Understanding Social Media and Mass Mobilization in the Operational Environment - Relevance of Twitter and Facebook Trends in Army's Future Operating Environment, Battleswarm and Future Warfare


Book Description

The advent of social media combined with unfettered access to inexpensive mobile electronic devices has dramatically increased information sharing throughout populations worldwide. Journalists ascribed terms such as "The Facebook Effect" and "The Twitter Revolution" to recent uprisings in the Middle East, crediting social media as a catalyst to those social movements. Factions demanding change utilized social media to assist in mobilizing activist crowds within their own countries and to garner support on the international stage. The degree to which social media facilitated these movements varied in each country, but the fact that social media played a role in the uprisings is indisputable. This monograph proposes that since people will continue to use social media to help influence future social movements, the US Army needs to better understand, anticipate, and exploit the potential threat presented by social media and mass mobilization in future operating environments. In some cases, intelligence analysts can predict or anticipate effects based on simple pattern analysis or other predictive models. In other instances, this may prove impossible. The US Army may find that using principles of complexity theory can provide the most continuously useful guide to gain insights into how factions intent on social unrest use social media to help organize their movements and advance towards a common goal. Planners can understand potential threats using characteristics of self-organization, anticipate using emergent properties, and exploit the properties of networks inherent in complex adaptive systems. Using complex systems thinking, the Army may be able to develop unique operational approaches to cope with these problems in an increasingly complex environment. Acronyms * Introduction * Background * Understand, Anticipate, Exploit Using Principles of Complexity Theory * Defining Terms * Relevance of Social Media and the Army's Future Operating Environment * Increased urbanization will require the US Army to operate in cities * Social media trends * Intersection of trends: battleswarm and possible future warfare * Overview of Egyptian uprisings in 2011 * Common Properties of Complex Systems Provide a Basis for Analysis * Identify the Simple Components before Analyzing the Interactions * Nonlinear Interactions Create Something Superior to the Individual Components * Lack of Central Control Allows for Decentralized Organization * Emergent Behaviors Lead to Evolution of the System * Summary of Common Properties of Complex Systems * Understanding how Mass Mobilization and Social Media Interact through Characteristics of Self-Organization * Clustering Helps Protect Individuals * Flocking and Schooling Assists in Moving Towards a Common Objective * Task Allocation Alters to React to Changing Conditions * Decision-Making through Quorum Sensing * Summary of Characteristics of Self-Organization * Anticipate Using Characteristics of Emergence in a Complex Adaptive System * Information processing through Local Sampling and Statistics * Hierarchical Organizations Promote Survival * Dynamics Determine How the System Changes its Patterns * Systems Adapt through Evolution and Learning * Summary of Emergence in Complex Adaptive Systems * Exploit the Common Properties of Networks * Small World Properties Reveal that Paths in Networks are Shorter than Expected * Long-Tailed Degree Distribution Can Give Insight into Social Network * Clustering and Community Structure Indicate How Quickly Information Travels * Networks May be Vulnerable to Targeted Hub Attacks * Cascading Failure May Collapse the Entire Network * Summary of Network Properties * Conclusion * Bibliography




Social Media and the Arab Spring


Book Description

How should militaries think about social media as a factor in military operations? In this study I examine recent Arab Spring scholarship, with a particular focus on the significant impact of social media on events in Egypt in early 2011. Existing literature in this area centers on the ability of various social media platforms to unite and inspire population masses, yet does not address the important effect of social media on military forces responding to the revolution. This gap is exemplified by the general reluctance of military practitioners to engage scholars with actual evidence from real-world events during times of conflict. In response to these challenges, I offer the unique oral history of an Egyptian company commander who led soldiers in Cairo's Tahrir Square throughout several months of intensive security operations during the Arab Spring. Through this descriptive study, I find that the prevalence of social media considerably affected the Egyptian Army's response to the massive popular uprising. To evaluate these findings, I propose a “social media update” to Gene Sharp's mechanisms of nonviolent change, analyzing the Egyptian Army's counter intuitive approach to the events of 2011 in light of an updated Sharp framework. I conclude that the Egyptian Army's experiences provide a tremendously useful example of how militaries may think about social media as a factor in military operations. Finally, I argue that a written account of the Egyptian Army's response to social media is exactly the type of “policy-relevant scholarship” military practitioners must be willing to produce in order to inform U.S. policy in a truly meaningful way.




Social Media and the Armed Forces


Book Description

Social media has fundamentally changed communication and interaction in today's society. Apart from being used by individuals, it is also omnipresent in public sector organisations such as the armed forces. This book examines the opportunities and risks associated with social media in the context of the armed forces from an international, social scientific perspective. It discuses the impact of social media in the everyday life of military personnel and analyses the extent to which social media influences their performance, be it as a distraction or as a source of perceived appreciation. It particularly highlights the representation of masculinity and femininity in military social media channels, since the way gender is portrayed on social media has an effect on how future recruits and – at the other end of the military career spectrum – veterans feel they are approached. The book also focuses on the new form of follow-up discussion, which enables the armed forces to interact with the population. On social media, the armed forces are publicly presented, and this shapes the public’s opinions on them. Further, the armed forces can use debates as a monitoring tool of society's attitudes towards them or towards events that have an effect on society. Conversely, social media can lend a voice to military personnel, allowing them to be publicly heard. As discussions on social media can only be controlled to a limited extent, the context in which the armed forces are discussed alters their sphere of influence and potentially leads to a loss of control. An extreme example of this is the use of social media as a tool to strategically distribute misinformation in order to shape public opinion and threaten national security. Moreover, the use of social media to demoralise adversaries or to harm their credibility results in social media being considered a cyber weapon that affects politics and military activities.




Division Level Social Media


Book Description

Social media has become an accepted form of communication in society including the U.S. Army. Currently U.S. Army units of all sizes have their own social media pages on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or a combination of all three sites. Social media continues to evolve and change at a very rapid speed. The constant shift in civilian social media practices is changing the way U.S. Army divisions handle social media. The focus of this paper is on how division level social media is executed and how it is adapting to the ever-changing civilian social media trends. Division level social media is at the crosshairs of upper operational level and lower strategic levels of operations. Division level social media programs have the capability to reach up to 25,000 Soldiers and their family members. Division level social media has the ability to reach a wide variety of people but is the divisions use this capability being maximized? In this day and age, more and more people are connecting to social media. With the influx of people on social media, divisions have a large number of people that could potentially become followers. CONTENTS * CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION * Background * Social Media * Proposed Research Questions * Assumptions * Definitions * Scope * Limitations * Delimitations * Significance of Study * CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW * Military Literature * Civilian Literature * CHAPTER 3 RESEARCH DESIGN * Methodology * CHAPTER 4 ANALYSIS * CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS * Conclusion * Recommendations * Training * Budget * Expectation Management * Areas for Further Research * BIBLIOGRAPHY




Military-media Relations


Book Description

This paper initially reviews the evolving relationship between the military and the media from the Vietnam War to the present. Following this analysis, the paper analyzes the future media environment and its impact on the theater commander and military operations. Many times there has been conflict between the two groups because of their differing missions. The media's goal is to keep the public informed in a timely manner and to remain competitive with respect to the other media organizations. The military wants to maintain operational security for the success of the mission and the safety of the troops. Despite these conflicts in the past, the U.S. military needs to work closely and plan carefully for media involvement in any future contingency. There are two reasons for this. First, the media's power is increasing rapidly because of technological advances and they will be present in any future conflict or operation. This presence will have a great impact on the commander and their planners in future operations. Likewise, the media presence will rapidly shape American and allied public opinion of the conflict with their real time reporting. Second, the end of the "cold war" brought the rationale for a large standing military force into question. The U.S. military needs the media to tell the military story to retain public support.




Military-media Relations


Book Description




The Military-news Media Relationship


Book Description

Over the course of the next six months, the Strategic Studies Institute will examine the impact of the media's technological advances on strategic and operational level planning and policymaking, first in an overseas theater, and subsequently on decisions made at the national level. The first of these two studies recognizes the complexity of executing military operations under the scrutiny of a very responsive, high technology world news media. Given the volatile, unstable, and ambiguous environment in which armed forces can find themselves, the actions of field forces have a greater chance than ever before of affecting subsequent strategic decisions made at higher levels. The pressure on field commanders to "get it right the first time" is demonstrably greater than ever. The author intends that these thoughts provide commanders with an understanding of the high technology and competitive news media environment they can expect to experience and offers specific suggestions for successfully communicating with reporters.




Social Media Go to War


Book Description

"Thirty-nine authors from around the world explore the phenomena of citizen journalism, collective action, 'smart mobs,' iconography, and even the revolutionary music of the Arab Spring in Social Media goes to War: rage, rebellion, and revolution in the age of Twitter. Twenty-eight chapters from senior and junior social media scholars cover war, insurrections, revolutions, and quests for social justice through case studies of Cuba, Georgia, Egypt, India, Iran, Jordan, Thailand, Tunisia, and the United States, where President Obama's social media usage is scrutinized by a former campaign insider. The U.S. Department of Defence's social media policies in time of conflict are reviewed, and social media usage in Wisconsin's budget battle of 2011 is analyzed."--Cover, p. [4]




Bullets and Blogs: New Media and the Warfighter


Book Description

For the U.S. military, new media and the Global Information Environment (GIE) present sustained challenges and opportunities. In recent years, new adversaries -- armed with new media capabilities and an information-led warfighting strategy -- have proven themselves capable of stopping the most powerful militaries in the world. The current and future geo-strategic environment requires preparation for a battlespace in which symbolic informational wins may precipitate strategic effects equivalent to, or greater than, lethal operations. In recognition of the new media challenge, the U.S. Army War College (USAWC) hosted a workshop in January 2008 entitled "Bullets and Blogs: New Media and the Warfighter." This workshop brought together leading practitioners from the Department of Defense, Department of State, Intelligence Community, and experts from academia. To spark debate, the workshop employed case studies drawn from the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah War in Lebanon. This conflict marked an important milestone for warfare in the information age. The nonstate actor Hezbollah proved capable of thwarting Israel's primary war aims and forcing a battlefield stalemate. While Hezbollah stood little chance of prevailing militarily against the Israeli Defense Forces, its strategic victory was achieved by way of an information-led warfighting strategy that leveraged new media to influence the political will of key global audiences (including the Israeli public). The 2006 war previewed the characteristics of hybrid conflict that U.S. forces may encounter in the future. A synthesis of workshop discussions yielded inter-related takeaways on what is required to "win" in today's operational environment, where cyberspace and new media capabilities are significant components of the battlespace.




Social Networks, Terrorism and Counter-terrorism


Book Description

This book examines two key themes in terrorism studies, the radicalization process and counter-terrorism policies, through the lens of social networks. The book aims to show that networks should be at the forefront not only when analysing terrorists, but also when assessing the responses to their actions. The volume makes a unique contribution by addressing two relatively new themes for terrorism studies. First it puts social relations and cooperation issues at the forefront – an approach often identified as crucial to future breakthroughs in the field. Second, many contributions tackle the role of the Internet in the process of radicalization and in recruitment more generally, a highly debated topic in the field today. In addition, the book provides a valuable mix of review essays, critical essays, and original empirical studies. This balanced approach is also found in the topics covered by the authors, as well as their academic disciplines, which include sociology, computer science, geography, history, engineering, and criminology as well as political science. Many of the true advances in terrorism studies depend on the successful collaboration of multi-disciplinary teams, each with a different set of methodological and conceptual tools. This volume reflects the newfound diversity in this field and is a true product of its time. This book will be of much interest to students of terrorism studies, social networks, security studies, sociology, criminology and international relations in general.