Editor’s Note
The methodologies of fighting our wars are being turned on its head. A slew of terminologies like 4G Warfare, Hybrid Wars, wars in the Space and Cyberspace; Hypersonic Weapons, Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, Machine Learning and a lot more crowds the long list of factors which pose a challenge for political and military leaders to develop full spectrum capabilities of their countries. The author leads us into another dimension – neuroscience’s application to achieve politico-military objectives. Readers will need the tenacity to appreciate the author’s endeavour to decode complex issues in simple terms and explain how the human brain can be catalyzed to respond in a customized pattern.
Status: Weapons Free – “Arm The Brain”
“Speaking of a future, at most only decades away, I foresee a time when we shall have the means and therefore, inevitably the temptation to manipulate the behaviour and intellectual functioning of all the people through environmental and biochemical manipulation of the brain”
Zbigniew Brezinski in ‘Between Two Ages, America’s Role in the Technotronic Era’ 1970
Professional Mechanised Forces the world over practice Sun Tzu’s Art of capitulation without giving battle. The art, refined through targeting the adversary’s mind is often alluded to as being the acme of skill. To quote the master himself, “For to win one hundred victories in one hundred battles is not skill. To subdue the enemy without fighting is the acme of skill.”
Amongst the many stratagems employed to get into the adversary’s mind space is to beat his Observe-Orient-Decide-Act (OODA) loop to make his understanding of the situation irrelevant and to convey to him that fighting is hopeless and collapse only a matter of time! John Boyd in ‘Patterns of Conflict,’ states, “Machines and terrain do not fight wars – People do so with their ‘Minds,’ which needs to be kept track of all the time. If you have the enemy’s mind, by getting inside his, you pull his socks down, conversely, he would pull yours.”
Only, now the game is focused and more scientifically oriented. The practitioners of warfare had better understand that there is deeper science at play here. Mythology has it that beautiful women with scheming minds, crafty mindsets and malafide intents, have all along been known to use their beauty to colour the thinking of the King, by having weaponized their beauty into a craft. Whilst, that fell strictly under the ambit of perception and mind games, the science of weaponizing the brain, is now a reality.
Mind games have existed since the advent of mankind and were used in competitions. The psychology of this game is one of perception that makes the aggressor superior, calling the shots and in turn makes the subject target-reactive, defensive and demoralised. The game was played out in India in the Valley by the adversary, till India awoke to the shenanigans and played one better. This attack on the unsuspecting and sub-conscious mind, often with devious and ulterior motives, to shape perceptions as desired by the initiator, can win exponential results-the type that Sun Tzu had postulated in the ‘Art of War.’
Kaleidoscope
Fake news to spread canards over Social Media networks is yet another mind game at play. Research in neurosciences has been focusing on enhancing the brainpower of the practitioners of war, which intelligently leads one to derive that work on the brainpower of the adversary through ‘targeted means’ is on the anvil. Interestingly, the manner in which the concept will unfold has added an altogether different dimension to warfare.
In international relations, Power Projection comprises both the hard and soft power options, adding to a nation’s Comprehensive National Power, amongst other renewed definitive sub-sets. Both ‘Power Projection’ and ‘Power Protection’ require tailor-made solutions for the application. Thomas Schelling, a Nobel Prize winner and Game Theory exponent, aptly propounded the concept of ‘Compellence’ and ‘Deterrence’ to achieve national objectives. Over time, Deterrence prevents the adversary from initiating something indefinitely, whilst, 
‘Compellence’ prompts the adversary to act in a particular manner. Now by either perception management or by altering the neurons in the brains, if the adversary were made to act/react in a particular manner, national objectives could be facilitated. The goal ultimately is to get into the adversary’s mind and disrupt his plans to facilitate our plans. This article is not about tenacity, superior psychological tactics and operational art, but about the science and technology of altering neurons in the brain to facilitate victory. It is about groundbreaking advances that aim to revolutionize national security capabilities.
National security paradigms have scope to be altered by harnessing the neurons of the brain to either facilitate exponentially the brainpower of those linked to undertake critical tasks or conversely, impact to degrade the adversary’s leadership. By altering those neurons its impact on human activities like emotions, reflexes and cognitive reactions can be tempered to impact individuals, groups or critical leadership. The effect of such a study on national security is axiomatic.
Some years ago, whispers in the corridors for economic competition floated a thought that the pharmaceutical industry was introducing viruses in the air to then study the impact of their anti-biotic on the human vector. The leak stemmed from the fact that new strains were in the offing and established prognosis drew a blank with viruses becoming immune to treatment.
There is also the known effect of psychedelic drugs like ‘Ecstasy,’ which were introduced in the US Army in the 1960s as a psychotherapy medication to “lower inhibitions.” A decade later it surfaced in the civil circles as a party drug for the sense of euphoria it created amongst 
the consumers. The drug was also used by the US Army to treat Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and as neuro-enhancers to get the best out of soldiers. {In the good old days, in India too, some old Cavaliers were known to exhibit eclectic clarity on operational matters post subsuming a splash or two of the then ‘issued supplement’ (read Rum)}!
In 1995, Aum Shinrikyo, a Japanese doomsday cult released the nerve agent, Sarin Gas in the Tokyo subway killing 13 people and severely injuring scores of others as part of acts of Bio-terrorism. The method used was to hinder police investigation into the cult’s activities and spark the apocalypse they believed in. As per ‘Livesciences.com and Wikipedia,’ “Like other nerve agents, Sarin gas targets an enzyme within the body’s neuromuscular junctions, where nerves meet muscles. Usually, this enzyme deactivates the nerve-signalling molecule acetylcholine.” Research on the Chemical and Biological agents is ongoing and is fortunately governed by strict statutes on their trials and monitored by international safeguards.
Geo-political, military and social power of the brain provides operational leverages by tempering cognition, emotion and behaviour. Therein lies the appeal to harness ‘brainpower.’ The study promises to directly affect the attitudes, beliefs, thoughts, emotions, activities, vulnerabilities and pre-dispositions as an end-use. The brain as a weapon can be used to both kinetic and non-kinetic effects.
Prof Jonathan Marino in his book “Mind Wars” explains how the brain and cognitive sciences have been used in the past in matters of National Security and Intelligence by the US and a host of other countries who has invested a portion of their GDP in research in the field. Apart from the US, the nations’ pursuing research in the field are, Canada, UK, Israel, Europe and Japan; China which scientists presume would have 50 per cent share of the market by 2030, pursuing the project through the ‘Triple Helix’ (Government, Academia and Industry); Russia, Iran, North Korea, Bolivia, and yes, India. There are also Non-State actors and virtual nations (establishing sovereignty within sovereignty) in the fray.
Gravitas of the Effect
The dual-use technologies in medical and militaries need to be extremely sensitive to the medical research in the field and require harsh Government Statutes for ethics and probity to ward off non-state actors using the material for blackmail. Any implant in the brain to treat a medical condition for enhancing neurological functions can easily be tempered for weaponizing effects. There are several foreign 
companies as leaders in the field of pacemakers that monitor the heart rate in patients real-time and can initiate electric impulses to trigger enhanced rates, should the patient’s heart condition require so. What this intervention could do for a scheming mind reflects on its potential.
Neuro-imaging can bring out Behavioral studies, emotion indexing and group acceptability and conclusive patterns can be drawn. The pattern could be orchestrated to alleviate own troops from the effects of protracted engagements and consequent lowering of morale that follows due to lack of sleep and food. Study of such patterns is now being seen as a command responsibility much like the training programmes in a unit. There are intervention technologies available to have the reverse effect on the adversary. Technologies facilitating this are as follows:-
(a) Neuro-Cognitive Manipulation: Carried out by instituting changes in the working memory, that keeps information in a highly accessible state, dictating recall in the pedagogic curriculum. The working memory through biological experimentation like gene editing or drug use and implants can be manipulated to improve the quality and capabilities of the brain. An implant to treat Parkinson’s is already on the anvil, making the human brain vulnerable to manipulation. To quote an extract from an article published in the US National Library of Medicine, titled, ‘Neurocognitive Development of the Ability to Manipulate Information in Working Memory,’ “due to growing knowledge of the neural mechanisms active during memory formation, it may in the near future become possible to enhance or delete memories, or even, using emerging brain-stimulation techniques, transfer thoughts from one individual to another.”
(b) Directed Energy Neuro Weapons: The use of Psychotropic weapons, with their ability, through extremely low frequency (ELF), aves to manipulate a person’s emotions, thoughts and bodily functions, often from a remote location are known to be in use.
The US intelligence believes Russia used the weapon on their embassy in Havana and China. Its use can cause auditory hallucinations and protracted use, brain injury. Of late in India, the crashes of IAF transport flights in the East, it is felt, could have been attributed to use of these weapons by China.
(c) Novel Neuro Weapons: The pharmaceutical industry plays a major role in the development of drugs, bugs and toxins at times under the garb of treatment for morbid changes in the anatomy. As per the ‘Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists,’ Chicago, “Numerous microbes and toxins that target the nervous system also have potential to affect decisions about whether to fight or surrender and could significantly impede adversarial soldiers. For example, the parasite Toxoplasma gondii can cause impulsivity, agitation, and confusion.”
(d) Brain Computer Interface (BCI): Real-time neural sensing activity can be monitored using invasive and non-invasive tools using both open and closed-loop mechanisms. Revolutionizing prosthetics with semi motor control, by targeting patients living with injuries. In an article ‘Restoring sensorimotor functions through intracortical interfaces: progress and looming challenges,’ written by S.J. Bensmaia and L.E. Miller, and published for Northwestern University on Physiology, the medical restoration process has been described in detail. Lockheed Martin has been facilitating DARPA, the US for many years perhaps to derive operational benefits. The potential of this is such that by surgically implanting a microchip, a paralytic patient can even steer flight-simulated models. It enables direct communication between humans and machines and monitors neural states associated with vigilance, fatigue, emotions, decision-making, perception, and general cognitive ability.
(e) Neuro-Micro Biology: The field encompasses interactions between micro-biome and the central nervous system. Micro-biome is known to impact human health. The ‘Gut micro-biota’ plays a key role in essential processes in both health and disease through the gut-brain axis contributing to Autism Spectrum Disorders, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease, depression, and anxiety disorder. Once this nexus is established, microbiologists can facilitate modulating doses to affect target population as previously explained.
Weapon Classification
If through the study of the brain, the answers to what makes an individual tick gets known, then that neuron can be targeted to make the individual react in a particular manner, whenever the situation warrants. This opens Pandora’s box for options. Weapons classification in the field takes the following form:-
- As Soft Weapon: For economic leverages, Intelligence and Psychological operations.
- As Hard Weapon: The use of chemicals as drugs and other agents, biological as microbes and toxins and also as devices have found utility. Neuro-technologies and Biological Drones used as Hybrid, all in the category. As per a report in the UK Express of May 2018, “Half-man, half-machine Cybernetic Organism (cyborg) weapon system hybrids are slowly becoming a reality after scientists created working lab-grown muscles that mimic human movements.” Scientists at the Institute of Industrial Sciences, University of Tokyo, claim, “Successful integration of human muscles with robots is now a reality.” The researchers further claim to “have developed a so-called bio-hybrid robot out of muscle tissue wrapped around a robotic skeleton, kept alive and functioning for a week.” Imagine having to fight cyborgs in the next war.
Conclusion
Has the world adequately analysed and discussed the dual-use implications of neuroscience, particularly its various military applications, and the extent to which operational safeguards and societal controls are needed for management and control of the malice? Perhaps not!
The defining line between Medical and Military research is blurred and concerted efforts have been made to weaponize the human anatomy. Much like the Big Data Analytics and economic fall out thereof, the Digitized Medical Records would solicit equal interest in the international market, for it would open up flood gates for manipulation of those critical medical records whose prescriptions could be altered to facilitate change in their behaviour at the opportune time through either Kinetic or Non-Kinetic intervention.
Image Courtesy: Cartoon stock
As per Prof James Giordano, Chief of the Neuro-ethics Studies Program, Professor in the Departments of Neurology and Biochemistry at Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington, DC, USA, “Neuro Science puts the Brain at our fingertips. Now whether that’s to Help, Heal or Harm depends on how we put this at play. In this field, you’ve got to ‘Measure twice and cut once’ – else, sometimes you can’t go back!”
Brig Yogesh Kapoor (Retd), VSM
(Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of BharatShakti.in)
