Kautilya’s Arthashastra, Hybrid Warfare and the Fractal Nature of Military Thinking

Abstract

This article claims that addressing the hybrid nature of conflict, there is scope for new definitions, concepts, assumptions and generalisations at various levels of abstraction. By establishing connections to prior classics, each method contributes to the meaningful synthesis or combination of vast volumes of knowledge to enhance comprehension of real-world events. As a philosophy of warfare, hybrid warfare is successful, enhances research value, and creates maturity of a corpus of war knowledge. Still, every theory of war entails theorising about irregular, fragmented patterns with different levels of intricacy. The Arthashastra, an epic work by Kautilya, clarifies that any such allusion could compromise a solid comprehension of the message and theoretical implications of hybrid warfare. It detaches theory from its practical relevance and forbids decoding particular historical circumstances.