Introduction to Netwar and Swarming

By David Ronfeldt | The Rand CorporationExcerpt from: A Long Look Ahead: NGOs, Networks, and Future Social Evolution(pdf)

The term netwar refers to an emerging mode of conflict (and crime) at societal levels, short of traditional military warfare, in which the protagonists use network forms of organization and related doctrines, strategies, and technologies attuned to the information age. These protagonists are likely to consist of dispersed organizations, groups, and individuals who communicate, coordinate, and conduct their campaigns via the Internet, often without a precise central command. Thus, netwar differs from modes of conflict and crime in which the protagonists prefer to develop formal, stand-alone, hierarchical organizations, doctrines, and strategies, as in past efforts, for example, to build centralized movements along Leninist lines. In short, netwar is about Mexico’s Zapatistas more than Cuba’s Fidelistas, Hamas more than the Palestine Liberation Organization, the American Christian Patriot movement more than the Ku Klux Klan, and the Asian Triads more than the Cosa Nostra....

Social netwar may be particularly effective where a set of protagonists engage in "swarming"—an approach to conflict that is quite different from traditional mass- and maneuver-based approaches. Swarming is a seemingly amorphous, but deliberately structured, coordinated, strategic way to strike from all directions at a particular point or points, by means of a sustainable pulsing of force, fire, or both from close-in as well as from stand-off positions. This "force and/or fire"may be literal in the case of military or police operations, but metaphorical in the case of NGO activists, who may, for example, be descending on city intersections or emitting volleys of e-mails and faxes. Swarming works best—perhaps it will only work—if it is designed mainly around the deployment of myriad, small, dispersed, networked maneuver units who converge on a target from multiple directions. The aim is sustainable pulsing—swarm networks must be able to coalesce rapidly and stealthilyon a target, then sever and redisperse, immediately ready to recombine for a new pulse. Rapid information spread via Internet and communications systems may be indispensable for this to work well.