Treating Information as a Strategic Resource to Win the “Information War”

Abstract

The United States is challenged by adversaries who seek to alter fundamentally the systemic balance of power through information-based strategies. These strategies leverage both legal and illegal operations to gain influence and control over key industries and information resource domains to constrain American freedom of action. It is a larger geoeconomic and geoinformational campaign by adversaries to harvest information in support of military, diplomatic, economic, and global political goals. To respond, the U.S. government must understand that information is a strategic resource. An American response might be to erode its competitors’ economic and informational advantages, attack their dependencies on other strategic resources, and exploit their information control systems. Cyberspace operations may provide some competitive advantage, but first they must be employed effectively. This effectiveness requires overcoming debilitating intellectual constraints and adopting new operational models.