Review: Brave New War

My Amazon.com review of Brave New War by John Robb (ISBN: 0471780790):

A Global Threat and a Crisis of the Nation-State, July 14, 2007

Mr. John Robb provides a sweeping overview of the rising threat from what he calls, global guerrillas. He begins, in Part I, with the empowerment of guerrilla bands through advances in technology. He further draws attention to the time from the Peace of Westphalia to now as the rise of nation-states to the point where the nation-state is being challenged by new alliances centered on religion, crime, tribal links, and so on. In the past guerrilla challenges were localized and centered on nationalistic aims but the new guerrilla has found ways to use technology to either create or exploit a crisis in the nation state. The guerrilla of today focuses on challenging the legitimacy of national governments as the center of gravity they undermine. They seek not to replace the state but simply to hollow it and make it irrelevant. And their reach goes beyond geographic boundaries to include even the suppliers of the state legitimacy.

In Part II, Mr. Robb draws further attention to the organization of cell groups of guerrilla bands that are decentralized to challenge the highly centralized armies of the nation-state. It is a challenge to the presuppositions of nation-states that continue to use old counter-insurgency tactics against this new and highly evolved global threat. Mr. Robb demonstrates through examples from business and technology how this networked approach has matured to the point that it cannot be defeated by old counter-insurgency tactics. A new approach is required.

In Part III, Mr. Robb further argues that the better approach to a network threat is with a network counter-threat. Too often, Robb points out, nation-states respond with further centralization of control either creating knee-jerk police states or attempting pre-emptive nation-building strategies. Both approaches play into the strengths of the networked threat and make our security more brittle. Brittle security results in a hard break with greater affect than the more resilient networked approach. Robb does speak of how we might organize infrastructure and security in a networked manner that is market and environmentally friendly at the same time as it creates a more resilient, innovative, and effective response to this new threat. Unfortunately, while arguing the merits of free-forming locally-controlled networks, Robb responds to the old challenges of network weakness by suggesting a central-incentive program to discourage network abuse. It is the old fallacy of attempting to a little central control while attempting to gain the benefits of a full network. It is a supposed method of hedging our bets that I fear only weakens his argument for networked solutions. A centrally-influenced network is really no network at all. Robb goes on to argue that the networked approach will evolve naturally with time and that development in time will defeat the threat. Whether he is being overly optimistic as this reviewer believes or not can only be tested with time.

Despite the weakened argument by accepting central influence over networked approaches to security, Mr. Robb's analysis is flawless and difficult to challenge. It is a solid work that leadership in business and government should take for the future. Share it with your representatives and senators in particular. Robb's clear and convincing message should be heard and applied quickly to avoid the knee-jerk reactionaries to the next attack.

Based on your review, I'll have to buy the book.

BTW, the statement: "The guerrilla of today focuses on challenging the legitimacy of national governments as the center of gravity they undermine. They seek not to replace the state but simply to hollow it and make it irrelevant. And their reach goes beyond geographic boundaries to include even the suppliers of the state legitimacy" applies equally well to other trans national groups.

Good review, although I don't agree with your take on the central management of networks.

Also there's a special forum for Brave New War discussions

http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/...splay.php?f=89