Net draws up new battlelines for activists http://www.theage.com.au/news/20000123/A40163-2000Jan22.html By JOHN VIDAL LONDON Sunday 23 January 2000 We are at war. Not the sort that pits army against army, sheds blood, destroys economies and bankrupts governments, but the kind that is being called "social net wars" by the United States military. Little noticed and analysed, net wars are being taken seriously as the possible style of future conflicts. Already they are beginning to shape national and international political agendas. In a series of papers commissioned by the US military, the Rand Institute - a leading US Government-funded think tank with close links to the White House - has argued that the information revolution is moving power away from nation states towards new non-governmental alliances and networks of grassroots civil organisations. The implications for government foreign policy may be huge and the threat to established, and particularly authoritarian, regimes may also be significant, the authors warn. "Net war refers to information-related conflict at a grand level between nations or societies," says Mr John Arquilla, one of the report's authors. "It means trying to disrupt or damage what a target population knows, or thinks it knows, about itself and the world around it. "A social net war may focus on changing public or elite opinion, or both ... It may involve diplomacy, propaganda and psychological campaigns, battles for public opinion and for media access and coverage." The report includes the activities of terrorists, criminals and militias, all of whom are using the latest communications to operate. But the broad analysis of the new battle lines between entrenched government and social activism is close to what many in non-governmental organisations are saying. The past 50 years have seen the rise and rise of two new major forces on the world stage: the non-governmental group and the media. The power of the two to change public perceptions is undisputed, but the electronic revolution is now able to bring them together in ways that were inconceivable just a decade ago. The globalisation of capital, business and governance is being matched by the globalisation of opposition. Huge networks of public interest, environment, human rights, consumer development, religious and umbrella civil society groups, drawing in local, national and international organisations, are beginning to emerge. And for the first time they can respond immediately to international events, counter state propaganda or pressure governments, companies and international bodies. The most recent net war was the Seattle world trade talks where hundreds of diverse groups - often not even present - protested against an organisation few people had ever heard of. They set an agenda of public disquiet that shocked many Western governments and strengthened the arguments of poorer countries that had been prepared to be sidelined. Other net war arenas include the global grassroots campaign against world debt, started in the United Kingdom by Jubilee 2000; the massive campaign against landmines and the international opposition to genetically modified foods. All the issues have quickly moved on to the international agenda in the past few years, taking governments and industries by surprise. All three have forced new laws and safeguards, causing governments deep embarrassment. The social net war may be a fundamental threat to capitalism and neo-liberal economies, the US army has been warned. A new generation of revolutionaries, radicals, activists and computer-hacking "cyboteurs" are beginning to create information-age ideologies in which identities and loyalties may shift from the nation state to the transnational level of global civic society, the report says. GUARDIAN -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
