Networks and Netwars: The Future of Terror, Crime, and Militancy

From the Publisher: Book Introduction: The fight for the future makes daily headlines. Its battles are not between the armies of leading states, nor are its weapons the large, expensive tanks, planes and fleets of regular armed forces. Rather, the combatants come from bomb-making terrorist groups like Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda, drug smuggling cartels like those in Colombia and Mexico, and militant anarchists like the Black Bloc that ran amok during the Battle of Seattle. Other protagonists are civil-society activists fighting for democracy and human rights-from Burma to the Balkans. What all have in common is that they operate in small, dispersed units that can deploy niimbly-anywhere, anytime. They know…