Broadband and geostrategy

I'm brainstorming paper topics for 20 pages due in April. The course is geostrategy and I want to argue that geostrategy is dead, superceded by the revolution in information and technology.

My view is that geostrategy is dogma for sea power and American imperialism (all good things!), but essentially hubris for any respectable forward leaning national security strategist.

Non-state actors don't have navies and don't fight conventional wars. New threats to digital infrastructure and cyber security are more likely to challenge our national boundaries. We are an economic power first, then a military power. Anything that challenges our commercial dominance is a threat.

We are in a global communications war - information and connectivity will influence hearts and minds. Other countries are already ahead of the US in building digital infrastructure and educating their people in new skills for the 21st century.

That's what I have so far. I'd appreciate any ideas or links to resources to help me flesh out a thesis and a few substantive lines of argument. :eek:

Go Patriots!

Look up some authors like Bruce Schnier, Maj. Dodge (USMA), Eugene Spafford, Eberscholoe, Clay Wilson, Dan Verton, there will be others. I posted a cyber warfare list of materials here on SWC... For a contrary to your proposed thesis James Lewis has an interesting piece that basically says all thing cyber-warfare are hissycock.

Check out my wildly inappropriately egotistic blog post for a few ideas on the topic.

SteveO,

Don't all those crazy mtv stunts hurt more than they pay?

Here are a few websites that might be of interest when it comes to geostrategy ( I make no claims about them ):

http://www.thomaspmbarnett.com/weblog/

http://fabiusmaximus.wordpress.com/

http://counterterrorismblog.org/

http://www.rand.org/publications/bestsellers.html

http://www.cfr.org/

Most anything by Kaplan ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_D._Kaplan ) is probably worth a look as well.

Steve L

...Might want to take a look at some of the past columns (the dreaded "Archives") at I, Cringley. The link is Here

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The course is geostrategy and I want to argue that geostrategy is dead, superceded by the revolution in information and technology.

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Part of the problem is that you are partially looking for information that is so new, and constantly changing, that tracking it down in written form is considerably harder than "next to impossible". These folks don't write as much as they blog. And as crazy as it seems, oftentimes the best (most timely and the most useful information) is found on gossip sites like "I, Cringley", or at "Slashdot". And pay attention to the comments sections, because there are nuggets of information hidden there.

What you are talking about doing is writing a paper where many of the footnotes potentially could only come from electronic sources. Kind of funny if you think about it.:wry:

There's another digital information source I pay attention to, primarily because this guy puts his money where his mouth is (and he's got a big one).

Mark Cuban at "Blog Maverick" The link is Here

When you make a comment like the one below, be prepared to back it up:

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Other countries are already ahead of the US in building digital infrastructure and educating their people in new skills for the 21st century.

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Might want to read this opinion column at "I, Cringley" dated 08.10.2007. This is "Part 3 of 3" column - The $200 Billion Rip-Off: Our broadband future was stolen

Just a few ideas...

Here is the list...

Levy, S. (1984). Hackers: Heroes of the computer revolution. New York: Penguin Putnam.

Stoll, C. (1990). The cuckoo's egg: Tracking a spy through the maze of computer espionage. New York: Pocket Books.

McCumber, J. (1991). Information Systems Security: A Comprehensive Model. Paper presented at the 14th National Computer Security Conference, National Institute of Standards and Technology. Baltimore, MD. October.

Pufeng, W. (1995). The challenges of information warfare. Excerpted from China Military Science(Spring 2005).

Hafner, K., & Lyon, M. (1996). Where wizards stay up late: The origins of the Internet. New York: Simon & Schuster.

Kahn, D. (1996). The code breakers: The Comprehensive history of secret communication from ancient times to the Internet. New York: Scribner.

In Athena's camp: Preparing for conflict in the information age. (1997). Santa Monica, CA: RAND.

PRESIDENTIAL DECISION DIRECTIVE/NSC-63. (1998). Retrieved November 1, 2007, from http://www.fas.org/irp/offdocs/pdd/pdd-63.htm

Ware, W. H. (1998). The cybe-posture of the national information infrastructure. Santa Monica, CA: Rand.

The changing role of information in warfare. (1999). Santa Monica, CA: RAND.

Denning, D. E. (1999). Information warfare and securty. New York: Addison Wesley.

Panda, B., & Giordano, J. (1999). Defensive information warfare. Communications of the ACM, 42(7), 31-32.

A nation transformed by information: How information has shaped the United States from colonial times to the present. (2000). New York: Oxford University Press.

Denning, D. E. (2000). Cyberterrorism. Retrieved November 1, 2007, from http://www.cs.georgetown.edu/~dennin...berterror.html

Networks and netwars: The future of terror, crime, and militancy. (2001). Santa Monica, CA: RAND.

The transnational dimmension of cyber crime and terrorism. (2001). Stanford, CA: Hoover Institution Press.

Erbschloe, M. (2001). Information warfare: How to survive cyber attacks. Berkley California: Osborne/McGraw Hill.

Kumagai, J. (2001). The web as a weapon. IEEE Spectrum(January), 118-121.

Levy, S. (2001). Cypto: How the code rebels beat the government saving privacy in the digital age. New York: Penguin Putnam.

Maconachy, W. V., Schou, C. D., Ragsdale, D., & Welch, D. (2001). A Model for Information Assurance: An Integrated Approach. Paper presented at the 2001 IEEE Workshop on Information Assurance and Security, US Military Academy, West Point, NY.

Householder, A., Houle, K., & Dougherty, C. (2002). Computer attack trends challenge internet security. Security & Privacy (Computer), 35(4), 5-7.

Lewis, J. A. (2002). Assessing the risks of cyber terrorism, cyber war and other cyber threats. Washington DC: Center for Strategic & International Studies.

Mitnick, K. D., & Simon, W. (2002). The art of deception: Controlling the human element of security. Indianapolis, IN: Wiley Publishing.

Homeland Security Presidential Directive/Hspd-7. (2003). Retrieved November 1, 2007, from http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/relea...0031217-5.html

Berkowitz, B. D. (2003). The new face of war: How war will be fought in the 21st century. New York: Free Press.

Cahill, T. P., Rozinov, K., & Mule, C. (2003). Cyber warfare peacekeeping. Paper presented at the Workshop on information assurance, United States Military Academy, West Point, NY.

Sheldon, F., Potok, T., Krings, A., & Oman, P. (2003). Critical energy infrastructure surviability, inherent limitation, obstacles, and mitigation strategies. Paper presented at the PowerCon 2003 - Special Theme: BLACKOUT, New York, USA.

Verton, D. (2003). Black Ice: The invisible threat of cyber-terrorism. New York: McGraw-Hill/Osborne.

Graham, P. (2004). Hackers & painters big ideas from the computer age. Sebestopol, CA: O'Reilly.

Gupta, A., & Laliberte, S. (2004). Security by example defend I.T. New York: Addison Wesley.

Saydjari, S. (2004). Cyber defense: Art to science. Communications of the ACM, 47(3), 53-57.

Sukhai, N. B. (2004). Hacking and cybercrime. Paper presented at the InfoSecCD Conference, Kennesaw, GA.

The Government of the United States. (2004). The 9/11 Commission report: Final report of the national commision on terrorist attacks upon the United States (Authorized Edition ed.). New York: Norton & Company.

Brenner, B. (2005). Myfip's Titan Rain connection. Retrieved November 17, 2007, from http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com...120855,00.html

Espiner, T. (2005, November 23, 2005). Security experts lift lid on Chinese hack attacks. Retrieved November 17, 2007, 2007, from http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-5969516.html

Gantz, J., & Rochester, J. B. (2005). Pirates of the digital millennium: How the intellectual property wars damage or personal freedoms, our jobs, and the world economy. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Financial Times Prentice Hall.

Ilett, D. (2005). Security Guru slams misuse of 'cyberterrorism'. Retrieved November 1, 2007, from http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-5685500.html

Luard, T. (2005, July 22, 2005). China's spies come out from the cold. International Version. Retrieved November 16, 2007, from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4704691.stm

Schneir, B. (2005). Attack trends: 2004 and 2005. Retrieved November 1, 2007, from http://www.schneier.com/blog/archive..._trends_2.html

Thornburgh, N. (2005, August 25, 2006). Inside the Chinese hack attack. Retrieved November 1, 2007, from http://www.time.com/time/nation/arti...098371,00.html

Wilson, C. (2005). Computer attack and cyberterrorism: Vulnerabilities and policy issues for congress (No. RL32114): The Library of Congress.

Dartnell, M. Y. (2006). Insurgency online: Web activism and global conflict. Toronto: University Tornoto Press.

Rogin, J. (2006, May 25, 2006). DOD: China fielding cyberattack units. Retrieved November 1, 2007, from http://www.fcw.com/online/news/94650-1.html

Wilson, C. (2006). Information operations and cyberwar: Capabilities and related policy issues (No. RL31787): The Library of Congress.

China spying 'biggest US threat'. (2007, November 15, 2007). International Version. Retrieved November 15, 2007, from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7097296.stm

China denies Pentagon cyber-raid. (2007, September 4, 2007). International Version. Retrieved November 16, 2007, from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6977533.stm

Meserve, J. (2007, September 26, 2007). Source: Staged cyber attack reveals vulnerability in power grid. Retrieved November 1,, 2007, from http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/09/26/pow...isk/index.html

Robb, J. (2007). Brave new war: The next stage of terrorism and the end of globalization. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons.

Rollins, J., & Wilson, C. (2007). Terrorist capabilities for cyberattack: Overview and policy issues (No. RL33123): The Library of Congress.

Sevestopulo, D. (2007, September 3, 2007). Chinese military hacked into Pentagon. Retrieved November 17, 2007, from http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/9dba9ba2-5...nclick_check=1

This is a big help. The geostrat guys at NDU won't know what hit 'em. I'll keep you posted when I get through some of this good stuff and narrow my focus.

Thank you.

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Originally Posted by SteveO

The course is geostrategy and I want to argue that geostrategy is dead

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I think your biggest challenge will be that if the professor agrees with you, he or she is out of a job. ;) Good luck.