Identification - Friend or Foe? The Strategic Uses and Future Implications of the Revolutionary New ID Technologies

Abstract

Recent developments in identification (ID) technologies are likely to have a revolutionary impact on American society and the manner by which it wages war. The good news is that broader and more creative use of the new ID technologies could enable coalition forces to achieve dramatic victories in the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT) by targeting directly and effectively a critical requirement of most insurgencies: the insurgents' anonymity. The bad news is that these same technologies may be inherently inimical to the future of privacy and American civil liberties. They could transform our nation and others into surveillance societies concentrating in the hands of central governments levers of control without parallel in human history. How to reconcile American interests and values with the imperative to bend every element of national power in their defense is the central paradox of the GWOT. Are the new ID technologies useful means to the important end of securing the United States against potentially cataclysmic attacks or will they subvert the very interests and values at the core of all we seek to defend?

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Apr 26, 2006
Accession Number
ADA449410

Entities

People

  • Richard K. Pruett

Organizations

  • United States Army War College

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Advanced Electronics
  • Biomedical
  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Ground and Sea Platforms
  • Sensors

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Authentication
  • Biometric Security
  • Commerce
  • Data Mining
  • Governments
  • Identification
  • Information Systems
  • Law
  • National Governments
  • National Security
  • Personnel Management
  • Public Policy
  • Societies
  • Terrorism
  • Ubiquitous Computing
  • United States
  • War Colleges

Readers

  • Cybersecurity.
  • Strategic Security Studies