MARCH 2002

The U.S. flag that once flew over the WTC Ground Zero site is raised along with the City of New York Fire Department and New York Police Department flags aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71), on the last day of TR's flight operations in support of ENDURING FREEDOM.  U.S. Navy photo by PM3 Amy Dela Torres.

"Russia and the West Since 11 September 2001"
Dr. Mark A. Smith, Conflict Studies Research Centre "Occasional Brief", Dec. 18, 2001 (PDF format)

This monograph from the Conflict Studies Research Centre (the UK MoD thinktank located at RMA Sandhurst) examines the improving relations between the Russian Federation and the West in the immediate aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks in the U.S.  Argues Smith:  "Russia sees the events of 11 September as a vindication of her long held view that international terrorism motivated by Islamic extremism is a major threat to international security."  Smith goes on to make some forecasts about how Russia's cooperation in the war on terrorism may affect its relations with the West in several key areas, including NATO expansion and U.S. national missile defense.  

"Networks and Netwars:  The Future of Terror, Crime, and Militancy"
John Arquilla & David Ronfeldt (RAND Corporation, 2001)

This is the latest compilation of essays edited by Arquilla and Ronfeldt on the subject of networked organizations and their impact upon future conflict (a notion they call "netwar").  Over the last decade, the editors have been responsible for crystallizing much of the current thinking about this concept, as set forth in earlier works such as In Athena's Camp.  This latest collection appears to be less theoretical in character and appears to have a slightly more empirical bent, examining the emerging manifestations of netwar in a number of specific contexts (including transnational criminal enterprises, the WTO protest movement, "hacktivism", and -- of course -- global terrorist networks).  Most of the work on this volume was completed prior to Sept. 11, but there is an afterword that specifically addresses recent developments, and we can expect this subject (which to date has been largely the province of academia and thinktanks) to achieve new prominence in policymaking circles.

One of the interesting things about the netwar construct is that it has relevance not only to international conflict, but to "conflict" in any number of contexts where traditional hierarchies have become vulnerable.  The emergence of network-driven behavior has had some real impact, I think, on the norms, practices, and dilemmas surrounding intellectual property control and protection, to select a significant non-foreign policy example.

"Tom Mouat's MapSymbs"
Tom Mouat, personal webpage for military map symbol tools

Tom Mouat, font artist extraordinaire and active duty British Army officer, creates map symbol toolsets that are compliant with NATO graphics standards and are suitable for use in wargaming, exercises, briefings, etc.  The fonts are in TrueType format and come in NATO APP-6 (traditional rectangular unit symbols) and APP-6a (new multi-color, multi-shape, multi-environment symbols) formats.  These are very professionally done, though, in Major Mouat's own words, "military map marking symbols are probably only of use to people in the Military, Defence Industries, Wargamers, and really sad people who collect fonts."  For the wargamers out there, these fonts are great for assembling map overlays and AAR graphics.

"Stability, America's Enemy"
Ralph Peters, Parameters (Winter 2001)

Whenever I come across anything written by Ralph Peters, it automatically goes to the top of the Punch Stack.  Writing in his usual forum, Peters challenges the notion that international stability should be the objective of U.S. strategic policy.  (Never let it be said that the U.S. Army War College doesn't publish provocative pieces...)  This essay powerfully expands on a theme that longtime Peters readers have detected throughout his works over the last few years, including some of his fiction.  Harsh (but not shrill) in its critique of U.S. policy in the last decade, and grounded in some very ugly historical assessments, this is not a piece that allows the reader to sleep especially easily.

On a somewhat lighter note, the author footnote reveals that in addition to his bestselling novels with "military or strategic themes," Peters has written "a series of critically acclaimed historical novels" under a pen name.  Anybody know which novels these are?

"Soviet Carrier Resumes Last Voyage"
CNN.com, Nov. 1, 2001

Since the day that I launched this site almost seven years ago, the fate of the unfinished second unit in the Admiral Kuznetsov class of conventionally-powered ski-jump aircraft carriers has always been uncertain.  That saga appears to be coming to a close, as Varyag was allowed to transit the Bosporus in early November and continue to China, where it will reportedly be converted to a floating "fun palace."  (I was unable to find a CNN citation, but Varyag actually arrived in China for conversion work this week.)  Thanks Rip.

Pentagon Background Briefings on Current Topics

"The Terrorist Threat in the Horn of Africa"
"Senior Defense Official", Mar. 8, 2002

"The Al-Qaeda Terrorist Network"
"Defense Official", Feb. 19, 2002

"Unmanned Aerial Vehicles"
"Senior Defense Officials", Oct. 31, 2001

From time to time, the DoD holds background briefings on specialized topics for the Pentagon press corps.  These sessions are usually conducted "on background" (not for attribution) by representatives who do not normally interact directly with the press (for instance, regional specialists from intelligence organizations).  While not as deftly handled or entertaining as the "Rumsfeld show," these are usually pretty informative and make for a useful supplement to the mainstream press coverage.

"Working with the CIA"
Garrett Jones, Parameters (Winter 2001)

I don't ordinarily include links related to "collection" and other covert activity, as this site really has very little to do with that aspect of intelligence, but this article is so entertaining and informative that I have to make an exception.  The author is a retired senior officer in the Directorate of Operations who has written a basic primer for senior military commanders on what, exactly, to do with the CIA station that happens to be sitting in the middle of their area of operations.  In the course of doing so, he explains some of the rather unique challenges of the profession and discusses some of the "pretty strange people" you meet.

"The New Craft of Intelligence: Making the Most of Open Private Sector Knowledge"
Robert D. Steele, TIME (March 4, 2002)

While on the subject of OSINT, Robert Steele ("Mr. Open Source" himself) wrote a nice piece for this week's TIME cover series.  Those of you who have read any of Mr. Steele's previous essays or books will be familiar with the arguments that he makes here; the article is mainly notable for its appearance in a mainstream periodical.  The main political problem with the OSINT 9/11 argument, I think, is that people are still going to be focused first and foremost on tactical indications and warning -- which of course remains largely the domain of "secrets."  Question whether intelligence reformers are going to commit large amounts of funding to OSINT when the word on everyone's lips these days is traditional HUMINT.  I fear the more likely outcome is that dollars will continue to go into the traditional programs, while the primary manifestation of community-wide OSINT remains limited to the next Global Trends roundtable.

Budget politics aside, from the perspective of an interested outsider, there does appear to be growing acceptance of private sector information analysis technologies by the traditional institutions of national security (a notion that appears to have been blessed politically after 9/11).  However, software and gadgetry aside, cultural acceptance of private sector commercial sources by the intelligence community probably is a greater challenge.  Thanks to Rip for highlighting the TIME piece.

"FBIS Against the Axis: 1941-1945:  Open Source Intelligence From the Airwaves"
Steven C. Mercado, Studies in Intelligence (Fall-Winter 2001)

An interesting article on the origins of the Foreign Broadcast Information Service, which began in late 1941 as the "Foreign Broadcast Monitoring Service" under the FCC, provided wartime monitoring, translation, and analysis of Axis open-source broadcasts in support of the War Department and OSS.  FBIS survived the war (although under new management) and to this day provides regional English-language translations of foreign media sources in its Daily Reports series.  I spent a lot of time in the FBIS collection at UC Berkeley's international library sifting through their Russia/Eastern Europe coverage.  I thought their military press coverage was superb, which perhaps shouldn't be surprising given their original tasking.  FBIS went online in 1995, but due to licensing issues I believe that their database is restricted to U.S. Government use only.

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