Networks and Netwars

Networks and Netwars
Author: John Arquilla
Publisher: Rand Corporation
Total Pages: 391
Release: 2001-11-05
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0833032356

Netwar-like cyberwar-describes a new spectrum of conflict that is emerging in the wake of the information revolution. Netwar includes conflicts waged, on the one hand, by terrorists, criminals, gangs, and ethnic extremists; and by civil-society activists (such as cyber activists or WTO protestors) on the other. What distinguishes netwar is the networked organizational structure of its practitioners-with many groups actually being leaderless-and their quickness in coming together in swarming attacks. To confront this new type of conflict, it is crucial for governments, military, and law enforcement to begin networking themselves.

Net.wars

Net.wars
Author: Wendy Grossman
Publisher: NYU Press
Total Pages: 260
Release: 1998
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9780814731031

London-based American journalist Grossman continues her coverage of the Internet by assessing the battles she believes will define its future. Among them are scams, class divisions, privacy, the Communications Decency Act, women online, pornography, hackers and the computer underground, criminals, and sociopaths. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

The Advent Of Netwar

The Advent Of Netwar
Author: John Arquilla
Publisher: Rand Corporation
Total Pages: 134
Release: 1996
Genre: Communications, Military
ISBN: 9780833048523

The information revolution is leading to the rise of network forms of organization, with unusual implications for how societies are organized and conflicts are conducted. "Netwar" is an emerging consequence. The term refers to societal conflict and crime, short of war, in which the antagonists are organized more as sprawling "leaderless" networks than as tight-knit hierarchies. Many terrorists, criminals, fundamentalists, and ethno-nationalists are developing netwar capabilities. A new generation of revolutionaries and militant radicals is also emerging, with new doctrines, strategies, and technologies that support their reliance on network forms of organization. Netwar may be the dominant mode of societal conflict in the 21st century. These conclusions are implied by the evolution of societies, according to a framework presented in this RAND study. The emergence of netwar raises the need to rethink strategy and doctrine to conduct counternetwar. Traditional notions of war and low-intensity conflict as a sequential process based on massing, maneuvering, and fighting will likely prove inadequate to cope with nonlinear, swarm-like, information-age conflicts in which societal and military elements are closely intermingled.

The Dynamics of Military Revolution, 1300-2050

The Dynamics of Military Revolution, 1300-2050
Author: MacGregor Knox
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 236
Release: 2001-08-27
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780521800792

This book studies the changes that have marked war in the Western World since the thirteenth century.

Intelligence and Security Informatics

Intelligence and Security Informatics
Author: Paul Kantor
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 692
Release: 2005-05-12
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 3540259996

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Intelligence and Security Informatics, ISI 2005, held in Atlanta, GA, USA in May 2005. The 28 revised full papers, 34 revised short papers, and 32 poster abstracts presented were carefully reviewed and selected for inclusion in the book. The papers are organized in topical sections on data and text mining, infrastructure protection and emergency response, information management and security education, deception detection and authorship analysis, monitoring and surveillance, and terrorism informatics.

The Zapatista "Social Netwar" in Mexico

The Zapatista
Author: David Ronfeldt
Publisher: Rand Corporation
Total Pages: 183
Release: 1999-02-03
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0833043323

The information revolution is leading to the rise of network forms of organization in which small, previously isolated groups can communicate, link up, and conduct coordinated joint actions as never before. This in turn is leading to a new mode of conflict--netwar--in which the protagonists depend on using network forms of organization, doctrine, strategy, and technology. Many actors across the spectrum of conflict--from terrorists, guerrillas, and criminals who pose security threats, to social activists who may not--are developing netwar designs and capabilities. The Zapatista movement in Mexico is a seminal case of this. In January 1994, a guerrilla-like insurgency in Chiapas by the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN), and the Mexican government's response to it, aroused a multitude of civil-society activists associated with human-rights, indigenous-rights, and other types of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to swarm--electronically as well as physically--from the United States, Canada, and elsewhere into Mexico City and Chiapas. There, they linked with Mexican NGOs to voice solidarity with the EZLN's demands and to press for nonviolent change. Thus, what began as a violent insurgency in an isolated region mutated into a nonviolent though no less disruptive social netwar that engaged the attention of activists from far and wide and had nationwide and foreign repercussions for Mexico. This study examines the rise of this social netwar, the information-age behaviors that characterize it (e.g., extensive use of the Internet), its effects on the Mexican military, its implications for Mexico's stability, and its implications for the future occurrence of social netwars elsewhere around the world.

Fighting Terror in Cyberspace

Fighting Terror in Cyberspace
Author: Mark Last
Publisher: World Scientific
Total Pages: 184
Release: 2005
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 9812564934

As became apparent after the tragic events of September 11, 2001, terrorist groups are increasingly using the Internet as a communication and propaganda tool where they can safely communicate with their affiliates, coordinate action plans, raise funds, and introduce new supporters to their networks. This is evident from the large number of web sites run by different terrorist organizations, though the URLs and geographical locations of these web sites are frequently moved around the globe. The wide use of the Internet by terrorists makes some people think that the risk of a major cyber-attack against the communication infrastructure is low. However, this situation may change abruptly once the terrorists decide that the Net does not serve their purposes anymore and, like any other invention of our civilization, deserves destruction.Fighting Terror in Cyberspace is a unique volume, which provides, for the first time, a comprehensive overview of terrorist threats in cyberspace along with state-of-the-art tools and technologies that can deal with these threats in the present and in the future. The book covers several key topics in cyber warfare such as terrorist use of the Internet, the Cyber Jihad, data mining tools and techniques of terrorist detection on the web, analysis and detection of terror financing, and automated identification of terrorist web sites in multiple languages. The contributors include leading researchers on international terrorism, as well as distinguished experts in information security and cyber intelligence. This book represents a valuable source of information for academic researchers, law enforcement and intelligence experts, and industry consultants who are involved in detection, analysis, and prevention of terrorist activities on the Internet.

Open Networks, Closed Regimes

Open Networks, Closed Regimes
Author: Shanthi Kalathil
Publisher: Carnegie Endowment
Total Pages: 235
Release: 2010-11
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 087003331X

As the Internet diffuses across the globe, many have come to believe that the technology poses an insurmountable threat to authoritarian rule. Grounded in the Internet's early libertarian culture and predicated on anecdotes pulled from diverse political climates, this conventional wisdom has informed the views of policymakers, business leaders, and media pundits alike. Yet few studies have sought to systematically analyze the exact ways in which Internet use may lay the basis for political change. In O pen Networks, Closed Regimes, the authors take a comprehensive look at how a broad range of societal and political actors in eight authoritarian and semi-authoritarian countries employ the Internet. Based on methodical assessment of evidence from these cases—China, Cuba, Singapore, Vietnam, Burma, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt—the study contends that the Internet is not necessarily a threat to authoritarian regimes.

In Athena's Camp

In Athena's Camp
Author: John Arquilla
Publisher: Rand Corporation
Total Pages: 529
Release: 1997-10-07
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 0833048589

The information revolution--which is as much an organizational as a technological revolution--is transforming the nature of conflict across the spectrum: from open warfare, to terrorism, crime, and even radical social activism. The era of massed field armies is passing, because the new information and communications systems are increasing the lethality of quite small units that can call in deadly, precise missile fire almost anywhere, anytime. In social conflicts, the Internet and other media are greatly empowering individuals and small groups to influence the behavior of states. Whether in military or social conflicts, all protagonists will soon be developing new doctrines, strategies, and tactics for swarming their opponents--with weapons or words, as circumstances require. Preparing for conflict in such a world will require shifting to new forms of organization, particularly the versatile, hardy, all-channel network. This shift will prove difficult for states and professional militaries that remain bastions of hierarchy, bound to resist institutional redesign. They will make the shift as they realize that information and knowledge are becoming the key elements of power. This implies, among other things, that Mars, the old brute-force god of war, must give way to Athena, the well-armed goddess of wisdom. Accepting Athena as the patroness of this information age represents a first step not only for preparing for future conflicts, but also for preventing them.