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Info@war.mil

Info@war.mil. Nonlinear Science, Informatics, and Transformations of U.S. Military Thought in the Post-Vietnam Era Sean Lawson Dissertation Proposal Defense Department of Science and Technology Studies Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute 21 April 2006 Sage 5203. Introduction and Organization.

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Info@war.mil

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  1. Info@war.mil Nonlinear Science, Informatics, and Transformations of U.S. Military Thought in the Post-Vietnam Era Sean Lawson Dissertation Proposal Defense Department of Science and Technology Studies Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute 21 April 2006 Sage 5203

  2. Introduction and Organization • Organization • Proposal Summary • Overview and objectives • Background/periodization • Situating/significance • Components • Plan of work/timelines • “Preemptive Strike” • Known Bugs

  3. Overview and Objectives “Performance of U.S. forces in…Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom has provided a glimpse of the potential future of the emerging way of war.” –Arthur K. Cebrowski, Director of Force Transformation

  4. Overview In the post-Vietnam period, how and why has the U.S. military increasingly conceived of information gathering, processing, and distribution—and the denial of those capabilities to the enemy—as the central activities of warfare, and how have these conceptions been inflected with metaphors of nonlinear science (i.e. chaos, complexity, networks) and notions of an emerging Information Age?

  5. Objectives Understanding more… & Thinking better

  6. Background/Periodization • Three Phases of Post-Vietnam Change: • Military Reform Movement (1976-1991[?]) • Revolution in Military Affairs ([?]1986-1998) • Military Transformation (1998-present)

  7. Military Reform Movement “People, Ideas, Technology—In That Order !” John R. Boyd

  8. Revolution in Military Affairs Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance (ISR) Precision-Guided Munitions (PGMs) Command, Control, Communications, Computers (C4)

  9. Military Transformation

  10. Nonlinear Science Goes to War A schematic drawing of Boyd’s theory of command and control. Feedback and blurred boundaries between observer and observed are important features.

  11. Nonlinear Science Goes to War

  12. Behavior Adaptability Flexibility Self-Organization Emergence Resilience Robustness Speed Structure Networked Decentralized Non-Hierarchical Flat Amorphous Dispersed Distributed Nonlinear Science Goes to War What Does it Mean to Be “Like” a Complex System?

  13. Information Age Warfare

  14. Situating/Significance History of Military Technology Science and Technology Studies Info@war.mil Military History

  15. Components Second-Order Observing Sources Framework Questions I n f o @ w a r . m i l

  16. Questions • In the post-Vietnam period, how and why has the U.S. military increasingly conceived of information gathering, processing, and distribution—and the denial of those capabilities to the enemy—as the central activities of warfare, and how have these conceptions been inflected with metaphors of nonlinear science (i.e. chaos, complexity, networks) and notions of an emerging Information Age? • Why did the U.S. military develop an interest in Information Warfare in the first place? • Why has the U.S. military accepted the idea that we now live in the Information Age? • Why has the U.S. military increasingly relied upon nonlinear science-based metaphors? • What is the relationship between information technology, military knowledge and subject formation, language and rhetoric?

  17. Sources

  18. Observation Epistemic Culture/Apparatus Epistemic Culture/Apparatus SKP SKP SKP SKP SKP SKP Framework The World Military as Observing System O R I E N T A T I O N Observation

  19. Reference Manager Sources Workflow FileMaker Database GraphViz Networks (Citation/bibliography) Word processing Reports Excel Timelines

  20. Information Strategy Open R E S E A R C H Media Reports Nonclassified defense publications Interviews FOIA “Closed”

  21. Proposed Chapters • Chapter 1: Introduction • Part I: The Military Reform Movement • Chapter 2: The Reformers Observe the World • Chapter 3: The Reformers Re-Orient • Part II: The Revolution in Military Affairs • Chapter 4: From Reform to Revolution: A Shift in Worldview? • Chapter 5: The Revolution Within • Part III: Military Transformation • Chapter 6: From New World Order to World Without Order • Chapter 7: Transforming Militaries

  22. Plan of Work/Timelines

  23. Preemptive Strike • Known Bugs • Background • Too heavily influenced by reformers’ accounts • Periodization—i.e. Why not 1945  ? • Use of IW as blanket term • Overcoming “the military” as rhetorical black box

  24. Questions, Comments, Discussion…

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