Information warfare

During the radical changes, which are taking place in our country, we are clashed with the phenomenon of information aggression in the media of our neighbor, Russia

All-pay war

We study a model of war in which the outcome is uncertain not because of luck on the battlefield (as in standard models), but because the involved countries lack information about their opponent. In our model their production and military technologies are common knowledge, but their resources are private information. Each country decides how to allocate its resources to production and warfare. The country with the stronger military wins and receives aggregate production. In equilibrium the country with a comparative advantage in warfare allocates all resources to warfare for low resource levels and follows a non-decreasing concave strategy thereafter. The opponent allocates a constant fraction of its resources to warfare for low resource levels and follows an increasing non-linear strategy thereafter. From an ex ante perspective the country with a comparative advantage in warfare is likely to win the war unless its military technology is much weaker than the opponent’s.Conflict; war; all-pay auction; private information

Information Warfare

The article is devoted to the problem of information warfare in the modern world, the possible implications of cybercrime and cyberterrorism, the analysis of directions of the conflicts settlement in the area of information warfare between individual states. To improve the Proposals of the Russian Federation in the field of information warfare. Keywords: information warfare, cybercrime, cyberterrorism, information confrontation, information technology, computer attacks, industrial espionage, propaganda, information calls

The Alt-Right and Global Information Warfare

The Alt-Right is a neo-fascist white supremacist movement that is involved in violent extremism and shows signs of engagement in extensive disinformation campaigns. Using social media data mining, this study develops a deeper understanding of such targeted disinformation campaigns and the ways they spread. It also adds to the available literature on the endogenous and exogenous influences within the US far right, as well as motivating factors that drive disinformation campaigns, such as geopolitical strategy. This study is to be taken as a preliminary analysis to indicate future methods and follow-on research that will help develop an integrated approach to understanding the strategies and associations of the modern fascist movement.Comment: Presented and published through IEEE 2019 Big Data Conferenc

A Descriptive Study of Information Operations and Information Warfare Awareness in the United States Air Force

Information has always been important in military affairs, conflicts, and wars. Information warfare is an important new concept that is emphasized by the significance of computer and information technology. The United States Air Force has educated and trained individuals in information warfare since recognizing the importance of information warfare in 1995. The Air Force Information Warfare Center and the information warfare squadron were also created to address information warfare concerns. Information warfare is important to the entire Air Force. How familiar are Air Force people generally in information warfare? This thesis addresses awareness of information warfare and information operations concepts. Despite the amount of focus, training, and education, it was unknown how aware individuals were concerning information warfare and information operations. This thesis surveyed eight hundred officers and enlisted personnel with a response rate of 214 to determine the baseline of information warfare awareness. Approximately sixty percent of the respondents indicated that they were aware of information warfare. Also, individuals who received information warfare training responded higher than individuals without training. This is the first study in information warfare and information operations awareness. Additional research is needed to determine how the awareness levels are changing and the effectiveness of the training

A discourse in conflict : resolving the definitional uncertainty of cyber war : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment for the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Defence and Security Studies at Massey University, Albany, New Zealand

Since emerging in academic literature in the 1990s, definitions of ‘cyber war’ and cyber warfare’ have been notably inconsistent. There has been no research that examines these inconsistencies and whether they can be resolved. Using the methodology of discourse analysis, this thesis addresses this research need. Analysis has identified that the study of cyber war and cyber warfare is inherently inter-disciplinary. The most prominent academic disciplines contributing definitions are Strategic Studies, Security Studies, Information and Communications Technology, Law, and Military Studies. Despite the apparent definitional uncertainty, most researchers do not offer formal definitions of cyber war or cyber warfare. Moreover, there is little evidentiary basis in literature to distinguish between cyber war and cyber warfare. Proximate analysis of definitions of cyber war and cyber warfare suggests a high level of inconsistency between dozens of definitions. However, through deeper analysis of both the relationships between definitions and their underlying structure, this thesis demonstrates that (a) the relationships between definitions can be represented hierarchically, through a discourse hierarchy of definitions; and (b) all definitions share a common underlying structure, accessible through the application of a structural definition model. Crucially, analysis of definitions via these constructs allows a foundational definition of cyber war and cyber warfare to be identified. Concomitantly, use of the model identifies the areas of greatest inter-definitional inconsistency and the implications thereof and contributes to the construction of a taxonomy of definitions of cyber war and cyber warfare. Considered holistically, these research outputs allow for significant resolution of the inconsistency between definitions. Moreover, these outputs provide a basis for the emergence of dominant functional definitions that may aid in the development of policy, strategy, and doctrine

Information warfare technologies in political discourse

We attempt to examine the technology of "information warfare" in this paper. The dominant theme of the paper is that the outcome of the information warfare is important not only for the future of a state itself but for the future of the world balance of forces. The main task of geopolitical actors in information warfare is to introduce ideas corresponding to their interests into mass consciousness. All participants of political conflicts have common features in technologies of Information warfare. The information anomie is the indicator of the great geopolitical actors’ personified interests on the stage of "information warfare" - the process resulted in destroying the communicative line: report-information understanding and disrupting the social order in society. In this paper authors describe the following Information Warfare technologies: "Political volcano" technology; "SPIN" technology; "Widening media resource" technology; "specific gravity" technology; "Cold War 2.0" technology and Information cleaningup technology. It is assumed that in the future there will be new instructions on applying technologies of information warfare. To impart perspective to the paper we consider examples, opinions and trends

Training and education for network centric warfare : issues for New Zealand's Defence Force : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Defence and Strategic Studies at Massey University

The concept of Network centric warfare (NCW) is viewed as the next revolution in military affairs. Its introduction globally will necessarily affect the way the New Zealand Armed Forces operates in future conflicts. With the increasing use of digital technology in the military environment the need for and degree of increasing knowledge of Network Centric Warfare and its concepts must be explored.This country will have to combine its own definition and understanding of NCW into the framework of its Armed Force if it wants to continue to remain interoperable with technologically advanced coalition forces. This thesis looks into the issues and solutions which have been considered by other countries in their attempts to implement the NCW concept. It examines in detail how issues and solutions could be applied to New Zealand's attempt at NCW. Chapters One and Two define the academic processes which have been used in this study. They also give a brief introduction to the broad idea of Network Centric Warfare and its origins. Chapter Three examines in detail the complex evolution of the concept of Network Centric Warfare to its present state. In particular, it looks at how the events of September 11th 2001 have redefined warfare and the impact of that revolution on the traditional NCW concept. This chapter also focuses on the advantages and disadvantages of NCW which have now been proven through the experiences of Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom. These two conflicts have been described as the first information technology wars of the 21st century. Chapter Four focuses on how the concept of Network Centric Warfare has and will affect the specifics of personnel and make-up of the New Zealand Defence Force, as it makes the transition from a Platform centric to a Network Centric approach in warfare. The special focus in this chapter is on the New Zealand Army. The concepts of the ethos and cultural identity of a force are introduced here, with a view to revealing the influences that the adaptation of NCW methods and techniques can have on the organisation of that force. The discussion concludes that the introduction of NCW can have profound and permanent effect on a force's ethos and identity. This chapter also considers the influence of technology can help in the recruitment and retention of highly skilled people in the Army. Chapter Five shows how the adoption of the concept of Network Centric warfare also has the potential to fundamentally change the way in which higher level policy and doctrine are introduced and modified in the Armed Forces. This chapter looks at how future infrastructure and policies will need to have increased flexibility built into them from the start in order to embrace the demands of NCW for rapid developments in information technology and force-wide diffusion of such developments. Chapter Six discusses a third important consequence of adopting the concept of Network Centric Warfare. Namely, how the introduction of NCW will affect both training and education of service personnel. In particular, it examines how the change from Platform Centric to Network Centric forms of warfare puts changing demands on the skill sets and needs required of service personnel. Examples are given of the new skill sets needed in order for them to work effectively in a NCW environment. Chapter Seven discusses the formation of a new training branch of service which will need to be set up to accommodate the new methods and skills that NCW brings to the battlefield. Included in this chapter are the imperatives of Information Warfare, Electronic Warfare, and Computer Network Operations for such a branch. Alongside Air, Land, Sea and Space NCW brings with it the creation of a fifth battle space. This battle-space is cyberspace which encompasses the electromagnetic sphere, the Internet and all manner of Wide and Local Area Networks (WANs and LANs). Chapter Eight returns to the issue of training and education introduced in Chapter Six, but focuses specifically on the use of simulation techniques and technologies. Such techniques will be required in order to help train soldiers to work effectively and efficiently under NCW. Why other training methods won't work well given an NCW environment, and why simulation technologies will work, is explained with examples of each. This chapter argues in particular that simulation provides the most effective training in the unified data architecture that will be needed to provide cross platform capability and inter and intra service solutions in Network Centric Warfare. Examples of data solutions are provided to help explain the underlying simulation concepts and methods. Chapter Nine is the conclusion of this study. It reviews the results of this thesis and provides recommendations on the implementation of the Network Centric Warfare environment required in the New Zealand Armed Forces