War 2.0: Irregular Warfare in the Information Age(Praeger Security International)

War 2.0: Irregular Warfare in the Information Age argues that two intimately connected grassroots trends—the rise of insurgencies and the rise of the web—are putting modern armies under huge pressure to adapt new forms of counterinsurgency to new forms of social war. After the U.S. military—transformed into a lean, lethal, computerized force—faltered in Iraq after 2003, a robust insurgency arose. Counterinsurgency became a social form of war—indeed, the U.S. Army calls it "armed social work"—in which the local population was the center of gravity and public opinion at home the critical vulnerability. War 2.0 traces the contrasting ways in which insurgents and counterinsurgents have adapted irregular conflict to novel media platforms. It examines the public affairs policies of the U.S. land forces, the British Army, and the Israel Defense Forces. Then, it compares the media-related counterinsurgency methods of these conventional armies with the methods devised by their irregular adversaries, showing how such organizations as al-Qaeda, the Taliban, and Hezbollah use the web, not merely to advertise their political agenda and influence public opinion, but to mobilize a following and put violent ideas into action.

About the Author :
Thomas Rid is a research fellow at the Center for Transatlantic Relations in the School for Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University. Previously he worked at the RAND Corporation, the Institut français des relations internationales, and the Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik. He is author of War and Media Operations and co-editor of Understanding Counterinsurgency Warfare. Marc Hecker is a research fellow at the Security Studies Center of the Institut français des relations internationales in Paris. Among his publications are La presse française et la première guerre du Golfe, La défense des intérêts de l'Etat d'Israël en France, and Une vie d'Afghanistan.

Review :
Clear and pleasant to read in an elevated American style, War 2.0 will probably establish itself as indispensable not only for all students of the transformation that warfare will continue undergoing in coming years but also to the armies themselves, for whom the adaptation process will be long and arduous. This book is excellent. This book traces the contrasting ways in which insurgents and counterinsurgents use novel media platforms in irregular conflict. In three case studies based on government and policy reports and interviews, the public affairs policies of US, British, and Israeli conventional forces are examined, and their media-related counterinsurgency methods are compared with the Web-based methods devised by al-Qaeda, the Taliban, and Hezbollah to advertise their political agenda, influence public opinion, and put violent ideas into action. A chronology overviews landmarks in the recent history of telecommunications and irregular warfare. The book is written for a general audience as well as for scholars of modern armed conflict, political advisors, officers, and journalists. Timely, evidence-driven, clear and concise, War 2.0 challenges the ideas and protocols of the 20th century, dragging us into the modern reality inhabited by 'digital natives', and is recommended reading for all, young and old, involved in or studying the conduct of irregular warfare. And along with their doctrinal notes from staff college, public affairs officer should now add one more book to their compulsory reading list. This is an interesting and provocative work. . . . This is a well written and researched piece. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Graduate, research, and professional collections. . . . worthwhile . . . Rid and Hecker's War 2.0 is clearly a must read. . .