Max Boot on War & Need to Adapt to the Information Age Max Boot, a Senior Fellow in National Security Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, is guest blogging on The Volokh Conspiracy. Mr. Boot is mainly blogging about his recent book, War Made New: Technology, Warfare, and the Course of History, 1500 to Today (2006 Gotham Books). One of the fascinating items he mentions from his book is this snippet from a recent blog entry on "A Democratic Advantage?": [-- Bureaucracies are so important because, as War Made New has repeatedly stressed, the realization of a Revolution in Military Affairs requires far more than simply revolutionary technology. It also requires revolutions in organization, doctrine, training, and personnel. [...] Bureaucratic innovation can seldom be limited to the military alone because armed forces are always a reflection, however refracted, of the broader society. Each military epoch comes with its own distinctive system of governance. The rise of the Gunpowder Age fostered the growth of absolute monarchies. The First and Second Industrial Ages fostered giant welfare and warfare states. The Information Age is leading to a more decentralized, flatter form of government and the rise of more powerful non-governmental groups. States that fail to keep up with these transformations risk getting run over by those that do. --] The warning about the dangers of failing to keep up with the transformations of "the Information Age" resonates with Bruce Sterling's Wired piece Barbarians at Gate 8 on UK's Rear Admiral Chris Parry's presentation at the Royal United Services Institute this summer. Parry spoke on the challenges Western societies face from aspects of the contemporary wrold, including high global mobility via cheap jet fare and high global interconnectivity via the nets. Some of the reporting on Parry's presentation seem to emphasise a "barbarians at the gates of Rome" tone, interpreted by some as a call for isolation and barriers, but I get the hint that he was saying something different, something quite profound. Although I am still trying to obtain a transcript and/or slides of the Rear Admiral's presentation, I believe Bruce Sterling may have captured a key point in the presentation: [-- We live in a deeply paradoxical age, and it will take serious mental agility to navigate the years to come. Capable and imaginative people, both inside and outside of barbarity, are beginning to realize this. And for every person who does, civilization gains a better chance of survival. --] Amen to that! J.D. Abolins

1.11.06 04:52 Permalink / comment

Excellent Examination of Identity Identity is a concept that personally touches all of us. It comes up in debates about privacy and security ( e.g.; in National ID systems, identity management, and "identity theft" ). Identity touch upon who we are. But it is difficult to get a consensus upon what is identity. Is it an attribute? Is it a process? Although Andy Oram's essay, The Long View of Identity, won't establish a consensus, it examines some profound but often overlooked aspects of identity. Well worth reading. Speaking of identity insights, I've picked up two books related to identity documents & systems that look good. Cato Institute's Jim Harper's Identity Crisis: How Identification Is Overused and Misunderstood addresses governmental centralised identity registries and such. Martin Lloyd's The Passport: The History of the World's Most Travelled Document explores the history of passports. Years ago, I had an identity crisis, I looked in the mirror. These days, I demand ID from the reflection. <g> J.D. Abolins

17.8.06 13:30 Permalink / 2 Comments / comment

Etgar Keret on "The Metrics of War" Israeli author Egar Keret has written a profound essay on "Israel, Lebanon, and the metrics of war" and it is now on the Huffinington Post. It is a good commentary on the pitfalls of trying to draw moral conclusions from numbers of civilian casualties and other statistics in warfare. I agree with him that "the tragedy of the Middle East cannot be ended with a calculator and a highly developed moral sense". "But the dove found no rest for sole of her foot" (Gen. 8:9) J.D. Abolins

4.8.06 14:11 Permalink / 3 Comments / comment

Richard Forno's Powerpoint Manifesto The manifesto and accompanying material are at http://www.infowarrior.org/powerpoint.html Although the material is several years old, it still hold true to those who have experienced "PowerPoint Poisoning" or seen any "PowerPointer Ranger" presentations. J.D. Abolins

8.6.06 04:30 Permalink / 1 Comment / comment

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