Strategic Information Warfare Rising

Abstract

From the Publisher: This report summarizes research performed by RAND for the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Command, Control, Communications and Intelligence) in response to a request from the Office of the Deputy Secretary of Defense. The objective of this effort was to derive a framework for policy and strategy decisionmaking on problems raised by the emerging potential of Strategic Information Warfare. This study was undertaken in recognition that future U.S. national security strategy is likely to be profoundly affected by the ongoing rapid evolution of cyberspace the Global Information Infrastructure (GII) and, thus by the growing dependence of the U.S. military and other national institutions and infrastructures on potentially vul-nerable elements of the U.S. national information infrastructure. This report should be of special interest to those who are exploring the effect of the information revolution on strategic warfare, and to those who are concerned with ensuring the security of information-dependent infrastructures. It should also be of interest to those segments of the U.S. and the international security community that are concerned with the post- Cold War evolution of military and national security strategy, especially strategy changes driven wholly or in part by the evolution of, and possible revolutions in, information technology. The research reported here was accomplished within the Acquisition and Technology Policy Center of RAND's National Defense Research Institute, a federally funded research and development center sponsored by the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Unified Commands, and the defense agencies. It builds on an earlier andongoing body of research within the center on the national security implications of the information revolution.