Ghosts in the machine: How non-state actors like Hamas technologically adapt to level the playing field in asymmetric conflicts

Abstract

Non-state actors have increasingly become the primary force in current conflicts, employing unorthodox tactics to battle against state governments. Non-state groups lack sufficient military power to fight against state forces, so they use guerrilla warfare, terrorist attacks and creative military strategies to fight another day while working toward their political goals. Their survival and success depend on ingenuity over brute force, and technology has become their essential operational domain in their effort to gain an advantage over militarily superior state governments. The thesis examined how non-state actors use digital technology in their core activities such as propaganda, radicalization, recruitment of new members, funding, training, and covert operations. The methodology focused on the case study of the Hamas-Israel conflict which provided an excellent opportunity to study how warfare has developed through time and how technology can level the playing field between non-state and state actors. Hamas has used technology innovatively to counter Israel's superior conventional military power. The thesis studied how the group evolved through its history from basic community-based training with simple rockets into its current hybrid operation which led to the October 7 attacks. The study observed that the operation combined various low and high-tech innovations to achieve a destructive outcome which proved that creative tactical approaches can take advantage of defense systems that depend too heavily on advanced technology. In the aftermath of the attack, the Israeli government has accelerated its technological progress through the deployment of AI-based targeting systems, autonomous drones and its extensive monitoring of Gaza. That shift underscores a core dilemma: whether the most advanced technological systems can resolve the strategic and human intelligence deficits which asymmetric threats have exposed or if they will create more efficient yet vulnerable systems. The Israel-Hamas conflict seems to have defined a new era of warfare, where innovation and adaptation may be the ultimate weapons.