iWar

Published in TCSDaily http://www.tcsdaily.com/article.aspx?id=071807B, 13 August 2007.

The “virtual siege” of Estonia in which distributed denial of service attacks shut down important banking, government and media websites throughout late April and May 2007 is an example of “iWar”. The Estonian example should be considered as a sign of things to come.

A short time from now it is likely that a new form of Internet based warfare will erupt across the globe. The potency of this iWar will grow as the economies of the world steadily embrace the Internet to deliver services. At the same time, iWar will maintain its ease of adoption and low cost. iWar may also maintain its deniability.

These two key trends – cheap, deniable warfare and increasing vulnerability to attack – are likely to result in a conflagration of iWar. This new form of warfare can be waged by individuals, communities, corporations, nations and alliances. The economic toll of a conflagration could be enormous.

The militant Islamist call and its echo

Published on openDemocracy (http://opendemocracy.net/article/democracy_terror/islamism_web)

On the internet, in gymnasiums, bookshops and video-clubs, recruitment propaganda is viewed by and debated among prospective Islamist militants. This wide-ranging material contains four recurrent themes; understanding them is the first step to forming an effective counter-narrative to dissuade the next generation of would-be militants from embracing violence, and channelling their energies and ideas into democratic routes of political and religious persuasion.