grand strategy http://archive.smallwarsjournal.com/ en Whose Story Wins: Rise of the Noosphere, Noopolitik, and Information-Age Statecraft http://archive.smallwarsjournal.com/blog/whose-story-wins-rise-noosphere-noopolitik-and-information-age-statecraft <span>Whose Story Wins: Rise of the Noosphere, Noopolitik, and Information-Age Statecraft</span> <div class="field field--name-field-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field--item"><p style="text-align:start"><span style="font-size:medium"><span style="font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;"><span style="color:#000000"><span style="font-style:normal"><span style="font-weight:normal"><span style="white-space:normal"><span style="text-decoration:none"><b>Whose Story Wins: Rise of the Noosphere, Noopolitik, and Information-Age Statecraft</b></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p> <img alt="Noopolitik" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="731dec1f-45de-420c-992e-e48e40c28dd6" src="/sites/default/files/inline-images/Untitled1.jpg" class="align-center" /><p style="text-align:start"><span style="font-size:medium"><span style="font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;"><span style="color:#000000"><span style="font-style:normal"><span style="font-weight:normal"><span style="white-space:normal"><span style="text-decoration:none">RAND analysts <b>David Ronfeldt</b> and <b>John Arquilla</b> have released a new monograph, <a href="https://www.rand.org/pubs/perspectives/PEA237-1.html"><i>Whose Story Wins: Rise of the Noosphere, Noopolitik, and Information-Age Statecraft</i> </a>on their concept of <i>noopolitik</i> as a way forward for US grand strategy.  Ronfeldt and Arquilla are veteran strategic analysts known for their works on information strategic and network theory.  Their significant works include <a href="https://www.rand.org/pubs/monograph_reports/MR1033.html"><i>The Emergence of Noopolitik: Toward an American Information Strategy</i></a> (1999) and <a href="https://www.rand.org/pubs/monograph_reports/MR1382.html"><i>Networks and Netwars: The Future of Terror, Crime, and Militancy</i> </a>(2001). </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p> <p style="text-align:start"><span style="font-size:medium"><span style="font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;"><span style="color:#000000"><span style="font-style:normal"><span style="font-weight:normal"><span style="white-space:normal"><span style="text-decoration:none">The authors urge strategists to consider a new concept for adapting US grand strategy to the information age—<i>noopolitik</i>, which favors the use of ‘soft power’ —as a successor to <i>realpolitik</i>, with its emphasis on ‘hard power.’  The authors examine how US adversaries are already deploying dark forms of noopolitik— essentially ‘weaponized’ narratives, along with strategic deception, and epistemic attacks—against the United States.  They then propose ways to fight back, discussing how the future of noopolitik is dependent on the state of the ‘global commons.  The <i>noosphere</i>, in their formulation is a ‘realm of the mind’ and ‘thinking circuit’ that favors collective intelligence.  As the noosphere expands, it will supplant realpolitik strategies with noopolitik.  Thus, the decisive factor in statecraft and the wars of today and tomorrow are wars of ideas where success is bound to be ‘whose story wins.’  This decisive role of ideas is the essence of noopolitik.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p> <p style="text-align:start"><span style="font-size:medium"><span style="font-family:&quot;Times New Roman&quot;"><span style="color:#000000"><span style="font-style:normal"><span style="font-weight:normal"><span style="white-space:normal"><span style="text-decoration:none"><b>Source</b><i>:</i> David Ronfeldt and John Arquilla, <i>Whose Story Wins: Rise of the Noosphere, Noopolitik, and Information-Age Statecraft</i>. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2020, <a href="https://doi.org/10.7249/PEA237-1">https://doi.org/10.7249/PEA237-1</a>.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></p> <p style="text-align:start"> </p> </div> <span><span>ZFTWARNING</span></span> <span>Wed, 07/29/2020 - 7:54pm</span> <ul class="links inline list-inline"><li class="node-readmore"><a href="/blog/whose-story-wins-rise-noosphere-noopolitik-and-information-age-statecraft" rel="tag" title="Whose Story Wins: Rise of the Noosphere, Noopolitik, and Information-Age Statecraft" hreflang="en">Read more<span class="visually-hidden"> about Whose Story Wins: Rise of the Noosphere, Noopolitik, and Information-Age Statecraft</span></a></li><li class="comment-comments"><a href="/blog/whose-story-wins-rise-noosphere-noopolitik-and-information-age-statecraft#comments" title="Jump to the first comment." hreflang="en">45 comments</a></li><li class="comment-new-comments"><a href="/taxonomy/term/224/feed" class="hidden" title="Jump to the first new comment." data-history-node-last-comment-timestamp="1683299218" data-history-node-field-name="comment"></a></li><li class="comment-forbidden"></li><li></li></ul> Wed, 29 Jul 2020 23:54:07 +0000 ZFTWARNING 138386 at http://archive.smallwarsjournal.com U.S. Grand Strategy is Alive and Well - The Evidence is Happening All Around Us http://archive.smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art/us-grand-strategy-alive-and-well-evidence-happening-all-around-us <span>U.S. Grand Strategy is Alive and Well - The Evidence is Happening All Around Us</span> <span><span>SWJED</span></span> <span>Mon, 08/12/2019 - 9:08am</span> <div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field--item">A multipolar view of the world inclines far more towards justice than one in which the U.S. jealousy protects her position. The British and French are firmly in the U.S. and NATO camps, and are defending their democracies, not docile parroting of the U.S. position. In Asia, Liberalism is anchored by Korea, Japan and Australia in a grand arc. This is not the work of Trump, but the sum of endless work over decades to make the U.S. safer. Recent events are vindication of this ‘offshoring’ strategy.</div> <ul class="links inline list-inline"><li class="node-readmore"><a href="/jrnl/art/us-grand-strategy-alive-and-well-evidence-happening-all-around-us" rel="tag" title="U.S. Grand Strategy is Alive and Well - The Evidence is Happening All Around Us" hreflang="en">Read more<span class="visually-hidden"> about U.S. Grand Strategy is Alive and Well - The Evidence is Happening All Around Us</span></a></li><li class="comment-comments"><a href="/jrnl/art/us-grand-strategy-alive-and-well-evidence-happening-all-around-us#comments" title="Jump to the first comment." hreflang="en">1 comment</a></li><li class="comment-new-comments"><a href="/taxonomy/term/224/feed" class="hidden" title="Jump to the first new comment." data-history-node-last-comment-timestamp="1632571886" data-history-node-field-name="comment"></a></li><li class="comment-forbidden"></li><li></li></ul> Mon, 12 Aug 2019 13:08:44 +0000 SWJED 123847 at http://archive.smallwarsjournal.com Rethinking US Grand Strategy http://archive.smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art/rethinking-us-grand-strategy <span>Rethinking US Grand Strategy</span> <span><span>SWJED</span></span> <span>Mon, 06/03/2019 - 6:38am</span> <div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field--item">Great power competition is today’s defining strategic issue. Crucially this competition is seen as remaining below the level of great power armed conflict, instead ranging across diverse areas including economic, diplomatic, cyber, information campaigns and proxy wars.</div> <ul class="links inline list-inline"><li class="node-readmore"><a href="/jrnl/art/rethinking-us-grand-strategy" rel="tag" title="Rethinking US Grand Strategy" hreflang="en">Read more<span class="visually-hidden"> about Rethinking US Grand Strategy</span></a></li><li class="comment-forbidden"></li><li></li></ul> Mon, 03 Jun 2019 10:38:00 +0000 SWJED 121284 at http://archive.smallwarsjournal.com Rethinking Grand Strategy http://archive.smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art/rethinking-grand-strategy <span>Rethinking Grand Strategy</span> <span><span>SWJED</span></span> <span>Thu, 06/21/2018 - 12:30am</span> <div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field--item">Grand strategy may seem an irrelevant idea but it’s not. As Colin Gray declares “all strategy is grand strategy.” Without a grand strategy that explains the ends, works the means and sets out the ways, lower-level strategies will be uncoordinated, work at odds with each other and be unlikely to succeed. It should be thought of as a practical problem-solving methodology you can apply to particular real-world problems. This article rethinks grand strategy to provide just that.</div> <ul class="links inline list-inline"><li class="node-readmore"><a href="/index.php/jrnl/art/rethinking-grand-strategy" rel="tag" title="Rethinking Grand Strategy" hreflang="en">Read more<span class="visually-hidden"> about Rethinking Grand Strategy</span></a></li><li class="comment-forbidden"></li><li></li></ul> Thu, 21 Jun 2018 04:30:27 +0000 SWJED 96958 at http://archive.smallwarsjournal.com An Age of Instability http://archive.smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art/an-age-of-instability <span>An Age of Instability</span> <span><span>Peter J. Munson</span></span> <span>Fri, 04/26/2013 - 3:30am</span> <div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field--item"><p> Why is this new age an age of instability—instead of an age of empires, or warring states, or even peace and prosperity?</p> </div> <ul class="links inline list-inline"><li class="node-readmore"><a href="/jrnl/art/an-age-of-instability" rel="tag" title="An Age of Instability" hreflang="en">Read more<span class="visually-hidden"> about An Age of Instability</span></a></li><li class="comment-comments"><a href="/jrnl/art/an-age-of-instability#comments" title="Jump to the first comment." hreflang="en">6 comments</a></li><li class="comment-new-comments"><a href="/taxonomy/term/224/feed" class="hidden" title="Jump to the first new comment." data-history-node-last-comment-timestamp="1367564078" data-history-node-field-name="comment"></a></li><li class="comment-forbidden"></li><li></li></ul> Fri, 26 Apr 2013 07:30:00 +0000 Peter J. Munson 14038 at http://archive.smallwarsjournal.com Exemplar, Not Crusader http://archive.smallwarsjournal.com/blog/exemplar-not-crusader <span>Exemplar, Not Crusader</span> <div class="field field--name-field-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field--item"><p> Many of you have already seen this, but for those who haven't, I discussed <a href="http://nation.time.com/2013/01/22/wealth-is-flowing-from-west-to-east/">warfare, foreign policy, and America's way ahead in a changing world with Time's Mark Thompson the other day</a>. </p> <p>  </p> <blockquote> <p> No matter what portion of the ideological spectrum Americans come at world problems from, their views are shaped in a way by the idea of the “end of history.” We think that political development has a single endpoint, that being liberal democracy.</p> <p> I'm not arguing that there's a better endpoint. Instead, I’m arguing that America cannot get the world to that endpoint in the near term. America needs to be more humble in its foreign policies, more realistic than its current expectation of instant modernization without any instability, and more cognizant of the significant challenges it faces in getting its own house in order.</p> <p> In a phrase, I argue that America should focus more on being an exemplar than a crusader.</p> <p> First, the world is undergoing a massive wave of change, bringing rapid development and modernization to more people than ever before. I show that this change is intensely destabilizing. It took the West centuries to progress from the corrupt rule of warlords to liberal democracy.</p> <p> There is no reason to believe that America can remake the world—or even a corner of it—in its image in the course of a few years. We are going to face a period of intensifying instability in the developing world and we need to understand that some things just cannot be neatly managed, much less controlled. We can’t bring on the end of history by using war to spread democracy and the welfare state (used in the academic, not pejorative sense).</p> <p> Second, and perhaps more importantly because it affects us domestically and internationally, the welfare state is facing a crisis in the world’s leading democracies. This defies the notion that history is teleological—marching toward a determined end point. It would be no surprise, however, to the ancients who saw all governments as fallible and saw history as more of a cyclical thing.</p> </blockquote> <p> You can <a href="http://nation.time.com/2013/01/22/wealth-is-flowing-from-west-to-east/">read the rest here</a>.</p> </div> <span><span>Peter J. Munson</span></span> <span>Thu, 01/24/2013 - 8:30am</span> <ul class="links inline list-inline"><li class="node-readmore"><a href="/blog/exemplar-not-crusader" rel="tag" title="Exemplar, Not Crusader" hreflang="en">Read more<span class="visually-hidden"> about Exemplar, Not Crusader</span></a></li><li class="comment-comments"><a href="/blog/exemplar-not-crusader#comments" title="Jump to the first comment." hreflang="en">1 comment</a></li><li class="comment-new-comments"><a href="/taxonomy/term/224/feed" class="hidden" title="Jump to the first new comment." data-history-node-last-comment-timestamp="1359087764" data-history-node-field-name="comment"></a></li><li class="comment-forbidden"></li><li></li></ul> Thu, 24 Jan 2013 13:30:00 +0000 Peter J. Munson 13720 at http://archive.smallwarsjournal.com What is War? A New Point of View http://archive.smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art/what-is-war-a-new-point-of-view <span>What is War? A New Point of View</span> <span><span>Peter J. Munson</span></span> <span>Wed, 12/05/2012 - 5:30am</span> <div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field--item"><p> War is the coherent execution of all means to bring about sufficient adherence to a nation’s will in the international (global) arena; resulting in armed conflict only when all other means fail.</p> </div> <ul class="links inline list-inline"><li class="node-readmore"><a href="/jrnl/art/what-is-war-a-new-point-of-view" rel="tag" title="What is War? A New Point of View" hreflang="en">Read more<span class="visually-hidden"> about What is War? A New Point of View</span></a></li><li class="comment-comments"><a href="/jrnl/art/what-is-war-a-new-point-of-view#comments" title="Jump to the first comment." hreflang="en">21 comments</a></li><li class="comment-new-comments"><a href="/taxonomy/term/224/feed" class="hidden" title="Jump to the first new comment." data-history-node-last-comment-timestamp="1355346255" data-history-node-field-name="comment"></a></li><li class="comment-forbidden"></li><li></li></ul> Wed, 05 Dec 2012 10:30:00 +0000 Peter J. Munson 13584 at http://archive.smallwarsjournal.com American Military Decline? Not When Force Is Used Properly http://archive.smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art/american-military-decline-not-when-force-is-used-properly <span>American Military Decline? Not When Force Is Used Properly</span> <span><span>Peter J. Munson</span></span> <span>Wed, 11/07/2012 - 5:25am</span> <div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field--item"><p> <span style="line-height: 18px; ">To think that America can’t or shouldn’t project its power globally when necessary is a mistake. America’s military struggles in the post-9/11 era have stemmed from improper application of military force.</span></p> </div> <ul class="links inline list-inline"><li class="node-readmore"><a href="/jrnl/art/american-military-decline-not-when-force-is-used-properly" rel="tag" title="American Military Decline? Not When Force Is Used Properly" hreflang="en">Read more<span class="visually-hidden"> about American Military Decline? Not When Force Is Used Properly</span></a></li><li class="comment-comments"><a href="/jrnl/art/american-military-decline-not-when-force-is-used-properly#comments" title="Jump to the first comment." hreflang="en">39 comments</a></li><li class="comment-new-comments"><a href="/taxonomy/term/224/feed" class="hidden" title="Jump to the first new comment." data-history-node-last-comment-timestamp="1663151484" data-history-node-field-name="comment"></a></li><li class="comment-forbidden"></li><li></li></ul> Wed, 07 Nov 2012 10:25:00 +0000 Peter J. Munson 13481 at http://archive.smallwarsjournal.com Tip-Toe Through the Trinity http://archive.smallwarsjournal.com/blog/tip-toe-through-the-trinity <span>Tip-Toe Through the Trinity</span> <div class="field field--name-field-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field--item"><p> Dave Maxwell points out an excellent read for Labor Day from Christopher Bassford entitled "<a href="http://www.clausewitz.com/readings/Bassford/Trinity/Trinity8.htm">Tip-Toe through the Trinity or the Strange Persistence of Trinitarian Warfare</a>."  From the conclusion:</p> <p>  </p> <blockquote type="cite"> <div> Much of the criticism of Clausewitz essentially boils down to a complaint that he never stated his entire theory in a way we could all grasp by reading a single pithy sentence—at most, a pithy paragraph. Nonetheless, the 300-word Section 28 of Book 1, Chapter 1, of On War is an amazingly compressed summation of reality. Clausewitz’s Trinity is all-inclusive and universal, comprising the subjective and the objective; the unilateral and multilateral; the intellectual, the emotional, and the physical components that comprise the phenomenon of war in any human construct. Indeed, through the subtraction of a few adjectives that narrow its scope to war, it is easily expanded to encompass all of human experience. It is thus a profoundly realistic concept. Understanding it as the central, connecting idea in Clausewitzian theory will help us to order the often confusing welter of his ideas and to apply them, in a useful, comparative manner, both to the history of the world we live in and to its present realities. Most important, its realism will help us steer clear of the worst tendencies of theory and of ideology, of “pure reason” and logic, and of pure emotion.</div> </blockquote> </div> <span><span>Peter J. Munson</span></span> <span>Mon, 09/03/2012 - 5:30am</span> <ul class="links inline list-inline"><li class="node-readmore"><a href="/blog/tip-toe-through-the-trinity" rel="tag" title="Tip-Toe Through the Trinity" hreflang="en">Read more<span class="visually-hidden"> about Tip-Toe Through the Trinity</span></a></li><li class="comment-comments"><a href="/blog/tip-toe-through-the-trinity#comments" title="Jump to the first comment." hreflang="en">1 comment</a></li><li class="comment-new-comments"><a href="/taxonomy/term/224/feed" class="hidden" title="Jump to the first new comment." data-history-node-last-comment-timestamp="1631183660" data-history-node-field-name="comment"></a></li><li class="comment-forbidden"></li><li></li></ul> Mon, 03 Sep 2012 09:30:00 +0000 Peter J. Munson 13175 at http://archive.smallwarsjournal.com