Social Media and Unconventional Warfare
http://www.soc.mil/swcs/swmag/archiv...ediaAndUW.html
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Social media — blogs, social-network sites, information aggregators, wikis, livecasting, video sharing — has decisively altered that most extreme of socio-politico acts: revolution. The 2011 Arab Spring revolutions in North Africa and the Middle East were engineered through citizen-centric computer and cellular-phone technologies that streamed web-enabled social exchanges. The Arab Spring has profound implications for the U.S. special-operations mission of unconventional warfare. This article posits that the study, practice and successful execution of future UW must deliberately account for and incorporate social media.
This excellent article is on the Blog, but due to technical problems with our social media it isn't possible to discuss it there, so I opted to transfer it to the council.
LTC Petit's article is a long overdue discussion topic for the Special Forces community. I recall that the last time it was surfaced it was rapidly dismissed by officers who don't understand the power of this new medium. It is a disruptive technology that allows anyone with access to this medium to not only share tactics, coordinate actions, but to upload multimedia (voice, video, images, text, etc.) to shape the narrative and potentially mobilize people to action. It doesn't mean that older forms of information broadcasting are obsolete, radio broadcasts, T.V. programs, leaflet drops, etc. are still useful means in conveying a message, but more often than not the interpretation of these broadcast messages will formed in the realm of social media. Most in the military understand that government officials (including the military) prefer to get their information from official sources, but the people often distrust these sources and prefer to get their information from their peers (to include fellow social media peers).
I initially had two areas that I was critical of regarding this article, the first was that Brian didn't adequately define social media, yet by accident I discovered the images in the article are links to additional information. To gain a better understanding of social media simply click on the image of the SmartPhone. That left me with on critique, and that was Brian's suggestion that Special Forces soldiers in the future given the authorities and situational awareness could use this medium to support their UW mission.
I don't disagree, and definitely support pursuing this, but offer the following observations. First the authorities issue, as many know we're not agile in the information realm, and decisions on what can and can't be shared are often made several levels of command up in the chain of command by those least aware of what is happening the ground. Social media by definition is interactive, and if you can't interact you can't play. I think if we're supporting a resistance movement or insurgency that is competing the domain of social media we risk formally or informally imposing our restrictive authorities on those we're trying to help. It may be better to informally encourage them to act on their own without asking higher for permission. I tried to get Iraqis to do their own MISO without asking permission from us instead of complaining about our slow approval process and complaining about how the insurgents were running circles around us. I suggested it was their country so of course they could make their own decisions, but they wouldn't, so if even if it isn't our intent to interfer with the resistance use of the social media, it could still happen.
Addressing the second point, situational awareness, it is unlikely that our soldiers will have the SA or language skills (in most cases) at least initially, so the best approach may be to provide the means (technology) and maybe some advise on how to project their message and effectively shape the narrative, but ultimately it is the local with the Smartphone that will engage in this domain instead of the SF soldier. One area I would hope we could help with is monitoring the narrative (an expert cell sitting at Fort anywhere in the U.S. can do this) and provide the resistance what the global perceptions of their narrative is, so they can adjust it if they see fit to do so.
I am just happy that the SF community is exploring this, and regardless of what route they ultimately decide to pursue, I hope at a minimum they add a block of instruction on social media to SFQC, and then advanced courses in ANCOC, WOAC, and NPS/SOF curriculum at CGSC, etc.
Moderator's minor note: the thread's title was Social Media and Unconventional Media till today, but the author noted his mistake and it has been corrected.
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the medium is the mess age
That's funny, an article on the importance of social media can't be commented on due to technical difficulties, "Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!".:)
Joking aside, and as others are pointing out, the powers of 21st century social media may well be formidable, but potential 'market saturation' of a bogus and unfocussed narrative can now have theatre-wide, even global negative impact. Naturally, this cuts both ways for any respective participants.
The 21st century mediums might do well to also focus on what they hope to manifest with their strategic ectoplasm, not just how many tables they can turn.
Having said that, studies may indicate that humans tend to prefer bogus narratives that pander to their preconceived notions, thus consigning narrative generation to a subordinate position viz the target audience.:rolleyes:
Syria’s online army is simply playing into Assad’s hands
An interesting article IMHO, curious to see the references to the FLN in Algeria; this has been copied from the thread on Media & UW.
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So does Syria’s uprising need more technologically savvy multimedia activists? Or – to be blunt – does it require more people inside the country blowing things up? In the end, which poses the greater threat to a repressive regime: its atrocities being instantly relayed across the world on Twitter, or a well-armed, tightly organised insurgency?
The 13 months of Syria’s revolt have starkly illustrated the limits of social media as an engine of revolution, and of the claims made for the internet’s transformative power.
Link:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...ads-hands.html
WEB 2.0 and International Relations
Not directly related to Brian's excellent article but this 8:51 minute You Tube video is worth watching (it is the one that Daniel Drezner is referring to in his article below). I hear 20 cents bouncing on the floor as the traditional paradigm is breaking!! :-)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSZqP...ature=youtu.be
I have seen the future of teaching and it scares the bejeezus out of me
Posted By Daniel W. Drezner Tuesday, April 10, 2012 - 12:46 PM Share
http://drezner.foreignpolicy.com/pos...ezus_out_of_me
I like to think of myself as a pretty good teacher. I've been doing this for more than 15 years, and while I've dabbled in the fancier technologies, I've concluded that the meat and potatoes of podium, lectern, chalk, and blackboard have worked the best.
At last week's International Studies Association meetings, however, I participated in a panel on "Transnational Politics and Information Technology," in which Charli Carpenter delivered the following presentation:
(link above)
Now, I'm clearly pretty comfortable with Web 2.0 technologies, and some of the themes Carpenter touches on in this presentation echoes points I've made on this blog and... co-authoring with Carpenter. To be blunt, however, if this is the standard to which future international relations teaching pedagogy will be held... then the future is going to kick my ass.
Seriously, watch the whole thing.
Containing Weapons of Mass Surveillance
A superb headline and title on FP Blog, with a focus on the response of the Syrian state electronically and the recent Executive Order on supplies to Syria:
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President Obama is on the right track with Monday's executive order, but the United States needs to get tougher on the global digital arms race.
Link:http://www.foreignpolicy.com/article...ance?page=full
I shall leave aside the clear and present danger at home for weapons of mass surveillance.
On Twitter, It’s Content, Not Contacts That Matter
CWOT, a SWC member, has this intriguing post 'On Twitter, It’s Content, Not Contacts That Matter', which refers to a research finding:
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“Influence” doesn’t necessarily mean what you think it does. In the age of the social-media celebrity, a glut of Twitter followers or particularly pugnacious sampling of pithy updates are often the hallmarks of an influencer. But new research suggests that influence is situational at best: as people compete for the attention of the broader online ecosystem, the relevance of your message to the existing conversation of those around you trumps any innate “power” a person may have.
The cited research:http://www.nature.com/srep/2012/1203...srep00335.html
For CWOT's comments:http://selectedwisdom.com/?p=620
Making Sense of the Jigsaw
I've been looking at the impact of social media and warfare of late, so thought it might help SWC readers to add a couple of pointers. Especially after a non-SWC member added:
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... there are few who have grasped the full implications of social networking for public order, security etc
Hat tip to Tim Stevens, Kings War Studies to the work of Daniel Bennett, from the BBC and a Ph.D student:
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My thesis considered the impact of blogging and 'new' media on the BBC's coverage of war and terrorism.
Daniel has a blog:http://mediatingconflict.blogspot.co.uk/
More an information-gathering point maybe; I was intrigued by the possibilities in his piece 'Links on Twitter and Mapping', notably a map of newspapers:http://mediatingconflict.blogspot.co...d-mapping.html
The non-SWC member pointed to another blogsite, with an article from September 2011 'How government could use social media to improve its response to public crises', which opens with:
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Over the last couple of months I have been watching with interest how social media has been used during a number of crisis events and how governments have reacted to and made use of these technologies. It has been an instructive period as we have had the opportunity to observe both man-made and natural crises. What is clear is that governments still do not fully understand social media and how to use it in a disaster or crisis.
Link:http://i-logue.com/chaos-is-a-social-issue/
No, I'm not a cartographer, amongst the embedded links is this one:http://crisismappers.net/
Using Social Media: ten steps to get better
A suggestion from a SWC reader: '10 ways the military and intel should be using social media, if they aren’t already' which was written in August 2011, so before Tahrir Square, that opens with:
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..if I were in charge of finding and eliminating bad guys, and protecting civilians on the ground in wartime situations, if I were in charge of understanding the formation of events such as Arab Spring..this is what I’d do.
And concludes:
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We’re not completely sure where we are all headed, but we’ll get there by learning from each other.
Link:http://productfour.wordpress.com/201...-soical-media/
1984 was alive & well in Libya
Hat tip to Bruce Schneier for the pointer to a lengthy article on Wired 'Jamming Tripoli: Inside Moammar Gadhafi’s Secret Surveillance Network':http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/05/ff_libya/all/1
I was struck by this sentence:
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By now, it’s well known that the Arab Spring showed the promise of the Internet as a crucible for democratic activism. But, in the shadows, a second narrative unfolded, one that demonstrated the Internet’s equal potential for government surveillance and repression on a scale unimaginable with the old analog techniques of phone taps and informants.
(Much later) Today you can run an approximation of 1984 out of a couple of rooms filled with server racks. And that’s precisely what Libya’s spies did—and what dictatorships all around the world continue to do.
Bruce's article draws attention to Chinese, French, South African and USA technology suppliers:http://www.schneier.com/blog/archive...sting_art.html
Looking back at the Arab Spring
Hat tip to Londonistani for this wide ranging review of social media in the Arab Spring, actual title 'The Arab Spring: Revolution without Revolutionaries?' by Guy Harris, who has "sand in his boots":http://www.defenceiq.com/defence-tec...lution-withou/
How Anonymous Picks Targets, Launches Attacks
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/201...anonymous/all/
Quote:
In fact, the success of Anonymous without leaders is pretty easy to understand—if you forget everything you think you know about how organizations work. Anonymous is a classic “do-ocracy,” to use a phrase that’s popular in the open source movement. As the term implies, that means rule by sheer doing: Individuals propose actions, others join in (or not), and then the Anonymous flag is flown over the result. There’s no one to grant permission, no promise of praise or credit, so every action must be its own reward.
What’s harder to comprehend—but just as important, if you want to grasp the future of Anonymous after the arrests—is the radical political consciousness that seized this innumerable throng of Internet misfits. Anonymous became dangerous to governments and corporations not just because of its skills (lots of hackers have those) or its scale but because of the fury of its convictions. In the beginning, Anonymous was just about self-amusement, the “lulz,” but somehow, over the course of the past few years, it grew up to become a sort of self-appointed immune system for the Internet, striking back at anyone the hive mind perceived as an enemy of freedom, online or offline. It started as a gang of nihilists but somehow evolved into a fervent group of believers. To understand that unlikely transformation, and Anonymous’ peculiar method of (non)organization, it is necessary to start at the very beginning.
Private companies pitch Web surveillance tools to police
This could fit the 'Big Brother' thread and theme, but sits here well IMO. Not surprisingly the examples cited and linked are Anglo-American:http://californiawatch.org/dailyrepo...s-police-17846
I have m' doubts over the value of such tools, do drug suppliers really use Twitter? Can sense be made of the torrent of information, say anger over a police shooting in Chicago?
One thing is guaranteed hi-tech companies will try to sell their products to the police and other agencies who are still trying to get working desk-top computer systems.