Rethinking Security

Wired for Ethics?

For anyone into P.W. Singer's Wired For War, Big Think has a very interesting interview.

China's Information Terrain

John Robb has a great instant analysis of the emerging information campaign in Xinjiang. Robb depicts the contest between Chinese censors and Uyghur activists as a kind of elegant--and brutal--dance: the activists utilize digitized agitprop to bring out crowds, China responds with paramilitary armed police. The activists respond by leaking footage of police brutality, and the Chinese respond by shutting down information systems and then allowing images of victimized Han Chinese settlers to spread, provoking more violence by Han gangs. At this point, China has blunted the activists' attack--and executes an exploitation and pursuit maneuver by filling the infosphere with official disinformation.

On an operational level, it is much more sophisticated than the clumsy Iranians could ever hope to be. But it's uncertain whether it will be strategically successful, given the history of Uyghur unrest and ongoing Chinese colonialism.

Infoenthusiasm's Apotheosis

Those following me on Twitter may have seen my first--and rather angry--reactions to this Harvard Business School blog entry, complete with my misquoting of Paul Wall. Let me elaborate a bit.

RTJ Gems

Two new great articles have been posted on Red Team Journal.

First, Chris Flaherty has a new look at assessing topography in urban operations planning for domestic counterterrorism missions. Although people having been sour on geometric approaches to analysis since Jomini went out of style, he has an intriguing criticism of the common approach to "mass space:"

"[I]n any major city we see complex spaces, and the diffusion of many vulnerabilities and potential targets spread three-dimensionally through urban settings. Thus, along urban linear routes (roads, transport, or building thoroughfare) an attacker moving along these can threaten multiple targets. Again, this raises the basic tactical problem of the 2007 Haymarket attack–namely, military, security, or police forces are kept strategically off-balance, unable to protect any one potential target, and spread too thinly to protect all assets effectively from attack."

Flaherty has many other interesting articles examining operational issues on his page at the Archer Ball consultancy.

Second, Tim Hsia takes a look at a much-heralded Malcolm Gladwell article and draws some conclusions about tactical surprise and asymmetry. This paragraph is especially rich:

"Tactical surprises are commonplace, and underdogs seek to employ them at every opportunity. In a sustained campaign, however, events that were once deemed surprises can quickly become viewed as commonplace events (for example, the use of improvised explosive devices, or IEDs). Therefore, underdogs often need more than tactical surprise to achieve strategic victory. Even in the basketball game analogy, a full court press can possibly win a game, but to win the season requires more then just a team that employs a surprise tactic."

Tim has published widely at the Small Wars Journal on a host of operational issues and has published on strategic analysis at Red Team Journal, most recently on North Korea and mirror-imaging.

Police Response in Counterterrorism

John P. Sullivan and I have a piece in the June issue of USMA (West Point) Combating Terrorism Center Sentinel. It covers some issues in counterterrorism response illustrated by the Mumbai attacks.

The Same Old Song

It's not surprising that another poorly sourced, sensationalistic story in the British press has caused a diplomatic incident. But this one is especially thin gruel.

The Sunday Times reported that Saudi Arabia signaled that it would turn a blind eye to Israelis flying over their territory in order to bomb Iranian nuclear sites. The proof for this assertion? An "unnamed source" or two. John Bolton, a man with his own strongly held views about bombing Iran, is the only person who speaks on record. And Bolton just offers color commentary on the allegation.

To be fair, the US press isn't immune to this sort of business. But can everyone just simmer down a little?

Combat Camera in France?

Thomas Rid:

"The IDF did it on the Philadelphi Route when clearing tunnel entrances. Hezbollah did it in Southern Lebanon on ambushes. Now the French police are doing it in Seine-Saint-Denis, a rough suburb of Paris: equipping forward-deployed units with mini-cameras. ...'This equipment allows us to establish the context of our interventions,' said Christian Charlot, a police captain in the suburb. 'It allows us to support our procedures but also to deter these people from acting in the first place, because when they know they are filmed, hostile groups are less aggressive.' Apparently police officers were skeptical at first, but now even [they] ask for the gadgets."

What's most interesting here is the apparent crossover between policing and counterinsurgency thinking. The French police see the suburbs of Paris as areas where they must establish legitimacy in order to better control--and know that they are struggling for that legitimacy with other actors. American police have put cameras on their cars for traffic stops, but this is something wholly different.

The Information Counterrevolution

Hope everyone had a happy 4th of July weekend. I've got a new piece at Small Wars Journal on social media and the Iran crisis. It's a critical look, but on the whole I think crowdsourcing has great potential in situations like these.

"Greening"

Short hit at RTJ on self-replication and mirror-imaging.

More on Media Spectacles

I have a new post on information campaigns at the new Dreaming 5GW site.