Today, anyone armed with a digital camera and access to the
Internet can become an information warrior, potentially reaching
global audiences. Twitter, YouTube, Facebook and blogs have become
as important to the strategic outcome of military operations as
bullets, troops and air power. Appreciating the game-changing
properties of new media are as important for today's warfighters as
are the skills, training and tradecraft required to maneuver
conventional forces. In the contemporary operational environment,
new adversaries have leveraged new media to achieve strategic
outcomes. New media are their tactical tools for effective
strategies that privilege the informational battlespace as the main
effort. In this respect, the Israeli- Hezbollah war of 2006 is
instructive. Hezbollah was out-matched by the IDF at all levels,
with little hope of prevailing in the conventional military
battlespace. And yet, by employing an information-led warfighting
strategy that exploited tactical lethal encounters to generate
strategic effects, Hezbollah was able to claim a strategic win by
denying the IDF the achievement of its principal war aims. This
clever use of the information environment, which Hezbollah used to
create multiplier effects of its limited conventional military
capabilities, essentially outflanked Israel's campaign strategy. By
shifting the center of gravity into the information space,
Hezbollah was able to generate and sustain the initiative.
Hezbollah's warfighting strategy masterfully synchronized
conventional and information "fires," creating strategic
"information effects" that eventually forced Israel to cease its
operations without achieving its stated war aims. The 2006 War
provides important insights on the dynamics of the contemporary
operational environment and the role of new media, which is why it
was selected as the case study to drive workshop discussions. For
the U.S. warfighter one lesson should be clear: the enemy will
never fight the war that you prepare for, but rather the one that
it thinks it can win. That war will include new media as a
warfighting enabler. The 2006 Department of Defense Quadrennial
Defense Review (QDR) posited that future conflict fall into one of
four quadrants: traditional challenges; irregular challenges;
catastrophic challenges; or, disruptive challenges. It observed
that today's military capabilities continue to be focused on
traditional warfare even as trends point toward the importance of
multiple (or hybrid) threats. The Review confronts today's
commanders and senior leaders with several important questions: Are
we learning the lessons borne of hard-won experience and adapting
our strategic thinking to ensure that we are ready for the next
campaign? Is the shift in training and capabilities toward multiple
and hybrid threats occurring fast enough? Have we sufficiently
acknowledged and prepared for future scenarios in which new media
and cyberspace will frame the strategies that our opponents are
likely to use? New media challenges warfighters and senior leaders
across several levels. It requires recognition of the complexity of
cyberspace as a warfighting domain. It is not just about defending
networks or winning the information fight. Rather, it is the degree
to which cyberspace exists as a domain in which warfighters will
deploy, and the extent to which new media penetrates the
warfighting effort in ways that are beyond the commander's ability
to control or limit. This report is being released at an important
historical juncture -- just prior to the release of a major
Pentagon report on the use of new media and following the
assessment of the war effort in Afghanistan. The latter report
dedicated significant space to the role of strategic communication
and new media. We expect that this report will add critical and
constructive voices to the policy process as senior leaders shape
policy that enables warfighters to fully engage new media as an
element of national power.
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