The Age of Digital Conflict: A Review Essay

Abstract

According to Eric Schmidt, Executive Chairman of Google, and Jared Cohen, Director of Google Ideas and an Adjunct Senior Fellow at Council on Foreign Relations, Internet is among few things humans have built that they do not truly understand. The Internet is a network of networks, a huge and decentralized web of computer systems designed to transmit information using specific standard protocols. Nations and individuals rely on Internet on a daily basis to conduct business, connect with friends, and even find love. To state Internet is an integral part of our way of life is not an overstatement. The Internet allows for friendships, alliances and enmities between states to be extended into virtual world, adding a new and intriguing dimension to traditional statecraft. As Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff Army General Martin E. Dempsey stated, the spread of digital technology has not been without consequence. It has also introduced new dangers to our security and our safety. (1) Three books will be reviewed here which highlight addition of Internet to an already complex international system in which combat takes place not only in physical domain but also now in cyber domain. The Department of Defense designated a new domain of warfare in 2011. This elevation in strategic importance makes comparable to land, sea, air, or outer space as a new battle frontier. The US Government and its Armed Forces recognize importance of as a potential future battleground. Former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta stated cyberspace is new frontier, full of possibilities to advance security and prosperity in 21st century. And yet, with these possibilities, also come new perils and new dangers. (2) The Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dempsey, stated the Department of Defense is adding a new mission: defending nation, when asked, from attacks of significant consequence--those that threaten life, limb, and country's core critical infrastructure. (3) For international jihadists Internet has become most cost-effective means of delivering its messages worldwide, and coordinating attacks. The Internet allows jihadist organizations to recruit without leaving confines of their safe havens. Jihadist groups and terrorist organizations are using Internet as a tool to carry-out their cyberplanning without fear of retaliation and in secret. Lieutenant Colonel Timothy L. Thomas, an analyst at Foreign Military Studies Office in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, defines cyberplanning as the digital coordination of an integrated plan stretching across geographical boundaries that may or may not result in bloodshed. (4) An understanding of future armed conflict, combat and intervention in new digital age will help US Army leaders to train its soldiers for new forms of armed conflict in twenty-first in light of sequestration and diminishing defense budget. War Play: Video Games and Future of Armed Conflict How does US military train its current and future soldiers for new forms of armed conflict in twenty-first century in light of sequestration and a diminishing defense budget? Corey Mead's book War Play that military is making use of more and more video games, that is, serious video games, as part of its arsenal of tools to fight wars of future. The military, according to author, is turning to video games for scenarios involving new and unexpected roles for soldiers. For example, today's Generation Z soldiers, born in age of cell phones and information, are using video games to learn skills such as cultural negotiations and cultural sensitive training. As a new generation of soldiers are recruited and deployed, in addition to learning combat skills, they may also have to negotiate with warlords or tribal leaders in remote villages. Also, virtual training sessions are helping military ration training grounds, which are in especially short supply today as troops return from their overseas deployments (68). …