Achieving Resilience through Digitalization, Sustainability and Sectoral Transformation - What Are the Long Term Strategic Options and Reforms for Sri Lanka Armed Forces

Abstract

Periodic circumstances in Sri Lanka’s history have warranted strategic realignment of its instruments of national power to suit changing global and regional power dynamics. Recent global events and regional incidents have pushed Sri Lanka to look inward and among others rethink its Economic, Foreign and Military Grand Strategies. The paper touches upon unconventional/asymmetric warfare, cyber warfare and the use of Intelligence and clandestine operations as an alternative to ensuring national security and a war strategy for numerically inferior smaller states. Clausewitz asserts that the defensive mode of warfare possesses inherent strength surpassing that of the offensive. In order to overcome this formidable defensive strength, Clausewitz contends that an army's most effective weapon is the advantage of superior numerical strength. Based on this theoretical framework, it may be argued that a significant number of countries globally face economic constraints that prevent them from maintaining numerically superior military forces. In his book "Spec Ops," William H. McRaven postulates that smaller forces might attain a position of relative supremacy within limited timeframes. The paper does not establish a connection between the concept of relative supremacy and the instruments of power related to Diplomacy and Foreign Policy, Trade, and Economy. The concept is often emphasised in the military sphere as a feasible path of action.