Roots of Arquilla's Rand report...
"Netwars" and Activists Power on the Internet
by Jason Wehling
March 25, 1995
Since the so-called Republican victory in the last U.S. election, the
political Left has been sent reeling. In many places including the major
media, we have been told that this victory spells a new revolution, a
revolution for the Right. Regardless of the truth of this, many have felt
that their activist work has been for not and that it has been largely
ineffectual. Interestingly a Rand corporation researcher, David Ronfeldt,
argues that contrary to the impotence felt by many social activists, they
have become an important and powerful force fueled by the advent of the
information revolution. Through computer and communication networks,
especially via the world-wide Internet, grassroots campaigns have
flourished, and the most importantly, government elites have taken notice.
Ronfeldt specializes in issues of national security, especially in the
areas of Latin American and the impact of new informational technologies.
Ronfeldt and another colleague coined the term "netwar" a couple years ago
in a Rand document entitled "Cyberwar is Coming!". "Netwars" are actions by
autonomous groups -- in the context of this article, especially advocacy
groups and social movements -- that use informational networks to
coordinate action to influence, change or fight government policy.
Ronfeldt's work became a flurry of discussion on the Internet in mid-March
when Pacific News Service correspondent Joel Simon wrote an article about
Ronfeldt's opinions on the influence of netwars on the political situation
in Mexico. According to Simon, Ronfeldt holds that the work of social
activists on the Internet has had a large influence -- helping to
coordinate the large demonstrations in Mexico City in support of the
Zapatistas and the proliferation of EZLN communiques across the world via
computer networks. These actions, Ronfeldt argues, have allowed a network
of groups that oppose the PRI to muster an international response, often
within hours of actions by Zedillo's government. In effect, this has forced
the Mexican government to maintain the facade of negotiations with the EZLN
and has on many occasions, actually stopped the army from just going in to
Chiapas and brutally massacring the Zapatistas.
Ronfeldt's position has many implications. First, Ronfeldt is not
independent researcher. He is an employee of the notorious Rand
corporation. Rand is, and has been since it's creation in 1948, a private
appendage of the military industrial complex. Paul Dickson, author of the
book "Think Tanks", described Rand as the "first military think tank...
undoubtedly the most powerful research organization associated with the
American military." The famous "Pentagon Papers" that where leaked to the
press in June of 1971 that detailed the horrible U.S. involvement in
Vietnam was produced by Rand.
Ronfeldt himself has authored many research papers for Rand, but his ties
to the military don't end there. Ronfeldt has also written papers directly
for the U.S. military on Military Communication and more interestingly, for
the Central Intelligence Agency on leadership analysis. No, Ronfeldt's
opinions were not written for aiding activists. It is obvious that the U.S.
government and it's military and intelligence wings are very interested in
what the Left is doing on the Internet.
Netwars: the Dissolution of Hierarchy and the Emergence of Networks
Ronfeldt argues that "the information revolution... disrupts and erodes the
hierarchies around which institutions are normally designed. It diffuses
and redistributes power, often to the benefit of what may be considered
weaker, smaller actors". Continuing, "multi-organizational networks consist
of (often small) organizations or parts of institutions that have linked
together to act jointly... making it possible for diverse, dispersed actors
to communicate, consult, coordinate, and operate together across greater
distances, and on the basis of more and better information than ever."
Ronfeldt emphasizes that "some of the heaviest users of the new
communications networks and technologies are progressive, center-left, and
social activists... [which work on] human rights, peace, environmental,
consumer, labor, immigration, racial and gender-based issues." In other
words, social activists are on the cutting edge of the new and powerful
"network" system of organizing.
All governments, especially the U.S. government, have been extremely
antagonistic to this idea of effective use of information, especially from
the political Left. This position is best stated by Samuel Huntington,
Harvard Political Science professor and author of the U.S. section of the
Trilateral Commission's book-length study, "The Crisis of Democracy".
Basically writing in reaction to the mobilization of people normally
isolated from the political process in the 1960s, Huntington argued in 1975
that "some of the problems of governance in the United States today stem
from an excess of democracy... Needed, instead, is a greater degree of
moderation of democracy."
Continuing, Huntington blatantly maintained that "the effective operation
of a democratic political system usually requires some measure of apathy
and non-involvement on the part of some individuals and groups... this
marginality on the part of some groups is inherently undemocratic but it is
also one of the factors which has enabled democracy to function
effectively." In other words, major U.S. policy makers feel democracies are
acceptable if they are limited and not very democratic.
To stop this increase in public participation, this "excess of democracy",
Huntington argued that limits should exist on the media. "There is also the
need to assure government the right to withhold information at the
source... Journalists should develop their own standards of professionalism
and create mechanisms, such as press councils, for enforcing these
standards on themselves. The alternative could well be regulation by
government." Obviously the government is interested in the control of
information. If private institutions like the major media need regulation,
be it self-regulation or directed by the government, the idea of free,
uncontrolled flow of information on the Internet must mean that a new
"crisis of democracy" has re-emerged in the eyes of the government elites.
To fight this, Ronfeldt maintains that the lesson is clear: "institutions
can be defeated by networks...
MORE ON...
http://www.angelfire.com/az/sthurston/Netwars.html
