As the world careens into the 21st century, the capacity and means by which the American Armed Forces defend their nation are entering a paradigm-breaking transition period. Previous transitions have been driven by the technologies of weapons and their platforms: from sail, to boiler, to turbine; from foot, to horse, to vehicle; from balloon, to manned aircraft, to unmanned aircraft. This is not so in the 21st century. We need to reset our "warfighting gyro," so to speak. To this end, taking the information revolution as a starting point, Battle-Wise argues that only by strengthening the relationship between information technology and brain matter will the U.S. military enhance its ability to outsmart and outfight future adversaries. We certainly have had our challenges in recent military operations. Despite the exceptional heroism, courage, and intellect of today's young military members, we need to reformulate the manner by which we prepare them. For decades we have given them the best weapons systems our country could produce. The authors believe, as I do, that the time has come to augment weapons systems and information networks with the intellectual tools that will enable them to gain and maintain cognitive superiority and thus turn the tables on our clever and nimble adversaries. Only by developing battle-wise soldiers-a daunting, but critically important effort on the part of our military leadership-can we expect to avoid the "second kick of a mule."

Social software connects people and information via online, informal Internet networks. Social software can be used by governments for content creation, external collaboration, community building, and other applications. The proliferation of social software has ramifications for U.S. national security, spanning future operating challenges of a traditional, irregular, catastrophic, or disruptive nature. Failure to adopt these tools may reduce an organization's relative capabilities over time. Globally, social software is being used effectively by businesses, individuals, activists, criminals, and terrorists. Governments that harness its potential power can interact better with citizens and anticipate emerging issues. Security, accountability, privacy, and other concerns often drive national security institutions to limit the use of open tools such as social software, whether on the open web or behind government information system firewalls. Information security concerns are very serious and must be addressed, but to the extent that our adversaries make effective use of such innovations, our restrictions may diminish our national security. This analysis looks at both sides of what once might have been called a "blue-red" balance to investigate how social software is being used (or could be used) by not only the United States and its allies, but also by adversaries and other counterparties. We have considered how incorporation of social software into U.S. Government (USG) missions is likely to be affected by different agencies, layers of bureaucracy within agencies, and various laws, policies, rules, and regulations. Finally, we take a preliminary look at questions like: How should the Department of Defense (DOD) use social software in all aspects of day-to-day operations? How will the evolution of using social software by nations and other entities within the global political, social, cultural, and ideological ecosystem influence the use of it by DOD? How might DOD be affected if it does not adopt social software into operations? In the process, we describe four broad government functions of social software that contribute to the national security missions of defense, diplomacy, and development: Inward Sharing, or sharing information within agencies; Outward Sharing, or sharing internal agency information with entities beyond agency boundaries; Inbound Sharing, which allows government to obtain input from citizens and other persons outside the government more easily; and Outbound Sharing, whose purpose is to communicate with and/or empower people outside the government. Social software, if deployed, trained on, monitored, managed, and utilized properly, is expected to yield numerous advantages: improve understanding of how others use the software, unlock self-organizing capabilities within the government, promote networking and collaboration with groups outside the government, speed decision making, and increase agility and adaptability. Along with the accrual of positive benefits, incorporating social software into day-to-day work practices should also decrease the probability of being shocked, surprised, or outmaneuvered. Whether it is misinformation about U.S. actions overseas being spread through new media channels, or new forms of terrorist self-organization on emerging social networks, experimenting with and understanding social software will increase USG abilities to deal with complex, new challenges. Because social software can add significant value to many ongoing missions, and because citizens, allies, and opponents will use it regardless, this paper recommends that national security institutions, particularly DOD, embrace its responsible usage.

This book includes papers presented at the Second International Transformation (ITX2) Conference, held in Rome, Italy, at the NATO Defense College (NDC) June 21-23, 2011, as well as a summary of the conference discussions. Co-hosted by NDC, Allied Command Transformation (ACT), and the International Transformation (ITX) Chairs Network, the conference brought together academics, policymakers, and practitioners from 13 nations to discuss the topic of "Capability Development in Support of Comprehensive Approaches: Transforming International Civil-Military Interactions."