For the week of Class 9, we will look at information operations and information warfare as practiced by others. First we’ll take a look at multinational considerations of IO as outlined in chapter VI of the joint IO doctrine and British IO doctrine (see required readings).
Then we will look at some case studies, including:
- the 2007 Russian attacks on Estonia;
- the 2008 Russian attacks on the republic of Georgia;
- modern Chinese concepts, including the (theoretical and non-authoritative?) Unrestricted Warfare publication, which is not officially acknowledged doctrine but was published to stimulate debate within the People’s Liberation Army;
- Iranian IO as part of a larger political warfare strategy in the Middle East and Central Asia;
- internationalization of IO through cyber-dissent and countermeasures to cyber-dissent.
We will also discuss come present-day IO/IW actions as practiced by other countries and non-state actors, such as the Stuxnet worm used to disable Iran’s nuclear program.
Our discussions will also focus on WikiLeaks and how the private sector can, does, and could wage IO against established governments and the traditional nation-state.
Required readings
- Joint Publication 3-13, Information Operations (Joint Chiefs of Staff, 13 February 2006), Chapter VI, “Multinational Considerations in Information Operations,” pp. VI-1 to VI-4. Use volume from Class 3.
- Qiao Liang and Wang Xiangsui, Unrestricted Warfare (Beijing: PLA Literature and Arts Publishing House, February 1999). English translation probably from US Defense Intelligence Agency. Familiarize yourselves with the entire text. Download Unrestricted Warfare
- Lee Rowland and Steve Tatham, Strategic Communication and Influence Operations: Do We Really Get It? (Defence Academy of the United Kingdom, October 2008). Read full text. Download UK Strategic Comm & IO 2008
- Ian Traynor, “Russia accused of unleashing cyberwar to disable Estonia,” Guardian, May 17, 2007.
- BBC, “Estonia hit by Moscow cyber-war,” May 17, 2007.
- “Cyber Attacks in Estonia,” HowStuffWorks.com.
- Dancho Danchev, “Coordinated Russia vs Georgia cyber attack in progress,” ZDNet, August 11, 2008.
- John Markoff, “Before the Gunfire, Cyber Attacks,” New York Times, August 12, 2008.
- Noah Schactman, “Estonia, Google Help ‘Cyberlocked’ Georgia,” Wired, August 11, 2008.
- Steve LeVine, “Report: Cyber Attack Strategy Part of Russian Offensive on Georgian Pipelines,” Business Week, August 20, 2008.
- Government of Georgia, “Russian Invasion of Georgia/Russian Cyberwar on Georgia,” November 2008.
- Bill Gertz, “China Info Warfare,” Washington Times, June 2, 2010. (A short but important article summarizing the PRC’s new information warfare doctrine.)
- Robert S. Dudney, “Rise of the Cyber Militias,” Air Force Magazine, February 2011, pp. 88-89. Download Dudney Cyber Militia Feb 2011
Recommended readings
- William C. Ashmore, “The Impact of Alleged Russian Cyber Attacks,” Baltic Security & Defence Review, No. 11, 2009. Download Ashmore – Impact of Alleged Russian Cyber Attacks
- John Bumgarner, et al., “Overview by the US-CCU of the Cyber Campaign Against Georgia in August 2008,” US Cyber Consequences Unit, August 2009.
- Robert Coalson, “Behind the Russian Cyberattacks,” RFE/RL, March 6, 2009.
- Bryen Krekel, et al., Capability of the People’s Republic of China to Conduct Cyber Warfare and Computer Network Exploitation (US-China Economic and Security Review Commission, 2009). Download PRC Cyber 2009
- James Mulvenon, “The PLA and Information Warfare,” in Mulvenon and Richard H. Yang, eds., The People’s Liberation Army in the Information Age (RAND, 1998). Download China info warfare RAND
- Daniel Ventre, “China’s Strategy for Information Warfare: A Focus on Energy,” Journal of Energy Security, May 2010.
Recommended video
- “‘Cyberwar’ Emerges Amid Russia-Georgia Conflict,” PBS NewsHour, August 13, 2008.
