Attack or Defend? Leveraging Information and Balancing Risk in Cyberspace
Abstract
When this article was originally written, DOD policy and military regulations significantly restricted the use of the Internet for strategic communication purposes in favor of security. On 25 February 2010, DOD published a policy embracing a balanced approach in this regard, thus supporting the original thesis of this article. The author has updated the article accordingly to provide a deeper explanation of the policy decision and as a call to embrace its tenets. ... UNITED STATES MILITARY history is replete with examples of preparing for the next war by studying the last (or current) one. Consequently, we often engage in warfare with doctrine and processes that lag behind current reality. The result can be a prolonged war effort at great cost to national treasure, both fiscal and human. The harried development and implementation of counterinsurgency doctrine, resulting in the so-called "surge" in the midst of the campaign in Iraq, is but one example. The Army's introspective consideration of future warfare in the late 1970s and early 1980s, however, is an exception. Using the 1973 Arab-Israeli War as a harbinger of warfare where precision weaponry and technological advances showed the importance of maneuver, the Army shifted from a doctrine of "Active Defense" to "Airland Battle." However, this was not universally accepted. In a 2006 Landpower essay, Brigadier General Huba Wass de Czege reminisced: In what developed into a healthy exchange, [young officers] saw defensive tactics as a "fall-back by ranks" approach that confused delay and defense, and would lead commanders to avoid decisive engagement . . . They saw it as reactive, surrendering the initiative and resulting in a risky method of defense.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jun 01, 2010
- Accession Number
- ADA520939
Entities
People
- Dennis M. Murphy
Organizations
- United States Army War College