Published on, Sept. 30 -- September 30, 2025 12:21 AM

In recent years, Pakistan has increasingly confronted the challenges of proxy warfare, a defining feature of Fifth-Generation Warfare (5GW). Unlike traditional conflicts, 5GW emphasises non-kinetic strategies such as cyber operations, information manipulation, psychological warfare, and the deployment of non-state actors to achieve strategic objectives. The deliberate blurring of boundaries between state and non-state actors complicates attribution, confounds international accountability, and allows adversaries to destabilise Pakistan indirectly. Over the past decade, regions such as Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and the former Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) have been e...