Counterinsurgency and new media

The Small Wars Journal has put together a collection of thoughts on the impact of new media on the way the US military has fought in Afghanistan and Iraq. Well worth bookmarking, reading, and re-reading. I was going to pick out a ‘best of’, but I was struggling. It’s all very interesting.

It includes thoughts from Grim at Blackfive, Michael Yon, and David Kilcullen among others on topics such as the ‘lesson learned’ process; organisational change; the development of informal networks through blogging and fora; the impact on military doctrine; the use of Youtube; information operations; and the military’s relationship with the mainstream media.

The mini-project was inspired by this post from Andrew Exum, a PhD colleague of mine at King’s and author of the ever-excellent, Abu Muqawama blog. In a review of Tom Rick’s latest book on Iraq, he listed a lack of discussion of the impact of new media as a ‘curious omissions’ which sparked the debate.