For approximately thirty years an unanswered question has hung over the military enterprise of nation-states: As the digital information age progresses, should we construct a military for the information age, or should we construct an information age military? The former would be an old enterprise applying new tools to its roles and missions. The latter would be a new enterprise. The new tools would not only alter the roles and missions the military prosecutes; they would alter the primary purposeful activity of the modern military. The short answer is that militaries and the national security communities that support them have hedged, wary of the uncertainty which comes with complex change. Into this gap has grown a new type of insecurity – a type not confined to military affairs and national security but society-wide – which open societies in particular are yet to fully understand and, thus to develop an appropriate response. The formulation of an appropriate response ties directly back to the thirty-year question. The response, where it exists, is decidedly fragmented.
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