Thursday, August 10, 2006
BARNETT ON NON-STATE WARFARE
Dr. Barnett dives into the nonstate conflict paradigm with two posts:
"The clearest proof this is no state-on-state war in Lebanon"
and
"The new COIN is progress, not perfection"
"Call Nasrallah what you want, but his impact is little different from any other Arab despot. We're just watching him on the rise. In that sense, while I find Hezbollah's tactics quite 4GW, his ends are eminently predictable and familar"
An important data point - there are no 4GW warriors around fighting for greater connectivity, no Global Guerillas for an Open Society, just open-source warfare. The implications of that are longitudinal as well as normative.
UPDATE:
John Robb was kind enough to comment on my post and on another one of Tom's as well.
From the latter:
"Unfortunately, Tom's voice/your's/and mine, will mean little. This war is going to be launched on the cheap or through mistake and will escalate quickly to regional scale from that point on. Think counter-insurgency from the Med to the Hindu Kush. " ¶ 7:42 AM
Dr. Barnett dives into the nonstate conflict paradigm with two posts:
"The clearest proof this is no state-on-state war in Lebanon"
and
"The new COIN is progress, not perfection"
"Call Nasrallah what you want, but his impact is little different from any other Arab despot. We're just watching him on the rise. In that sense, while I find Hezbollah's tactics quite 4GW, his ends are eminently predictable and familar"
An important data point - there are no 4GW warriors around fighting for greater connectivity, no Global Guerillas for an Open Society, just open-source warfare. The implications of that are longitudinal as well as normative.
UPDATE:
John Robb was kind enough to comment on my post and on another one of Tom's as well.
From the latter:
"Unfortunately, Tom's voice/your's/and mine, will mean little. This war is going to be launched on the cheap or through mistake and will escalate quickly to regional scale from that point on. Think counter-insurgency from the Med to the Hindu Kush. " ¶ 7:42 AM
Comments:
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“there are no 4GW warriors around fighting for greater connectivity”
This is simply not true. What they don’t want is a relationship. A relationship has friction, a connection doesn’t (or at least you hope it doesn’t or computers can get a little cranky). If any of our diplomats could just converse with them, it would be a big blow to the 4GW Warrior. Of course that is not going to happen, so connection it is.
“…no Global Guerillas for an Open Society”
True enough. They would like an open-source society though. Of course as long as the 4GW warriors has Israel behind the wall, I am sure they can work with that. It is the friction they don’t handle as well. There is a chance of losing, because there is an element of chance with friction. Without friction one wins or not, the 4GW warrior is pretty sure they will win.
“just open-source warfare.”
True. Find the friction, enclose your enemy with a frictional barrier (gap), cut off the node, secure the network; let the network work. Right now they are securing the network, so to speak. Taking out all the frictional connections, connecting as one.
This is simply not true. What they don’t want is a relationship. A relationship has friction, a connection doesn’t (or at least you hope it doesn’t or computers can get a little cranky). If any of our diplomats could just converse with them, it would be a big blow to the 4GW Warrior. Of course that is not going to happen, so connection it is.
“…no Global Guerillas for an Open Society”
True enough. They would like an open-source society though. Of course as long as the 4GW warriors has Israel behind the wall, I am sure they can work with that. It is the friction they don’t handle as well. There is a chance of losing, because there is an element of chance with friction. Without friction one wins or not, the 4GW warrior is pretty sure they will win.
“just open-source warfare.”
True. Find the friction, enclose your enemy with a frictional barrier (gap), cut off the node, secure the network; let the network work. Right now they are securing the network, so to speak. Taking out all the frictional connections, connecting as one.
# posted by 
: Thursday, 10 August, 2006
: Thursday, 10 August, 2006
"If any of our diplomats could just converse with them, it would be a big blow to the 4GW Warrior"
Diplomats, CIA, somebody -it does affect the moral level dynamic.
Diplomats, CIA, somebody -it does affect the moral level dynamic.
"An important data point - there are no 4GW warriors around fighting for greater connectivity, no Global Guerillas for an Open Society..."
Okay, let's move on to the next step and start thinking about creating them. Let us create a virtual 4GW operation working for greater connectivity. How would it be organized? What strategies and tactics would it implement?
And I'm not talking about gov't programs, but rather non-state actors, engaging in non-violent 4GW-style of activity with the purpose of spreading connectivity. We've all heard of the "strategic corporal", well to accomplish the goal of this exercise we need to develop the idea of the "strategic citizen".
One of the things we have to do is develop a vision of the connected society that can appeal to people, give an idea of the long term goal and give a larger context for individual actions. Another thing this kind of an organization should do is provide some social services both to help ease the transition to a connected society and to gain people's trust and also to teach some of the basic skills needed in civil society, such as organizational management, entrepreneurship, individual initiative etc.
What else could this kind of a non-state organization waging non-violent 4GW to spread connectivity do?
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Okay, let's move on to the next step and start thinking about creating them. Let us create a virtual 4GW operation working for greater connectivity. How would it be organized? What strategies and tactics would it implement?
And I'm not talking about gov't programs, but rather non-state actors, engaging in non-violent 4GW-style of activity with the purpose of spreading connectivity. We've all heard of the "strategic corporal", well to accomplish the goal of this exercise we need to develop the idea of the "strategic citizen".
One of the things we have to do is develop a vision of the connected society that can appeal to people, give an idea of the long term goal and give a larger context for individual actions. Another thing this kind of an organization should do is provide some social services both to help ease the transition to a connected society and to gain people's trust and also to teach some of the basic skills needed in civil society, such as organizational management, entrepreneurship, individual initiative etc.
What else could this kind of a non-state organization waging non-violent 4GW to spread connectivity do?
# posted by : Friday, 11 August, 2006
: Friday, 11 August, 2006<< Home
