RAND - Cyberdeterrence and Cyberwar (2009)

Preface

This monograph presents the results of a fiscal year 2008 study, “Defining and Implementing Cyber Command and Cyber Warfare.” It discusses the use and limits of power in cyberspace, which has been likened to a medium of potential conflict, much as the air and space domains are. The study was conducted to help clarify and focus attention on the operational realities behind the phrase “fly and fight in cyberspace.” The basic message is simple: Cyberspace is its own medium with its own rules. Cyberattacks, for instance, are enabled not through the generation of force but by the exploitation of the enemy’s vulnerabilities. Permanent effects are hard to produce. The medium is fraught with ambiguities about who attacked and why, about what they achieved and whether they can do so again. Something that works today may not work tomorrow (indeed, precisely because it did work today). Thus, deterrence and warfighting tenets established in other media do not necessarily translate reliably into cyberspace. Such tenets must be rethought. This monograph is an attempt to start this rethinking. The research described in this monograph was sponsored by Lt Gen Robert Elder, Jr., Commander, Eighth Air Force (8AF/CC), and Joint Functional Component Commander for Space and Global Strike, United States Strategic Command. The work was conducted within the Force Modernization and Employment Program of RAND Project AIR FORCE. It should be of interest to the decisionmakers and policy researchers associated with cyberwarfare, as well as to the Air Force planning community

Carroll Quigley - Weapons Systems and Political Stability (1983)

Carroll Quigley, American historian and professor at Georgetown University, died January 5, 1977, leaving behind a manuscript on weapons systems and political stability, upon which he had been working on for the preceding twelve years. Very few would ever see his final work, that is, until today. For the first time in over 30 years, this manuscript is now available to the public in its entirety, unabridged and original format. Professor Quigley's Weapons Systems and Political Stability carries further toward completion the uniquely anthropological holistic analysis of history, which is the theme of his earlier works; Tragedy and Hope and The Evolution of Civilizations. Quigley's observations on the uses of war are penetrating. Throughout history, society's decisions regarding its weapons systems have been decisive in shaping human social, economic, and political decisions. Of special interest today is Quigley's division of western weapons systems over the last thousand years into five successive stages, each associated with different political system. In Quigley's social analysis the dominance of democracy in the 20th century is attributable to the acceptance in the 19th century of a weapons system that favored democracy, the hand gun and rifle. In the consequent tilt toward an atomistic society, loyalties to the once strong social structures of family, church, and workplace break down.

"Crowd Control Technologies" : An Assessment Of Crowd Control Technology Options For The European Union (An Appraisal of the Technologies of Political Control, 2000) 

This study grew out of the 1997 STOA report, 'An Appraisal of the Technologies of Political Control' and takes that work further. Its focus is two fold:(i) to examine the bio-medical effects and the social & political impacts of currently available crowd control weapons in Europe; (ii) to analyse world wide trends and developments including the implications for Europe of a second generation of so called
non-lethal weapons. Seven key areas are covered by the reports project: (a) a review of available crowd control technologies; (b) relevant legislation at national and EU levels; (c) the relative efficiency of crowd control technologies; (d) their physical and mental effects on individuals; (e) the actual and potential abuse of crowd control technologies; (f) an assessment of future technologies and their effects; and finally (g) an appraisal of less damaging alternatives such as CCTV.The report presents a detailed worldwide survey of crowd control weapons and the companies which manufacture supply or distribute them. It was found that at least 110 countries worldwide deploy riot control weapons, including chemical irritants, kinetic energy weapons, water cannon and electro-shock devices. Whilst presented as humane alternatives to the use of lethal force, the study found examples in 47 countries of these so called
non-lethal crowd control weapons being used in conjunction with lethal force rather than as a substitute for it, leading directly to injury and fatalities

 

Charles Darwin - The descent of man and selection in relation to sex (1871)

Info

The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex is a book by English naturalist Charles Darwin, first published in 1871, which applies evolutionary theory to human evolution, and details his theory of sexual selection, a form of biological adaptation distinct from, yet interconnected with, natural selection. The book discusses many related issues, including evolutionary psychology, evolutionary ethics, evolutionary musicology, differences between human races, differences between sexes, the dominant role of women in mate choice, and the relevance of the evolutionary theory to society.

 

Michel Salomon - Future Life (1984)

Info

Interviews with eighteen distinguished scientists from around the world offer forecasts of future human physiological, psychological, and philosophical developments.