work with like-minded countries to share best practices and counter global disinformation networks. Collaborating with like-minded democracies to share intelligence, best practices, and regulatory norms can counter global disinformation networks. The QUAD’s cyber-resilience agenda offered a template for collaboration, however, under existing geopolitical situation it may not hold good promise.
Media and Narrative Resilience: Promote credible, fact-based journalism and social media literacy to inoculate the public against foreign disinformation. Encourage Indian global media voices to tell India’s story on the world stage.
Civil Society and Academia: Educate institutions about foreign influence risks and promote transparency in research funding and collaborations.
Legal Safeguards: Enact a Foreign Influence Transparency Law similar to Australia’s on the lines of Australian Foreign Interference Law, to regulate foreign funding in media and research as well as deterrence to deliberate initiators of fake news against national interest. The perpetual offenders of telling lies to damage national image or create panic must face a legal scrutiny and punitive cost, if accused.
Conclusion: Securing the Information Frontiers
In the twenty-first century, the battle for truth has become as decisive as battles for territory. In the global context, narratives define legitimacy, shape alliances, and influence the outcomes of wars as much as weapons do. In the Indian context, opportunities abound to leverage our vibrant democracy, demographic dividend, mitigating vulnerabilities—ranging from disinformation to external influence which pose serious risks.
The role of media and social media in narrative building is thus a double-edged sword. Harnessed wisely, it can amplify India’s voice and global standing. Left unguarded, it can fracture domestic unity and compromise strategic objectives. nFor India, the challenge lies in leveraging its technological capability, soft power, and global credibility to dominate the information domain, while preserving freedom of expression and democratic norms.
Strategic communication is no longer peripheral—it is central to national security and global standing. The state that wins the war of narratives wins the war of minds, and ultimately, the wars of the future.
Therefore, the challenge before Indian leadership is to institutionalize credible, coordinated, and resilient strategic communication ecosystems that protect national interests, project India’s story to the world, and secure the information frontiers of the 21st century.
[i] Asthana S B (2024), “Why global players must be concerned of new version of Charm Offensive in Xi Jinping 3.0 era?”, WION, 22 October,2024. [Online: Web] Accessed 10 September 2025, URL: https://www.wionews.com/opinions-blogs/why-global-players-must-be-concerned-of-new-version-of-charm-offensive-in-xi-jinping-30-era-583408.
[ii] Kautilya, The Arthshatra, Translated by Rangarajan L.N. 1992, Penguin Book, Gurgaon, India.
[iii] Sun Tzu. (5th Century BC). The Art of War. Translated by Giles Lionel 1910, Project Gutenberg, Luzac and Co. United Kingdom.
[iv] Qiao Liang & Wang Xiangsui(1999), Unrestricted Warfare. PLA Literature and Arts Publishing House, 1999, Beijing.
[v] Mattis Peter(2018), “China’s ‘Three Warfares’ in Perspective”, War on the Rocks, 30 January,2018, [Online: Web] Accessed 10 September 2025, URL: https://warontherocks.com/2018/01/chinas-three-warfares-perspective/.
[vi] Sean McFate (2019). The New Rules of War: Victory in the Age of Durable Disorder, Harper Collin and Blackstone Publishing, New York.
[vii] Walker and Dahal(2025), “At least 19 dead in Nepal after Gen Z protests at corruption and social media ban”, BBC News, 8 September, 2025. [Online: Web] Accessed 10 September 2025, URL: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c78nd2zy9jgo.
[viii] Zhang Denghua(2018), “The Concept of ‘Community of Common Destiny’ in China’s Diplomacy: Meaning, Motives and Implications”, Asia and the Pacific Policy Studies, Australian National University, 16 April,2018. . [Online: Web] Accessed 10 September 2025, URL: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/app5.231.
[ix] Hoey Alex (2025), “Strategic Communications”, Axero, 05 June,2025. [Online: Web] Accessed 10 September 2025, URL: https://axerosolutions.com/glossary/strategic-communications.
[x] Gilboa Eytan (2005), “The CNN Effect: The Search for a Communication Theory of International Relations”, Taylor & Francis, Inc ISSN: 1058-4609 print / 1091-7675.
[xi] Ryan King (2025), “Trump slaps sanctions on ICC over ‘illegitimate and baseless’ Netanyahu arrest warrant”, New York Post, 06 February,2025. [Online: Web] Accessed 10 September 2025, URL: https://nypost.com/2025/02/06/us-news/trump-slaps-sanctions-on-icc-over-netanyahu-arrest-warrant/.
[xii] Brown Lee (2021), “Greta Thunberg sparks criminal conspiracy probe in India with accidental tweet”, New York Post, 04 February,2021. [Online: Web] Accessed 10 September 2025, URL: https://nypost.com/2021/02/04/greta-thunberg-faces-probe-in-india-over-farm-protest-tweets/.
[xiii] Ministry of Defence, Headquarters Integrated Defence Staff, India. “Joint Doctrine on Perception Management and Psychological Operations ”, 2010. [Online: Web] Accessed 10 September 2025, URL: https://nypost.com/2025/02/06/us-news/trump-slaps-sanctions-on-icc-over-netanyahu-arrest-warrant/.
[xiv] Verma Anoop (2023), “Ability to wage cyber war best defence against cyber-attacks from state level adversary”, Economic Times,12 June,2023. [Online: Web] Accessed 10 September 2025, URL:https://government.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/secure-india/ability-to-wage-cyber-war-best-defence-against-cyber-attacks-from-state-level-adversaries/100927158
[xv] Asthana Shashi(2025), “Operation Sindoor: Application of Operational Art and Strategic Messaging”, Modern Diplomacy EU, 15 July,2025. [Online: Web] Accessed 10 September 2025, URL: https://moderndiplomacy.eu/2025/07/15/operation-sindoor-application-of-operational-art-and-strategic-messaging/.
The views expressed are personal views of the author, who retains the copy right. The author is a Globally acknowledged Strategic and Security Analyst, He can be reached at Facebook and LinkedIn as Shashi Asthana, @asthana_shashi on twitter, and personnel site https://asthanawrites.org/ email shashiasthana29@gmail.com LinkedIn Profile www.linkedin.com/in/shashi-asthana-4b3801a6. Youtube link https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCl50YRTBrOCVIxDtHfhvQDQ?view_as=subscriber
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