Quote Originally Posted by Abu Suleyman View Post

  1. Have the changes in the social media environment fundamentally altered the role of groups like SWC?
  2. Has the changes in the nature of fora helped or hurt the study and practice of warfare


To be clear I'm talking about over the last 15 years. Obviously war is different now from when we communicated by telegram/semaphore/horseback. I have some intuitions, and this is my area of study, but because I haven't been as active here as many others, I'd love to know what you think.
Just my opinion, but I think that the reduction in activity here has to do with the consolidation of ideas on small wars into set camps of thought. In the early days there was much debate about what would or could work. Now it seems like there are only those who think that Small Wars are a problem of culture (we cannot forcibly Westernize the world), or Small Wars are a problem of the ROE (if only we could kill everything that we think might be a threat, we can win), or that Small Wars are a waste of time (Gian Gentile et. al.). We end up having the same conversation with the same people.

There is also the issue of competition, of which there is plenty. Places like WoTR and the Strategy Bridge, as well as blogs like Lawfare. Still, I really like SWJ for people who want to throw ideas out there and get a response from the field. It just seems that small wars and insurgency/counterinsurgency are not the hot topic. Nowadays, the areas of interest now are little green men and cyber.