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03-19-2005, 11:01

Unrestricted Warfare, by COL Qiao Liang and COL Wang Xiangsui, published in February 1999 by PLA Literature and Arts Publishing House in Beijing

Translated by FBIS, Foreign Broadcast Information Service of the CIA.

This book has received a lot of applause in China.

It is anti-American and is akin to a modified modern Clausewitzian Total War theory. It differs significantly in that it doesn't require violence to be part of the war effort. They don't give a distinct new definition of war. Rather, they draw a picture of how war has become defused in appearance.

This is both the starting point that they explain and use as motivation, in combination with and after which they fit in how war appears today and how they think it can be fought.
Some of the main features that they recognize are the following:

Effects of networking and technology, traditional military speaking.
Hackers' possibilities, citing examples of both military application and severe effects to civilian institutions and economic activity.
Connectivity and media, social and political possibilities.
Economic environment's effect on development, integrity and ability of a country to act, financial speculators role in affecting change.
Energy demand of countries, and exploitation possibility thereof.
Diplomatic pressure and maneuvering.
Acts of violence that can, depending on method, affect specific factors in a struggle. Assassination of financial speculators cited multiple times.

It goes on, but one of the things they deduce from this, while citing real world examples, is that not only can results be obtained faster, more resolutely and in more fashions in combination with and even in absence of traditional military actions of war (=violence). They also point out that many of the arenas needed in these sorts of war are not occupied mainly by soldiers, but by businessmen, software developers, lawyers, lobbyists, politicians, etc etc.

What they mean is that all these people are toting weapons. This appears as a threat against societal and state security. The Colonels want to make use of the, in their words, combative attitude of the other arenas and bring them to their side and mobilize them in their cause.

The authors, who are addicted to the word revolution in the first part of the book, speak of the need for various technologies and levels thereof. One of their points is that warring needs to be driven by methods and tactics of war, and that technology should be embraced to enhance and enable them. They speak of combining methods and ideas to create new capabilities, but while moving away from technology centrism of thought.

I've left out multiple main and minor features.

This is war as they see it, target oriententation according to strategy with tactics taken from any area and combining it with appropriate other efforts. They see interoperability between different levels of assets - tactical, operational, strategical and war policy, with actions on different levels that can have affect on actions, targets, the environment of others.

03-19-2005, 11:01	#20
Martin Guest Posts: n/a	Unrestricted Warfare, by COL Qiao Liang and COL Wang Xiangsui, published in February 1999 by PLA Literature and Arts Publishing House in Beijing Translated by FBIS, Foreign Broadcast Information Service of the CIA. This book has received a lot of applause in China. It is anti-American and is akin to a modified modern Clausewitzian Total War theory. It differs significantly in that it doesn't require violence to be part of the war effort. They don't give a distinct new definition of war. Rather, they draw a picture of how war has become defused in appearance. This is both the starting point that they explain and use as motivation, in combination with and after which they fit in how war appears today and how they think it can be fought. Some of the main features that they recognize are the following: Effects of networking and technology, traditional military speaking. Hackers' possibilities, citing examples of both military application and severe effects to civilian institutions and economic activity. Connectivity and media, social and political possibilities. Economic environment's effect on development, integrity and ability of a country to act, financial speculators role in affecting change. Energy demand of countries, and exploitation possibility thereof. Diplomatic pressure and maneuvering. Acts of violence that can, depending on method, affect specific factors in a struggle. Assassination of financial speculators cited multiple times. It goes on, but one of the things they deduce from this, while citing real world examples, is that not only can results be obtained faster, more resolutely and in more fashions in combination with and even in absence of traditional military actions of war (=violence). They also point out that many of the arenas needed in these sorts of war are not occupied mainly by soldiers, but by businessmen, software developers, lawyers, lobbyists, politicians, etc etc. What they mean is that all these people are toting weapons. This appears as a threat against societal and state security. The Colonels want to make use of the, in their words, combative attitude of the other arenas and bring them to their side and mobilize them in their cause. The authors, who are addicted to the word revolution in the first part of the book, speak of the need for various technologies and levels thereof. One of their points is that warring needs to be driven by methods and tactics of war, and that technology should be embraced to enhance and enable them. They speak of combining methods and ideas to create new capabilities, but while moving away from technology centrism of thought. I've left out multiple main and minor features. This is war as they see it, target oriententation according to strategy with tactics taken from any area and combining it with appropriate other efforts. They see interoperability between different levels of assets - tactical, operational, strategical and war policy, with actions on different levels that can have affect on actions, targets, the environment of others. Last edited by Martin; 03-29-2005 at 13:42.