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Re: INFOWAR: Infowar seen by the Chinese
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ARS ELECTRONICA FESTIVAL 98
INFOWAR. information.macht.krieg
Linz, Austria, september 07 - 12
http://www.aec.at/infowar
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In reply to Ingrid Fischer, who recently reported from China, I'd like to
report on the same issue from Russia briefly, I'm going to post these
results soon.
>Perhaps it is worthwhile having a look at the concept of Infowar from
>another viewpoint than the European/American.
>
>I have just come back from Beijing where I have met several people doing
>research in this field, militaries and others. And it seems that the
>concept of Infowar in the beginning was not an American - there is one
>chinese author, Shen Weiguang, who has been working on the concept of
>infowar since the early 80ies.
Russians claim the same for themselves. They have called it before:
'indirect action', disinformatio', psychological warfare.
Infowar, as the mainstream Russian understanding is about the same and has
3 dimensions:
(1a) defensive: protecting cultural values from overflow of Western
cultural imperialism (in all kind of media-channels and contents); (1b)
protecting Russian military installations and systems from all kind of
'real' attacks by cyber-means; (2) having the ability to launch similar
campaigns in case of need.
>Since the Gulf War the concept of infowar has been accepted by the Chinese
>Military, too, and by now there are a lot of people publishing articles
>and books (for internal and public use), so that for the Chinese
>intellectuals the concept of Infowar is not an unknown thing.
It depends on what Infowar is defined. If one neglects current military
aspects, such as direct attacks on military or strategic centers by
hacker-means, 'Infowar is the continuation of politics and policies by
means of information technology (IT)' in the Clausewitz's sense of
nation-states. So some Russians analysts define Infowar primarily in the
sense of 'traditional' nation-states.
>The Chinese consider that the military part of a future infowar is not the
>most relevant part; the Chinese think that the decisive factor and key to
>victory lies in human policy decisions rather than in technology; genuine
>advantage does not necessarily lie in leading technology but in leading
>ideas. (Wishful thinking??)
Some US colleagues will applaud. Arquilla/Ronfeldt's recent compilation of
articls stress the same point. Shaping for the age of cyber- and
information warfare needs new organisational structures in military
hierachy, technology alone would not help one to achieve the better
strategy. But in reverse: Without the technology of being able to wage
cyber and inforwar, the best theoretical understanding of the priciples
doesn't help you in integrating the technical means into a 'great
strategy'. In addition, the almost real-time communication on the future
battlefields (see operation 'desert storm') enables military
decision-makers on different levels just to make those decisions, which
they are responsible for or which they can do best on operational level.
The transparancy of all kind of operations may increase dramatically.
>They are elaborating on the old concept of
>People's warfare as formulated by Mao Zedong - the fact that information
>technology is spreading quickly in China (at least in the big cities and
>among university graduates) would enable much more people to take part in
>Fighting "without even having to step out of the door". So those who take
>part in information war are not soldiers alone, but anybody who
>understands computers may become "a fighter on the network(s)". "Think
>tanks composed of nongovernmental experts may take part in decisionmaking;
>rapid mobilization will not just be directed to young people;
>information-related industries and domains will be the first to be
>mobilized and enter the war; traditional modes of operations will undergo
>major changes; operational plans designed for information warfare will be
>given priority in formulation and adoption; and so on and so forth.
>Because other technologies are understood by people only after they are
>married with information technology and because information technology is
>becoming increasingly socialized, information warfare is not the business
>of armed forces alone." (Wei Jincheng). Shen Weiguang affirms that large
>troops will no longer be the military threat; sudden attack from the
>network should be paid more attention, especially economic attack.
>Cultural aggression and ecological aggression will become the main threat
>of social safety.
>
>As there have appeared a lot of articles in major newpapers, it seems that
>the Chinese intellectuals are much more aware of this new kind of war
>(which is not a thing to come, but which is around is already, as Wei
>says) than their colleages in Europe and perhaps the States. Recently,
>even one of the big Chinese students' leagues, the All China Students'
>Center of science and technology, is turning the attention of students to
>the infowar - to prepare them and make them fit.
>
>If you consider the Chinese enthusiastic acceptance of all technology -
>starting with cars, going to pagers and mobile phones (in Beijing just
>about every yuppie - and there are a lot of them - has got one) to
>computers and the Internet (the infrastructure has made extreme progress
>in the last two years; internet cafes are nothing strange in big cities;
>China has got a lot of academic networks linking most of the universities
>and up to 2000 all of them; it is introducing an "own" Chinese speaking
>Internet - ChinaInfo; the financial Information Service, the new
>superministry of Information, the socalled "nine "Golden Projects", the
>new Internet regulations which seem to have lifted restrictions about
>previouly blocked Internet sites .... just to cite some items - and last
>but not least - the old tradition of philosphy of war, not only Sunzi) it
>will be quite interesting to observe in what direction the discussion in
>China will move.
Georg Schoefbaenker
Peace Center Burg Schlaining / Austria
georg.schoefbaenker@jk.uni-linz.ac.at
phone and fax: +43 (0)732 77 01 49
>
>Ingrid Fischer-Schreiber
>
>-------------------------------------------------------
>Ingrid Fischer-Schreiber
>Beethovenstrasse 11
>A-4020 Linz
>Austria
>Tel/Fax ++43/732/613647
>E-Mail: fischer@eunet.at
>
>
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