Strategic Challenges for COIN and the GWOT

[Jedburgh]

From the Strategic Studies Institute:

Strategic Challenges for Counterinsurgency and the Global War on Terrorism (http://www.strategicstudiesinstitute.army.mil/pdffiles/PUB710.pdf)

"This collection of essays written by students enrolled in the U.S. Army War College Advanced Strategic Art Program (ASAP) reflects the development of their strategic thought applied to a wide range of contemporary issues based in theory, doctrine, strategy and history."

Contents

1. Introduction: Professional Military Education and the 21st Century

2. From the Ashes of the Phoenix: Lessons for Contemporary Countersurgency Operations

3. Moral Power and a Hearts-and-Minds Strategy in Post-Conflict Operations

4. Operation IRAQI FREEDOM: The Long Road toward Successful U.S. Strategy in Iraq

5. Chinese Oil Dependence: Opportunities and Challenge

6. Preemption and Nuclear Nonproliferation: Conflicting Means to an End

7. NATO: Still Relevant after All These Years?

8. Economic and Military Impact of China’s Growth in the Asia-Pacific Region

9. Transformation of the 36th Infantry Division, Texas Army National Guard

10. In the Aftermath of Operation IRAQI FREEDOM: European Support for the Global War on Terrorism

11. The Dark Fruit of Globalization: Hostile Use of the Internet

12. A Strategic Analysis of the Maneuver Enhancement Brigade

13. Strategic Recommendations for Democratic Afghanistan

14. Al-Qa’ida as Insurgency: The Quest for Islamic Revolution

[selil]

Point #11 got MY attention.

ETA: Anybody who can get me an interview wit Lt Colnel Megil would be greatly thanked.

He makes what appears one substantial error. He considers the Internet a secondary or tertiary source of attack (gaining intelligence, communications, etc..). I think it is a primary method of attack and can be used that way substantially. Otherwise a good read.

[marct]

He makes what appears one substantial error. He considers the Internet a secondary or tertiary source of attack (gaining intelligence, communications, etc..). I think it is a primary method of attack and can be used that way substantially. Otherwise a good read.

You can toss in another error when he says that the 'net was "developed as an agent of economic change" - he should study its history better :cool:

I also have to admit that his harping on the US as the source behind globalization is really begining to bug me - he needs to read economic history.

Okay, I just finished reading the entire chapter (11) and I have to say that if he handed that in in one of my first year courses, I wouldn't give him more than a "C". If he had bothered to read any of the literature about online communities and/or hacker communies I would be more impressed. At the minimum, he has missed all the opportunities for constructing disinformation campaigns. He also hasn't bothered to deal with any of the rather sophisticated techniques currently being used by various law enforcement groups in combating online pedophiles. Not once does he mention "script attacks" and the possibility for manipulating them. Aheesh, now I;m starting to get mad!

Selil, you are absolutely right - he is mistaking the importance of the 'net due to a lack of knowledge and imagination.

Marc

[Tc2642]

Point #11 got MY attention.

ETA: Anybody who can get me an interview wit Lt Colnel Megil would be greatly thanked.

He makes what appears one substantial error. He considers the Internet a secondary or tertiary source of attack (gaining intelligence, communications, etc..). I think it is a primary method of attack and can be used that way substantially. Otherwise a good read.

What also must be remebered is that people like us, civilan and military alike can discuss ideas and theory that would not have been possible without the internet. My own feelings are that this site itself is a form of 4GW, I do remember reading somewhere in the Toffler's 'War and anti War' about this and 'Unrestricted Warfare' tells (my words, from memory so please excuse any misquotes) something of the fact that it will be the 'pasty faced geeks' who will come to be the new soldiers of tommorow. (I have a rather healthy complextion I might add, not saying I am a solider by any means tho, rather an enthusiastic ametuer war theorist):)

[selil]

something of the fact that it will be the 'pasty faced geeks' who will come to be the new soldiers of tommorow. (I have a rather healthy complextion I might add, not saying I am a solider by any means tho, rather an enthusiastic ametuer war theorist):)


I remember a quote.something like.... "All men are amateur soldiers until they've seen combat. Then they are simply survivors."

[marct]

I thought it might be useful to post a few links on some of the more advanced 'net analysis technology - some based on online communities, some on other areas. All of these are "open source information" (if not open source code).

Marc Smith (http://research.microsoft.com/~masmith/) at Microsoft Research is one of the pioneers of analysis of online communities. He is involved in several interesting projects:



Netscan (http://netscan.research.microsoft.com/), which tracks users in public newsgroups and is capable of drawing inferences about user community interactions. Most of the actual technology they have is still "hidden" (i.e. in-house proprietary). I've been using Netscan for about 5 years now in a variety of ways


A.U.R.A. (http://aura.research.microsoft.com/Aura/DesktopDefault.aspx?tabName=Home) (Asvanced User Annotation System) has some interestng possibilities as an intel tool


SNARF (http://research.microsoft.com/community/snarf/) (Social Network Relationship Finder) is an email triage system that someone with a sneaky mind could find very useful

Danyel Fisher (http://research.microsoft.com/~danyelf/), also at MSR, has some interesting components available as well.

One of the main commmunications devices for Internet Community researchers is the Association of Internet Researchers list serve (AIR-l (http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org)). On the latest projections of the evolution of the Internet, see The Future of the Internet II (http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/188/report_display.asp).

Marc