A New Epoch - And Spectrum - Of Conflict

Abstract

Look around. No good old-fashioned war is in sight. There are a few possibilities for example, on the Korean peninsula; or between China and Taiwan; or India and Pakistan; and, as usual, in the Middle East but these do not seem imminent. Moreover, the most recent war, the Gulf War of 1990 1991, reflected the advent of the revolution in military affairs among U.S. forces and thus was more new- than old-fashioned perhaps enough to discourage would-be conventional warmakers elsewhere from supposing they could win anytime soon against the newest generation of U.S. military forces. If another conventional war involving the United States occurs, it is likely to be radically different as different from the Gulf War as it was from what had gone before, and largely for the same reason: the deepening impact of the information revolution on military affairs. And once a new war occurs, it may then be observed that the 1990s were not simply the post Cold War period but also a new interwar period, one filled with radical change in which the contours of future conflicts were being shaped.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 01, 1997
Accession Number
ADA485230

Entities

People

  • David Ronfeldt
  • John Arquilla

Organizations

  • Naval Postgraduate School

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • Cyber
  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Asymmetric Warfare
  • Contingency Operations (Military)
  • Cyberspace
  • Governments
  • Information Operations
  • Information Warfare
  • International Organizations
  • Military Organizations
  • National Security
  • Networks
  • Organizational Structure
  • Security
  • Spectra
  • Terrorists
  • United States
  • War
  • Warfare

Readers

  • Asian Economic Studies
  • Economics
  • Military History of the United States in the 20th Century.