People Power Change

[With the U.S. Department of Justice on a rampage against socialism and the Indigenous Peoples movement, it seemed timely to review resources on the art and science of netwar.]

The Netwar Reader includes several fine pieces. As noted in my essay Continuity, development of the netwar concept happened at RAND in Santa Monica; I corresponded with RAND senior sociologist David Ronfeldt for my MA thesis.

The underlying framework of netwar dynamics was conceived by Luther Gerlach, author of People Power Change, who sent me his paper presented at the 2000 American Anthropological Association conference in San Francisco.

My definition of netwar is “networked psychological warfare.” The internet helps networks communicate, but netwar does not require access to the internet. Application of the concept is illustrated in my special report Netwar at Cherry Point.

Situationists use detournement to change the way the public perceives class relations. Culture-jamming dominant social media starts with investigative research, in order to form an accurate estimate of the situation.

One aspect of this is opposition research, which reveals strengths and weaknesses of enemies. Successful applied research matches our strengths against their weaknesses. Dimensions of netwar are explored in Communications in Conflict.