Download or read book Understanding Social Media and Mass Mobilization in the Operational Environment Relevance of Twitter and Facebook Trends in Army s Future Operating Environment Battleswarm and Future Warfare written by U. S. Military and published by . This book was released on 2017-03-02 with total page 85 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The advent of social media combined with unfettered access to inexpensive mobile electronic devices has dramatically increased information sharing throughout populations worldwide. Journalists ascribed terms such as "The Facebook Effect" and "The Twitter Revolution" to recent uprisings in the Middle East, crediting social media as a catalyst to those social movements. Factions demanding change utilized social media to assist in mobilizing activist crowds within their own countries and to garner support on the international stage. The degree to which social media facilitated these movements varied in each country, but the fact that social media played a role in the uprisings is indisputable. This monograph proposes that since people will continue to use social media to help influence future social movements, the US Army needs to better understand, anticipate, and exploit the potential threat presented by social media and mass mobilization in future operating environments. In some cases, intelligence analysts can predict or anticipate effects based on simple pattern analysis or other predictive models. In other instances, this may prove impossible. The US Army may find that using principles of complexity theory can provide the most continuously useful guide to gain insights into how factions intent on social unrest use social media to help organize their movements and advance towards a common goal. Planners can understand potential threats using characteristics of self-organization, anticipate using emergent properties, and exploit the properties of networks inherent in complex adaptive systems. Using complex systems thinking, the Army may be able to develop unique operational approaches to cope with these problems in an increasingly complex environment. Acronyms * Introduction * Background * Understand, Anticipate, Exploit Using Principles of Complexity Theory * Defining Terms * Relevance of Social Media and the Army's Future Operating Environment * Increased urbanization will require the US Army to operate in cities * Social media trends * Intersection of trends: battleswarm and possible future warfare * Overview of Egyptian uprisings in 2011 * Common Properties of Complex Systems Provide a Basis for Analysis * Identify the Simple Components before Analyzing the Interactions * Nonlinear Interactions Create Something Superior to the Individual Components * Lack of Central Control Allows for Decentralized Organization * Emergent Behaviors Lead to Evolution of the System * Summary of Common Properties of Complex Systems * Understanding how Mass Mobilization and Social Media Interact through Characteristics of Self-Organization * Clustering Helps Protect Individuals * Flocking and Schooling Assists in Moving Towards a Common Objective * Task Allocation Alters to React to Changing Conditions * Decision-Making through Quorum Sensing * Summary of Characteristics of Self-Organization * Anticipate Using Characteristics of Emergence in a Complex Adaptive System * Information processing through Local Sampling and Statistics * Hierarchical Organizations Promote Survival * Dynamics Determine How the System Changes its Patterns * Systems Adapt through Evolution and Learning * Summary of Emergence in Complex Adaptive Systems * Exploit the Common Properties of Networks * Small World Properties Reveal that Paths in Networks are Shorter than Expected * Long-Tailed Degree Distribution Can Give Insight into Social Network * Clustering and Community Structure Indicate How Quickly Information Travels * Networks May be Vulnerable to Targeted Hub Attacks * Cascading Failure May Collapse the Entire Network * Summary of Network Properties * Conclusion * Bibliography

Download or read book Social Media and the Arab Spring written by U.s. Army Command and General Staff College and published by CreateSpace. This book was released on 2014-07-16 with total page 54 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How should militaries think about social media as a factor in military operations? In this study I examine recent Arab Spring scholarship, with a particular focus on the significant impact of social media on events in Egypt in early 2011. Existing literature in this area centers on the ability of various social media platforms to unite and inspire population masses, yet does not address the important effect of social media on military forces responding to the revolution. This gap is exemplified by the general reluctance of military practitioners to engage scholars with actual evidence from real-world events during times of conflict. In response to these challenges, I offer the unique oral history of an Egyptian company commander who led soldiers in Cairo's Tahrir Square throughout several months of intensive security operations during the Arab Spring. Through this descriptive study, I find that the prevalence of social media considerably affected the Egyptian Army's response to the massive popular uprising. To evaluate these findings, I propose a “social media update” to Gene Sharp's mechanisms of nonviolent change, analyzing the Egyptian Army's counter intuitive approach to the events of 2011 in light of an updated Sharp framework. I conclude that the Egyptian Army's experiences provide a tremendously useful example of how militaries may think about social media as a factor in military operations. Finally, I argue that a written account of the Egyptian Army's response to social media is exactly the type of “policy-relevant scholarship” military practitioners must be willing to produce in order to inform U.S. policy in a truly meaningful way.

Download or read book Bullets and Blogs New Media and the Warfighter written by and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page 107 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For the U.S. military, new media and the Global Information Environment (GIE) present sustained challenges and opportunities. In recent years, new adversaries -- armed with new media capabilities and an information-led warfighting strategy -- have proven themselves capable of stopping the most powerful militaries in the world. The current and future geo-strategic environment requires preparation for a battlespace in which symbolic informational wins may precipitate strategic effects equivalent to, or greater than, lethal operations. In recognition of the new media challenge, the U.S. Army War College (USAWC) hosted a workshop in January 2008 entitled "Bullets and Blogs: New Media and the Warfighter." This workshop brought together leading practitioners from the Department of Defense, Department of State, Intelligence Community, and experts from academia. To spark debate, the workshop employed case studies drawn from the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah War in Lebanon. This conflict marked an important milestone for warfare in the information age. The nonstate actor Hezbollah proved capable of thwarting Israel's primary war aims and forcing a battlefield stalemate. While Hezbollah stood little chance of prevailing militarily against the Israeli Defense Forces, its strategic victory was achieved by way of an information-led warfighting strategy that leveraged new media to influence the political will of key global audiences (including the Israeli public). The 2006 war previewed the characteristics of hybrid conflict that U.S. forces may encounter in the future. A synthesis of workshop discussions yielded inter-related takeaways on what is required to "win" in today's operational environment, where cyberspace and new media capabilities are significant components of the battlespace.

Download or read book Social Networks Terrorism and Counter terrorism written by Martin Bouchard and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-06-05 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines two key themes in terrorism studies, the radicalization process and counter-terrorism policies, through the lens of social networks. The book aims to show that networks should be at the forefront not only when analysing terrorists, but also when assessing the responses to their actions. The volume makes a unique contribution by addressing two relatively new themes for terrorism studies. First it puts social relations and cooperation issues at the forefront – an approach often identified as crucial to future breakthroughs in the field. Second, many contributions tackle the role of the Internet in the process of radicalization and in recruitment more generally, a highly debated topic in the field today. In addition, the book provides a valuable mix of review essays, critical essays, and original empirical studies. This balanced approach is also found in the topics covered by the authors, as well as their academic disciplines, which include sociology, computer science, geography, history, engineering, and criminology as well as political science. Many of the true advances in terrorism studies depend on the successful collaboration of multi-disciplinary teams, each with a different set of methodological and conceptual tools. This volume reflects the newfound diversity in this field and is a true product of its time. This book will be of much interest to students of terrorism studies, social networks, security studies, sociology, criminology and international relations in general.

Download or read book War Will and Warlords written by and published by Government Printing Office. This book was released on with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Compares the reasons for and the responses to the insurgencies in Afghanistan and Pakistan since October 2001. Also examines the lack of security and the support of insurgent groups in Afghanistan and Pakistan since the 1970s that explain the rise of the Pakistan-supported Taliban. Explores the border tribal areas between the two countries and how they influence regional stability and U.S. security. Explains the implications of what happened during this 10-year period to provide candid insights on the prospects and risks associated with bringing a durable stability to this area of the world.

Download or read book Sale of the Century written by Chrystia Freeland and published by Crown. This book was released on 2000 with total page 424 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the 1990s, all eyes turned to the momentous changes in Russia, as the world's largest country was transformed into the world's newest democracy. But the heroic images of Boris Yeltsin atop a tank in front of Moscow's White House soon turned to grim new realities: a currency in freefall and a war in Chechnya; on the street, flashy new money and a vicious Russian mafia contrasted with doctors and teachers not receiving salaries for months at a time. If this was what capitalism brought, many Russians wondered if they weren't better off under the communists. This new society did not just appear ready-made: it was created by a handful of powerful men who came to be known as the oligarchs and the young reformers. The oligarchs were fast-talking businessmen who laid claim to Russia's vast natural resources. The young reformers were an elite group of egghead economists who got to put their wild theories into action, with results that were sometimes inspiring, sometimes devastating. With unparalleled access and acute insight, Chrystia Freeland takes us behind the scenes and shows us how these two groups misused a historic opportunity to build a new Russia. Their achievements were considerable, but their mistakes will deform Russian society for generations to come. Along with a gripping account of the incredible events in Russia's corridors of power, Freeland gives us a vivid sense of the buzz and hustle of the new Russia, and inside stories of the businesses that have beaten the odds and become successful and profitable. She also exposes the conflicts and compromises that developed when red directors of old Soviet firms and factories yielded to -- or fought -- the radically new ways of doing business. She delves into the loophole economy, where anyone who knows how to manipulate the new rules can make a fast buck. Sale of the Century is a fascinating fly-on-the-wall economic thriller -- an astonishing and essential account of who really controls Russia's new frontier.

Download or read book The Emerging Democratic Majority written by John B. Judis and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2004-02-10 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ONE OF THE ECONOMIST'S BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR AND A WINNER OF THE WASHINGTON MONTHLY'S ANNUAL POLITICAL BOOK AWARD Political experts John B. Judis and Ruy Teixeira convincingly use hard data -- demographic, geographic, economic, and political -- to forecast the dawn of a new progressive era. In the 1960s, Kevin Phillips, battling conventional wisdom, correctly foretold the dawn of a new conservative era. His book, The Emerging Republican Majority, became an indispensable guide for all those attempting to understand political change through the 1970s and 1980s. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, with the country in Republican hands, The Emerging Democratic Majority is the indispensable guide to this era. In five well-researched chapters and a new afterword covering the 2002 elections, Judis and Teixeira show how the most dynamic and fastest-growing areas of the country are cultivating a new wave of Democratic voters who embrace what the authors call "progressive centrism" and take umbrage at Republican demands to privatize social security, ban abortion, and cut back environmental regulations. As the GOP continues to be dominated by neoconservatives, the religious right, and corporate influence, this is an essential volume for all those discontented with their narrow agenda -- and a clarion call for a new political order.

Download or read book The Wrong War written by Bing West and published by Random House Trade Paperbacks. This book was released on 2012-02-21 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NATIONAL BESTSELLER In this definitive account of the conflict, acclaimed war correspondent and bestselling author Bing West provides a practical way out of Afghanistan. Drawing on his expertise as both a combat-hardened Marine and a former assistant secretary of defense, West has written a tour de force narrative, rich with vivid characters and gritty combat, which shows the consequences when strategic theory meets tactical reality. Having embedded with dozens of frontline units over the past three years, he takes the reader on a battlefield journey from the mountains in the north to the opium fields in the south. A fighter who understands strategy, West builds the case for changing course. His conclusion is sure to provoke debate: remove most of the troops from Afghanistan, stop spending billions on the dream of a modern democracy, and insist the Afghans fight their own battles. Bing West’s book is a page-turner about brave men and cunning enemies that examines our realistic choices as a nation.

Download or read book The Bidens written by Ben Schreckinger and published by Twelve. This book was released on 2021-09-21 with total page 277 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A deeply reported exploration of Joe Biden as told through his extended family. Coming off of the 2020 election, THE BIDENS tells the Biden Family story in full, from the secrets lurking in the deep recesses of Joe's family tree to his son Hunter's foreign deal-making spree—and the Trump gang's ham-handed efforts to exploit it. ​On November 3, Americans did not just elect Joe Biden: They got a package deal. The tight-knit Biden family—siblings, children, in-laws, and beyond—is coming right along with him. They are sure to play a defining role in his presidency, just as they have in every other one of his endeavors. Inside, you’ll find these and other stories and revelations about the Biden family, including: Joe’s childhood, the stunning 1972 Senate upset engineered by his sister Valerie, and the car accident that took the lives of his first wife and infant daughter soon after Joe’s early years in the Senate and his role in the creation of the cozy “Delaware Way” of conducting politics The Biden brothers’ business escapades, including the ’70s rock club rivalry that pitted Jim Biden against Jill’s first husband and ended in a banking scandal The Delaware lawman who oversaw an FBI investigation into Joe’s 2007 campaign fundraising and now has Hunter in his sights Hunter’s surprisingly close friendship with his Fox News antagonist, Tucker Carlson What Steve Bannon really hoped to accomplish by giving the contents of “the Laptop from Hell” to the New York Post New evidence that sheds light on the authenticity of Hunter’s alleged computer files Like the Kennedys before them, the Bidens are a tight-knit, idealistic Irish Catholic clan with good looks, dynastic ambitions, and serious personal problems. As THE BIDENS reveals, the best way to understand Joe Biden—his values, fears, and motives—is to understand his family: Their Irish (and not-so-Irish) roots, their place in the Delaware pecking order, their dodgy business deals, and their personal struggles and triumphs alike.

Download or read book Gallipoli written by Peter Hart and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2011-10-03 with total page 561 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "First published in Great Britain in 2011 by Profile Books"--T.p. verso.

Download or read book Normandy Crucible written by John Prados and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2011-07-05 with total page 371 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A military intelligence expert examines the most formative battle of World War II. The Battle of Normandy was the greatest offensive campaign the world had ever seen. Millions of soldiers battling for control of Europe were thrust onto the front lines of a massive war unlike any experienced in history. But the greatest of clashes would prove to be the crucible in which the outcome of World War II would be decided. Author John Prados tells the story of how and why the tactics and battle plans of Normandy proved so formative, and reconstructs the climactic Allied Normandy breakout from both sides of the battle lines.

Download or read book How We Can Live written by Laleña Garcia and published by Lee & Low Books. This book was released on 2022-05-05 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A nonfiction introduction to thirteen principles underlying the Black Lives Matter movement and organization, written in a style that children can understand and illustrated with portraits of icons, activists, and regular people"--

Download or read book The Future of Warfare in 2030 written by Raphael S. Cohen and published by . This book was released on 2022-03-31 with total page 102 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This report is the overview in a series that seeks to answer questions about the future of warfare, including who might be the United States' adversaries and allies, where conflicts will be fought, and how and why they might occur.

Download or read book A Discourse on Winning and Losing written by John Boyd and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Boyd's initial focus was a 193 slide summation of military history in the "Patterns of Conflict" brief and his effort soon expanded dramatically. His insights led him to introduce the theory of maneuver warfare as critical to military success in general, as it had been for successful air-to-air tactics where his intellectual journey began. His study and thought led him to produce a series of other briefings. They included a 37 slide briefing entitled "An Organic Design for Command and Control," a 58-slide briefing entitled "The Strategic Game of ? and ?," a 27-slide briefing entitled "The Conceptual Spiral," and one of the few essays he ever wrote called "Destruction and Creation." The larger "Discourse" ends with his summation entitled "Revelation." To this is added a four slide brief on "The Essence of Winning and Losing" produced on 28 June 1995. It is an effort to compress all that he had learned into a simple, yet elegant and comprehensive, conclusion embedded in his concept of O-O-D-A Loops, what they mean and why they are important.--Provided by publisher.

Download or read book The Savior Generals written by Victor Davis Hanson and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2013-05-14 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Moving portraits of five commanders whose dynamic leadership styles changed the course of warfare and history trace the stories of Themistocles, Belisarius, William Tecumseh Sherman, Matthew Ridgway and David Petraeus, evaluating their pivotal military roles and the controversies that marked their careers.

Download or read book Essentials of Game Theory written by Kevin Gebser and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2022-05-31 with total page 88 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Game theory is the mathematical study of interaction among independent, self-interested agents. The audience for game theory has grown dramatically in recent years, and now spans disciplines as diverse as political science, biology, psychology, economics, linguistics, sociology, and computer science, among others. What has been missing is a relatively short introduction to the field covering the common basis that anyone with a professional interest in game theory is likely to require. Such a text would minimize notation, ruthlessly focus on essentials, and yet not sacrifice rigor. This Synthesis Lecture aims to fill this gap by providing a concise and accessible introduction to the field. It covers the main classes of games, their representations, and the main concepts used to analyze them.

Download or read book The Transformation of Terrorism written by Doron Zimmermann and published by . This book was released on 2003 with total page 88 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: