The Changing Role of Information in Warfare.
Abstract
This effort to assess how the role of information in warfare is changing seeks to understand many of the remarkable developments under way in information and communications technology, and their potential effects on warfare. Indeed, this volume reveals several important lessons that can be gleaned from the very different and distinct perspectives contained in it: Information advances will affect more than just how we fight wars. The nature and purpose of war itself may change. How wars start, how they end, their length, and the nature of the participants may change as shifts in the relative power of states and nonstate entities occur. New technologies cut both ways in terms of their effects on national security. Together, the chapters make clear that advances create new vulnerabilities; new threats create new opportunities. We should resist the temptation to see the changes documented here either as wholly bad or wholly good. Rather, we need to understand that profound technological changes are inevitably two sided. The Department of Defense (DoD) has little control over the pace and direction of the information revolution. Although in the past DoD played an important role in developing, refining, and implementing new information technologies, today the technological envelope is being pushed largely by the commercial sector.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 1998
- Accession Number
- ADA364003
Entities
People
- John P. White
- Zalmay M. Khalilzad
Organizations
- RAND Corporation