While the previous wars were about jointmanship between the services, the future war will be dictated by the civil-military integration. The core instrumentality of threat and use of force to achieve political outcomes have changed since the end of the Cold War. The creeping difference between war and conflict is changing the way the confrontations and crisis are being engineered and handled. Emerging threats are exploiting new technologies and finding new uses for the old one. Similarly, the practitioners of defence are finding new methods to engage in sub-threshold warfare using Non-Contact Warfare. Thus, a much wider array of agencies are now involved in the development and implementation of national security policy.  A whole-of-government effort might better define the instruments of power.

Non-Contact Warfare: An Appraisal of China`s Military Capabilities tries to demystify the term `Non-Contact Warfare` and explores the labyrinth of doctrinal development post World War II. China, as a consummate practitioner of realpolitik, is confronted with the challenge of contesting with the US. China is aware of the futility of engaging in a protracted war with the US, as it can derail its dreams of `Great Rejuvenation`. Defeating the superior through the adoption of superior strategy and structures and asymmetric means seems to be Chinese ploy of controlling the war. Xi Jinping has pushed its military through a comprehensive reform to deal with this new-age warfare. The book explores the structures and strategy of China`s People`s Liberation Army in orchestrating non-contact warfare. The black-swan event like COVID-19 contagion has precipitated a crisis where immediate confrontations may not happen. Disruption, denial, distortion, disempowerment, destabilisation and destruction are few themes that the world is likely to witness as the dominance strategy using non-contact warfare gets unfolded. India cannot remain untouched when the world is practicing non-contact warfare. India must firewall its security.

Brigadier Vivek Verma, Senior Research Fellow at the United Services Institute of India, has over three decades of active service experience across all terrain and operations. A keen China observer, he holds two Mastersdegree- Weapons Technology from Pune University and Defence and Strategic Studies from Madras University, Chennai. He completed Master of Philosophy from Panjab University, Chandigarh and is currently pursuing his doctorate from Amity University, Noida, Uttar Pradesh on Non-Contact Warfare. He had been closely associated with the reports on issues of strategic significance as the Deputy Director at the Indian Army Think Tank, Centre for Land Warfare Studies, New Delhi. It is his first book that explores China`s military capabilities to deal with the new paradigm of Non-Contact Warfare.