Information Warfare with Chinese Characteristics: China's Future View of Information Warfare and Strategic Culture
Abstract
The Information Age presents a unique opportunity to China with regard to both modernization and building an Information Warfare (IW) capability. China's active pursuit of an IW capability will cause a change in Chinese strategic culture. According to Alastair Iain Johnston, strategic culture defines how a nation assesses a threat to its interests and whether it will use force to deal with those threats. The author's original research question asked how Chinese strategic culture will affect the development of a Chinese IW capability. The author answers that question by defining IW from American and Chinese perspectives and defining Chinese strategic culture, and then describes key aspects of People s Liberation Army (PLA) theorists vision for IW. The conclusion of this thesis is that the nature of cyberspace, the futility of the static defense, and the interdependence of the defense and the offense will change some aspects of Chinese strategic culture. This finding is contrary to the expected outcome, as the original research question anticipated that Chinese strategic culture would affect the development of a Chinese IW capability.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 2002
- Accession Number
- ADA416897
Entities
People
- Robyn E. Ferguson
Organizations
- United States Army Command and General Staff College