[Air-l] digital techs & warfare

Sandra Braman sbraman at wi.rr.com
Tue Nov 4 09:53:37 PST 2003


In response to Andrew Herman's question:

There is a tremendous amount of information
available on this topic.  It was first raised in the 1970s
under the rubric of "vulnerabilities" of the state presented
by the use of new information technologies.  By the
early 1990s it was a question of "new security theory,"
and by the middle of that decade it was "information
warfare" or "cyberwar."  Now of course discussion
about doctrine, strategy, and tactics involving the use
of digital technologies is part of the discourse on
the "war on terrorism."  In my view it would be a
mistake to limit the question to the internet, but
that can be done -- in the 1980s, already, the Rand
Corporation was doing research on the spread of
rumors in the internet as part of its work on
information warfare.  My own "Contradictions in
Brilliant Eyes" (Brilliant Eyes was the name
given to the smart satellites program promoted
by Reagan) is available in full text on the website
for which the URL is provided below, provides a
mid-1990s look at the state of the then-art.

Sandra Braman

Prof.
Dept. of Communication
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

www.uwm.edu/~braman 





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