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War 2.0 Irregular Warfare in the Information Age
Thomas Rid, Marc Hecker
ISBN: 0-313-36470-2
ISBN-13: 978-0-313-36470-9
280 pages
Praeger Publishers
Publication: 5/14/2009
List Price: $49.95 (UK Sterling Price: £34.95)
Availability: In Stock
Media Type: Hardcover
Trim Size: 6 1/8 x 9 1/4
Subjects: Reviews:
  • "This book is excellent."
    —ICSR.com
    6/29/2009
  • "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."
    —Reference & Research Book News
    August 2009
Description: 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.
LCC Class: 355.02'18-dc22
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