Summary
National defense policy in the electronic age
National defense policy in the 21st century will depend on a nation's sophisticated weaponry and information infrastructure. Use of weaponry depends on the information infrastructure, so the system of national defense will become a combination of both. National defense policy will be determined by how open or closed the informational systems become. Shared information between allies may create stability, but nations must protect themselves against enemies who wish to invade an informational system.See the full content of this document
Extract
Information War, Information Peace.
As the United States pursues international security in a networked age, it faces a fundamental choice between two national defense paths. One path originates in the ever-improving ability of advanced militaries to illuminate the battlespace in order to see it in fine detail and to spread these findings far and wide. Because precision munitions can better destroy objects which are made more visible, target illumination would seem to make conflict bloodier. The other path is information warfare, which is an attack on automated information systems and networks.
Indeed, information warfare is often cited as the leitmotif of early 21st century conflict. Because systems are the targets, such a path would seem to make conflict less bloody. However, the reverse may be true. The systems that illuminate can, if networked internationally, make organized aggression more difficult. On the other hand, information warfare, by raising the risks to such networking, may encourage confrontation rather than prevent it. That battlespace illumination and information warfare are apposite concepts is hardly obvious. Both are often linked under the broader rubric of the revolution in military affairs (RMA). The U.S. military, and presumably other advanced militaries, pursues both: the ability to illuminate the real battlespace; and the ability to confound the cyber-battlespace of foes, actual and latent. For national security, weapons compete for national resources, but they all work to the same end. However, at the level of international security the two are antithetical. Some systems make it easier for nations to resolve their differences or trust one another; others, by their nature, exacerbate suspicion. This essay describes the basis for, and ramifications of, the battlespace illumination and the information warfare paths. It then examines some contradictions of embracing both. It starts with a description and reification of battlespace illumination and its implications in an emerging System of Systems,(1) which is the conjunction of military sensors, networks and weapons connected so as to work closely together. If the System (or for other states, national security systems in general) becomes the center of gravity for modern militaries, it becomes the ...See the full content of this document
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