I'm enjoying the posts, and my original post was based on my perception of the superempowered individual, meaning one man, working/fighting to achieve his personal goals. However, after reading the various posts, like defining war, defining one man defies a simple definition in this context.

1. One man: solo player working to achieve personal goals (revenge, ideology, psychopath, etc.)

2. One man: leads a belligerent social/political movement like Hitler, Lenin, Mao, OBL, Ida Admin, etc.

2a. Directly leads a political movement Hitler, Lenin, OBL (during the initial phases of his jihad)

2b. Provides an overarching strategy, such as OBL has, that facilitates individuals acting individually in support of the umbrella strategy, so in a sense one man is waging his personal war, but he knows he is only making one cut, but trusts his fellow believers around the world will create a thousand more cuts.

3. Other examples of one man waging a war of ideas that led to conflict, are Jesus, Martin Luther, etc. These wars are still being fought.

Rough thoughts, but I agree with a previous comment that if Hitler was able to put his Mein Kof (sp?) on line, like OBL is able to put his declaration of jihad on-line, he would have been more effective, as would have Lenin and Mao (they were very effective anyway, but the ability to reach out globally and wage a real time information war is an incredible power). Imagine Hitler with nuclear weapons, biological weapons, long range missles, etc. We are living in an age of superempowered individuals, and that power will only increase in the future. One more example, relatively recently, of superempowered individuals that I think is relevant, is the two Los Angeles bank robbers, who were equipped with the most up to date body armor and automatic weapons. They effectively fought off several LA police officers for several minutes. This wasn't a declaration of war, but rather a demonstration of proliferation of technology into the hands of individuals. You can't win the war with automatic weapons and body armor, but it illustrates the point what can happen when any technological capability falls into the wrong hands.