Networked warfare and Islamist extremist propaganda Netwar pertains to information-age conflict on the low-intensity, social end of the spectrum in which networked actors, usually small non-state entities or even individuals, could operate conjointly against larger, more powerful targets.
Information technology has empowered networked organization versus hierarchical structures, enabling groups to conduct “statecraft” in a realm in diplomatic, security and military affairs previously reserved for states and trans-state organizations. Netwar creates a challenge for government policymakers, as well as a need to develop theories and strategies for counternetwar.
This class combines a look at netwar theory with a very intensive lecture on enemy Islamist extremist propaganda and political warfare campaigns surrounding the war on terrorism around the world and within the United States.
The class discusses: (a) structures, functions, methods and themes of netwar components to promote terrorist causes and frustrate U.S. counter-terrorism efforts; (b) reasons why the U.S. finds it so difficult to counter these networks; (c) security and intelligence shortcomings and requirements; (d) integration of political/information operations with kinetic counter-terrorism operations; and (e) and U.S. government approaches to counter terrorist netwar and propaganda.
The class also explores different messages and media of today’s terrorist propaganda.
For students in the Thursday political warfare class: There is much overlap with a similar lecture, but many differences as well.
Required Readings
- John Arquilla and David Ronfeldt, eds., Networks and Netwars: The Future of Terror, Crime, and Militancy
(Santa Monica and Washington: RAND Corporation, 2001), “Summary,” pp. ix-xii. On reserve. Download Networks&Netwars Summary [Note: The entire text of this book can be downloaded at no charge as .pdf documents from the RAND website at: http://www.rand.org/publications/MR/MR1382/.]
- John Arquilla and David Ronfeldt, eds., In Athena's Camp: Preparing for Conflict in the Information Age
(Santa Monica and Washington: RAND Corporation, 1997) Chapter 12, “The Advent of Netwar,” pp. 275-294. Download Athena Ch 12 [Note: The entire text of this book can be downloaded at no charge as .pdf documents from the RAND website at: http://www.rand.org/pubs/monograph_reports/MR880/.]
- David Ronfeldt and John Arquilla, “What Next for Networks and Netwars?” Networks and Netwars, Chapter 10, pp. 311-362. Download Networks&Netwars Ch 10
- J. Michael Waller, “‘Wahhabi Lobby’ Takes the Offensive,” Insight, 5 August 2002.
- _____, “Domestic Front in the War on Terror,” Insight, 7 January 2002.
- _____, “Undermining the War on Terror,” Insight, 18-31 March 2003.
- _____, “Alamoudi and Those Bags of Libyan Cash,” Insight, 28 October-10 November 2003.
Recommended Readings
- Matthew A. Levitt, Senior Fellow in Terrorism Studies, Washington Institute for Near East Policy, “Subversion from Within: Saudi Funding of Islamic Extremist Groups Undermining U.S. Interests and the War on Terror from the United States,” testimony before the Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology and Homeland Security, United States Senate, 10 September 2003.
- David Ronfeldt and Armando Martinez, “A Comment on the Zapatista ‘Netwar,’” In Athena’s Camp, Chapter 16, pp. 369-391. For more on this, see David Ronfeldt, ed., The Zapatista Social Netwar in Mexico
(RAND, 1999).
- Extra: MAJ Nidal Malik Hasan's powerpoint. This is the powerpoint that MAJ Hasan, who attacked fellow soldiers at Fort Hood in 2009, gave as what should have been an official US Army medical presentation, in 2007.
(New Republic Books, 1990), pp. 144-15
(Knopf, 1999), pp. 241-245. This is a unique story of how a single political operative can successfully counter a Chinese propaganda effort. [The library copy of this book has "disappeared," so I will bring handouts of this short section for us to go over in class.]
(Yale University Press, 2007).
(Regnery, 2000). This book, written by a former military officer-turned-congressional investigator and a former counsel to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, documents Chinese government penetration of US politics in a case study of the Clinton administration. Above, Mann writes about how Triplett acted as a one-man counterpropaganda team in the Senate against the PRC.
(New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1964). Studies the early domestic propaganda operations of the Chinese Communist Party to consolidate control over the population in the decade after its seizure of power. 
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 1989), Chapter 2, “The Trust,” pp. 22-30; Chapter 7, “The Theory of Perfect Deception,” pp. 105-110; Chapter 13, “The Denial of Deception,” pp. 196-215; and Chapter 14, “The Confidence Game” (especially the description of Iranian deception of the Reagan National Security Council in the Iran-Contra affair), pp. 216-225.
(New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1984), Part 1, Chapter 1, “The Problems Facing Western Analysts,” pp. 3-9; Chapter 2, “The Patterns of Disinformation,” pp. 10-17; Chapter 6, “The Shelepin Report and Changes in Organization,” pp. 46-51; and Chapter 7, “The New Role of Intelligence,” pp. 52-57; Chapter 9, “The Vulnerability of Western Assessments,” pp. 65-69; Chapter 10, “Communist Intelligence Successes, Western Failures, and the Crisis in Western Studies,” pp. 70-78; Chapter 24, “The Impact of the Disinformation Program,” 309-323. [Cautionary note: This is an important book with good ideas and concepts, but at times the author can overdo them, so readers should be especially discerning. The author often makes inaccurate generalizations and false assumptions, some of which are a few steps beyond reality. For example, concerning the case of the Polish trade union Solidarity, which the KGB infiltrated and attempted to manipulate, Golitsyn jumps to the unsubstantiated conclusion that Solidarity was a KGB operation. I have attempted to assign only sections that are most reliable. Golitsyn was an important defector, but one must be careful in reading defector accounts because of a frequent tendency to expand on their commentaries to issues outside their areas of direct knowledge, while leading the reader to think that the defector remained "in the know." My assessment of Golitsyn is based on the opinions of professional US intelligence officers and other personnel who worked directly with him.] 
(Syracuse: Syracuse University Research Corp., 1972).
(Washington: Pergamon Brassey’s, 1985), especially Chapter 5, “The Art of Forgery,” pp. 91-107.
(Lexington: Lexington Books, 1987), Chapter 1, pp. 3-20.
(Washington: Pergamon-Brasseys, 1988), Chapter 10, pp. 221-226.
(Transaction Publishers/National Strategy Information Center, 2002).
(Washington: Pergamon-Brassey’s, 1986).
(New York: Deep Cover Books, 1981). A primary source example of a recruited Soviet-bloc agent, formerly a CIA officer, serving as a source of disinformation. Agee died in Cuba in 2008.
(Lexington: Lexington Books, 1987), Chapter 3, “Forgeries,” pp. 35-46; and Chapter 4, “The Whalen and Tanaka Forgeries,” pp. 47-59.
(Washington: Pergamon Brassey’s, 1984).
(New York: Harper Colophon, 1964), Chapter 5, “Deception and Distraction,” pp. 67-84.
(New York: McGraw-Hill, 1987). 
(20th Century Publishing Co., 1953). Considers 77 basic propaganda techniques, outline of analysis method. Discusses media, manipulation, environment, examples (fascist, communist, American), slogans. 
(Ann Arbor: Ardis, 1982). 
(New York: Harper & Row, 1963). Discusses early Cold War propaganda battle, and compares the resources devoted by the Soviet and U.S. sides; considers propaganda in terms of morality and an open society.
(Lexington, Mass.: Lexington Publishers, 1989). 
(New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1989).
(Pergamon-Brassey’s, 1988), Chapter 9, pp. 201-219. 
(New York: Touchstone, 1991), Chapter 4, “Washington’s Revolving Door,” pp. 49-63; Chapter 5, “Japan Buys Washington,” pp. 64-76; Chapter 7, “Hidden Interests,” pp. 109-120; Chapter 8, “The Politicians’ Politician,” pp. 121-131; and Chapter 9, “Grass-Roots Politicking,” 132-143. Note: This book was written during a time when Japanese economic strength was ascendant and many feared that the United States was in decline. Its case studies are illustrative of a widespread phenomenon in American political culture.
(New York: Ballantine, 1996). 
(Smithsonian Books, 2007). Read entire book. Pay close attention to how the North Vietnamese spy ran operations via the American news media during the war. Read between the lines of this book. 
), Chapter 1, "Lying for the Truth." 
(Washington: Regnery, 2000), Chapter 2, “An ‘Agent of Influence’ Makes History,” pp. 29-53 
(Washington: National Security Agency and Central Intelligence Agency, 1996). 
(New York: Random House, 1996).
(New York: Free Press, 1994), entire book.
(Toronto: Mackenzie Institute, 1989).
(Boston: Little, Brown, 1989).
jazz band, and Frank Capra’s American “Why We Fight” series.
(1998), Part I, Chapter 3, “Contacts for Political Warfare,” pp. 17-23 
(New York: New York University Press, 1995), pp. 190-216. 
(New York: Pantheon, 1996). A study of U.S. and Imperial Japanese war propaganda and how each side dehumanized the enemy. 
(American Book Company, 1939). Chapter IV discusses domestic propaganda structures and processes of the Italian Fascist party.
(New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1925), Chapter VI, “War Propaganda,” and Chapter XI, “Propaganda and Organization.” Hitler’s rambling makes this a dull read, but it its scholarly value is the source. 
(Washington: U.S. Information Agency, 1955), on the Japanese “spiritual mobilization” theory of propaganda; the propaganda theory of the German Nazis; notes on the British concept of propaganda; and the Soviet concept of psychological warfare. 
(University of Kansas, 1996), the first and concluding chapters. 
, trans. Salvator Attanasio et al., (Grosset & Dunlap, 1966). 
(Secaucus: Wellfleet Press, 1987).
(Croom Helm, Ltd., 1979). Focusing on Soviet and Nazi cinema, the book addresses film’s ability to speak to an audience and a mass. 
(New Haven: Yale University Press, 1978). Discusses U.S. propaganda at home and abroad during World War II. 
(New York: Oxford, 1964), Chapters II, III and VIII.
(1934), subtitled in English.
, series of six wartime documentaries (1942-1945). 
(Washington: Regnery, 1997). [About the Jack Morris Childs case.] 
(New York: Twayne, 1992). 
(New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1995). 
(Yale University Press, 2003). 