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Civil Defense

Civil defense

]] flag, repeating the triangle motif.]] Civil defense is an effort to prepare civilians for military attack. It uses the principles of emergency operations: prevention, mitigation, preparation, response (evacuation), and recovery. As the intensity of the cold war waned emphasis shifted from military attack to emergencies and disasters in general. In the United States this eventually led to the replacement of the United States Civil Defense with the Federal Emergency Management Agency. See Civil Defense in the United States.

Importance

Relatively small investments in preparation can speed up recovery by months or years and thereby prevent millions of deaths by hunger, cold and disease. According to human capital theory in economics, a country's population is more valuable than all of the land, factories and other assets that it possesses. People are what rebuilds a country after its destruction and it is therefore important for the economic security of a country to protect its people. Also, reducing fear and uncertainty via civil defense helps people's quality of life and has positive economic benefits. According to psychology, it is important for people to feel like they are in control of their own destiny and preparing for uncertainty via civil defense can help in this respect.

Threat Assessment

Some various threats to civilians and civilian life are nuclear, biological, chemical, information warfare (cyberattacks), etc. Each needs to be looked at and studied so that preventative measures can be built into civilian life.

Conventional

This would be conventional explosives. Blast sheltering against nuclear blast would pretty much protect against conventional explosives, but not vice versa.

Nuclear

The biggest threats from a nuclear attack are effects from blast, fires and radiation. There is also the possibility of terrorists employing a radioactive "dirty bomb".

Biological

The threat here is primarily from disease-causing microorganisms such as bacteria and viruses.

Chemical

Various chemical agents are a threat such as nerve gas (VX, Sarin, etc.).

Information Warfare

Attacks to a country's information infrastructure are a threat and, since so many facets of modern life are tied into computers and information systems, such attacks could have financial and economic consequences.

Other

There are many other possible threats besides these.

Stages

Mitigation

Mitigation is the process of actively preventing the war or the release of nuclear weapons. It includes policy analysis, diplomacy, political measures, and more military responses such as a National Missile Defense and air defense artillery. In the case of counter-terrorism, mitigation would include intelligence gathering and direct action against terrorist groups. Mitigation may also be reflected in long-term planning such as the design of the interstate highway system and the placement of military bases further away from populated areas.

Preparation

Preparation consists of building blast shelters, and prepositioning information, supplies and emergency infrastructure. For example, most larger cities in the U.S. now have underground emergency operations centers that can perform civil defense coordination. FEMA also has many underground facilities located near major railheads such as the one in Denton, Texas and Mount Weather, Virginia for the same purpose. Other measures would include continuous government inventories of grain silos, the National Strategic Medical Stockpile, the uncapping of the strategic petroleum reserve, the dispersal of truck-transportable bridges, water purification, mobile refineries, mobile decontamination facilities, mobile general and special purpose disaster mortuary facilities such as DMORT and DMORT-WMD, and other aids such as temporary housing to speed civil recovery. On an individual scale, one means of preparation for exposure to nuclear fallout is to obtain potassium iodide (KI) tablets as a safety measure to protect the human thyroid gland from the uptake of dangerous radioactive iodine. Another measure is to cover the nose, mouth and eyes with a piece of cloth and sunglasses to protect against alpha particles, which are only an internal hazard.

Response

Response consists first of warning civilians so they can enter blast shelters and protect assets. Staffing a response is always problematic in a civil defense emergency. After an attack, conventional full-time emergency services are dramatically overloaded, with conventional fire fighting response times often exceeding several days. Some capability is maintained by local and state agencies, and an emergency reserve is provided by specialized military units, especially civil affairs, Military Police, Judge Advocates and combat engineers. However, the traditional response to massed attack on civilian population centers is to maintain a mass-trained force of volunteer emergency workers. Studies in World War II showed that lightly trained (40 hours or less) civilians in organized teams can perform up to 95% of emergency activities when trained, liaised and supported by local government. In this plan, the populace rescues itself from most situations, and provides information to a central office to prioritize professional emergency services. In the 1990s, this concept was revived by the Los Angeles Fire Department to cope with civil emergencies such as earthquakes. The program was widely adopted, providing standard terms for organization. In the U.S., this is now official federal policy, and it is implemented by community emergency response teams, under the Department of Homeland Security, which certifies training programs by local governments, and registers "certified disaster service workers" who complete such training.

Recovery

Recovery consists of rebuilding damaged infrastructure, buildings and production. The recovery phase is the longest and ultimately most expensive phase. Once the immediate "crisis" has passed, cooperation fades away and recovery efforts are often politicized or seen as economic opportunities. Preparation for recovery can be very helpful. If mitigating resources are dispersed before the attack, cascades of social failures can be prevented. For example, a crucial need after a general nuclear attack would be diesel fuel to transport every other item for recovery. One hedge against bridge damage in riverine cities is to subsidize a "tourist ferry" that performs scenic cruises on the river. When a bridge is down, the ferry takes up the load.

Implementation

Some advocates believe that government should change building codes to require autonomous buildings in order to reduce civil societies' dependence on complex, fragile networks of social services. An example of a crucial need after a general nuclear attack would be transport fuel to transport every other item for recovery. However, oil refineries are large, immobile, and probable targets. One proposal is to preposition truck-mounted fuel refineries near oil fields and bulk storage depots. Other critical infrastructure needs would include road and bridge repair, communications, electric power, food production and potable water.

History

In the United Kingdom and the United States, as well as the Soviet Bloc, during the 1950s and 60s, many civil defence practices took place to prepare for the aftermath of a nuclear war, which seemed quite likely at that time. However, there was never strong civil defense policy because it fundamentally violates the Mutually Assured Destruction doctrine by making provisions for survivors. In the M.A.D. doctrine, there are not supposed to be any survivors for a civil defense system to assist (thus the acronym). During the Cold War, civil defense was seen largely as defending against and recovering from an attack involving nuclear weapons. After the end of the Cold War, the focus moved from defense against nuclear war to defense against a terrorist attack possibly involving chemical or biological weapons. After the September 11, 2001 attacks, the concept of civil defense has been revisited under the umbrella term of homeland security. The old US Civil Defence logo was used in the FEMA logo until recently and is hinted at in the United States Civil Air Patrol logo.

External links

- http://www.oism.org/nwss/ Nuclear War Survival Skills is a public-domain text on how to survive a nuclear attack.
- http://www.radmeters4u.com Information on Radiation Survey Meters, their operation and other survival tools
- http://www.civildefensemuseum.com A historical site with everything you ever wanted to know about Civil Defense, its tools, and methods, along with some excellent and rare images and photographs
- http://homepage.ntlworld.com/jimbonet/cd_history.html A site with details of the UK's Civil Defence preparations, including those implemented during the Cold War such as the Burlington Central Government War HQ., at Corsham, Wiltshire.
- [http://www.tunnelrats.org.au Information on Australian Cold War Fortifications] Category:Disaster preparation

Emergency operation

Emergency operations or Emergency preparedness is a set of doctrines to prepare civil society to cope with natural or man-made disasters. Disaster relief is the subset of these doctrines that is concerned with recovery efforts. This is usually a government policy adapted from civil defense to prepare for nonmilitary civil emergencies before they happen. In the U.S., most cities maintain at least a cabinet in a basement conference room with several telephone lines. In an emergency, special stationary and other supplies come out of the cabinet, and the conference room becomes the "emergency operations center." The EOC then coordinates the city's emergency effort. Even this tiny amount of preparation, with periodic drills, and coordination with civic organizations, is amazingly better than nothing. This article covers both civil and personal preparedness, because they work together. However, civil preparedness is far less expensive per-capita, and far more valuable, even though it can be harder to arrange. Coping with disaster has four activities: mitigation, preparation, response, and recovery.

Mitigations

Mitigations attempt to prevent the disaster from ever occurring, or reduce the effects of the disaster. Floods and storm damage are the most common disasters. So, for example, a project can raise the level of a city so that a storm surge will not drown thousands. This was actually accomplished for Galveston, Texas after a devastating storm surge drowned thousands. For another example, a city can build levies to prevent floods, or (as in San Antonio, Texas) arrange for flood zones to be nonessential parks and walks. Mitigation is the most preferred method, when it can be achieved at an acceptable cost. Mitigation is often practical for flood prevention, famine prevention, public health measures, and outages of power, water and sewer services.

Preparations

The most important government preparation, and one of the cheapest, is simply for a city or region to have an emergency operations center, and a practiced, region-wide doctrine for managing emergencies. (For personal preparations, see below) An emergency operations center (EOC) is, at minimum, a couple of cabinets in a conference room, and a rather large group of cooperative people. It should have reliable telephones and reliable access to civil and amateur radio networks. One cabinet has the radios, emergency lights and a portable generator. The other cabinet contains specialized stationary, manuals, and vests or large badges to mark people with particular roles in the emergency process. This type of emergency center is sufficiently cheap that any region can afford two, or can have one that's fancy, and one that's cheap, in case the main one is damaged. One common doctrine for an EOC has an emergency coordinator and assistant supported by teams of secretary, manager, assistant and runner for each of financial services, emergency services, planning, and logistics. There is usually a train of up to ten alternate people for the emergency coordinator, six to ten for each team's leader, and four for each role in the EOC. Alternates agree to carry pagers or cellular phones. Amateur radio operators train and organize to offer civil emergency communication services at their own expense, and form service organizations for this purpose. Other preparations preposition training, supplies and equipment for use in the response and recovery stages. For example, storm shelters and evacuation routes are very helpful for extreme weather. In floods, prepositioned caches of food, fuel, boats and radio equipment can be very helpful. Many cities also offer training for community emergency response team. Basically, this is mass training to provide teams of amateur emergency workers in every neighborhood. These are truly useful because in an emergency, real firemen are instantly overloaded, with hundreds of calls, and the ability to respond to only a few. The trained amateurs can handle roughly 90% of all emergency rescues, and man almost all other emergency services.

Response

Cities should plan to rescue their citizens, and plan emergency services. Generally, a large emergency is first reported to a dispatcher for fire or police services. The dispatcher has a predefined criterion to contact the emergency services coordinator, or an alternate. The coordinator decides whether to activate the emergency operations center. When the coordinator, and members of the supporting teams are in place, the EOC becomes active. The EOC usually begins by dispatching crews to gather information. Then it prioritizes needs, and dispatches emergency services. It also begins negotiations for emergency funding sources. A continuing nasty problem in mass emergencies is a lack of trained responders. Most professional emergency services support about ten trucks per 100,000 people, and take at least a half hour per rescue. If a mass emergency injures or traps 2% of the population, this force will finish its rescues in about 100 hours. In this time, up to 3/4 of the salvageable victims can die. Simple shock victims will die in about two hours. Trapped children will die of thirst in 24 hours, trapped adults and shut-ins in 48. In mass emergencies, pretrained, volunteer community emergency response teams (CERTs) can rescue the 95% of victims that need only basic first-aid or light search and rescue skills. CERTs also can locate most of the roughly 5% of victims that require professional rescue skills. With a twenty-fold reduction in demand, and less need to search for victims, the professionals can then complete the most demanding rescues in ten to fifteen hours. Most salvageable people will be rescued. The CERTs can also form neighborhood shelter and support groups, and arrange professional rescues, with triaged medical evacuation to prepared medical organizations via pre-arranged communcations with the emergency operations center. The CERTs also provide a powerful method for informing and organizing mass evacuations to mass shelters. Response mobilizes emergency services, such as firemen, police, and community emergency response teams, and sheltering groups such as Red Cross. The emergency operations center is essential to this effort, because centrally-directed services are much more efficient at saving lives and property.

Recovery

Recovery rebuilds damaged infrastructure, and restores people to normal work. Often recovery can be greatly aided by small amounts of infrastructure. For example, a subsidized "tourist" ferry can help a city on a river recover from an earthquake or flood-damaged bridges in a few hours, rather than weeks, by letting emergency traffic immediately restart. The first practical response is to discover funding. This is usually a political process. Next, recovery needs are prioritized. This prioritization may occur in the EOC, although for many recovery items, priorities will have to be set politically. The usual recovery is to repair essential bridges, roads, power, water and sewage systems. Some cities with crucial bridges "back them up" by subsidizing a "tourist" ferry, that can carry emergency traffic when a bridge goes down. Some advocates believe that government should change building codes to require autonomous buildings in order to reduce civil societies' dependence on complex, fragile networks of social services. In the United States, disaster relief is undertaken by governmental entities, including municipalities, states, the Federal Government, and by non-governmental organizations such as the American Red Cross, Salvation Army, and local churches.

Personal mitigation

The basic thing is to make one's home safe against likely disasters in one's area. The most common disasters are floods and storms. Preparation against floods is easy: don't buy a building in a flood plain. Ideally, one should at least consider living in an area without violent storms. Most of the U.S. (including the east coast and mid-west) is subject to rare, extremely violent earthquakes. The safest area from earthquakes is in the middle of a large shield of unmoving rock, such as the Canadian Shield, or the central eurasian shield. In earthquake areas, the basic mitigation is to install cabinet child-locks (to keep items in the cabinets), and mount furniture, refrigerators, water heaters and breakables to the walls. In California and Japan, special silicone putty kits are available to stick display crockery to shelves.

Personal Preparations

If violent storms occur, have a storm shelter, or have warning devices and an evacuation route. New designs can build a shelter as a concrete-block bathroom, using approved methods. Some coastal cities in California have disasters as often as every two years. These areas have developed powerful techniques for personal preparedness. As in civil preapredness, they combine mitigation, preparation, response and recovery. People have a bag or knapsack filled with gear and attached to their bed. In an earthquake or major storm, a bag merely under a bed is lost when the bed moves. Many disasters cause windows to break at night. One of the most common disaster injuries occurs when people try to run on broken glass in bare feet. This causes immediate casualties who cannot self-evacuate. To prevent foot injuries, train yourself to put on shoes at night, and train children to stay in bed and wait for you to come for them, unless they see flame, smell smoke or feel heat. Many disasters cause power failures, and happen at night. At night, without street lights or lights, it is difficult to self-rescue. The gear in the bag should therefore include at least shoes and a flashlight. A plastic grocery bag with tennis shoes and a flashlight is immensely better than nothing. Do it now, and improve it later. Attaching the bag to the bed assures that it remains in a known place even if the disaster occurs at night and rearranges the furniture or damages the structure. Some otherwise prepared people lost the bags under their beds when their furniture moved during the 1994 earthquake in Northridge, California. Other suggested items for the bag are keys, money, medicines, food, water, insurance and ID information, and rescue tools including gloves, a knife, a light saw and a prybar. Useful protective clothing includes a helmet, goggles, and dust mask.

Confinement at home

In a home confinement scenario, a family should be prepared to survive and treat moderate medical problems for a minimum of three days (two weeks is better) without deliveries of entertainment, food, fuel, utilities, water, or power, or pickups of trash and sewage. Likely scenarios include flood, loss of bridges or roads, extreme weather, earthquakes (which occur in all parts of the world), and civil disorder. Homes in areas with extreme weather should have appropriate radios and storm shelters. Consider making these dual-use shelters for fallout. (See storm cellar or fallout shelter) Entertainment is helpful. Have a selection of favorite non-electronic toys, books and games, and enjoy them at other times so they seem familiar and fun. Musical instruments are helpful. Inexpensive long-lasting lighting is also helpful. With these, a mild disaster can be fun. Without them, it can be awful. The most exteme home confinement scenarios have radiological disasters followed by famines of up to a year. Planners for these usually buy bulk foods and appropriate storage and preparation equipment, and eat the food as part of normal life (bulk foods are substantially less expensive than grovery foods). A simple balanced diet can be constructed from vitamin pills, whole-kernel wheat, beans, dried milk, corn, and cooking oil (see www.fema.gov). However such a simple diet is apt to cause starvation by appetite exhaustion (extreme boredom with the food). One should add vegetables, fruits, spices and meats, both prepared and fresh-gardened, if possible. The lowest cost provider of bulk foods is usually a feed store.

Evacuating

In an evacuation scenario, a family should plan to evacuate by car with the maximum amount of supplies, including a tent for shelter. The plan should also include equipment for evacuation on foot with at least three days of supplies and rain-tight bedding (a tarp and a bedroll of blankets is the minimum) . Likely scenarios include flooding, extreme weather, tsunami, chemical and radiological accidents, and war.

External links

- [http://www.ready.gov/ Ready.gov] (United States Department of Homeland Security)
- [https://disasterhelp.gov/ The Disaster Help page from the US Federal Government]
- [http://www.nukepills.com/ Radiation Emergency Preparedness Products and Information]
- [http://www.interieur.gouv.fr/rubriques/divers/anglais/ddsc The French Emergency Preparedness Directorate]
- [http://www.preparingforemergencies.gov.uk/ Preparing For Emergencies] - a UK attempt, with little more than common sense information. See also the [http://www.preparingforemergencies.co.uk/ parody].
- [http://www.emacintl.com Disaster and Emergency Management Training and Consulting]
- [http://training.fema.gov/ Free FEMA Emergency Management Related Training]
- [http://projectassimilate.org Project Assimilate™] Matching refugees with volunteers for long-term integration and an opportunity for a new start in a new area.
- [http://www.oriongraphix.com/katrina TheVictimsOfKatrina.com - An online forum dedicated to the victims of Hurricane Katrina]
- [http://www.swemorph.com/pdf/sra.pdf Modelling Society’s Capacity to Manage Extraordinary Events] At the Swedish Morphological Society category:Disaster preparation Category:Emergency services

Prevention

Prevention refers to:
- Prevention (magazine), a magazine about health in the United States.
- Prevention (hazards) (hazard prevention), anticipation of needs, wishes, hazards, and risks. Category:United States magazines Category:Lifestyle magazines

Response

A response is the following:
- Often a response is the result of a stimulus.
- Usually a response is a reply to a query.
- In data transmission, a response is the content of the control field of a response frame advising the primary station concerning the processing by the secondary station of one or more command frames.
- In telecommunications a response is the effect of an driving signal upon an active or passive device. An output resulting from an input.

References

The Federal Standard 1037C and from MIL-STD-188

Recovery

Recovery is the first e-book and seventh installment of The New Jedi Order series set in the Star Wars galaxy. This short story by Troy Denning sets the stage for much of the forthcoming novel Star by Star and shows a slow reconciliation between Han Solo and his wife Leia Organa Solo. The mass market paperback Star by Star begins with Recovery as essentially a lengthy prologue; the hard-cover however, does not. Category:Star Wars books

Human capital

Human capital is a way of defining and categorizing peoples' skills and abilities as used in employment and otherwise contribute to the economy. Many early economic theories refer to it simply as labour, one of three factors of production, and consider it to be a commodity -- homogeneous and easily interchangeable. But other conceptions of labor are more sophisticated.

Origin of concept

Knowledge and capital

The introduction of the term is explained and justified by the unique characteristics of knowledge. Unlike physical labor (and the other factors of production), knowledge is:
- Expandable and self generating with use: as doctors get more experience, their knowledge base will increase, as will their endowment of human capital. The economics of scarcity is replaced by the economics of self-generation.
- Transportable and shareable: knowledge is easily moved and shared. This transfer does not prevent its use by the original holder. However, the transfer of knowledge may reduce its scarcity-value to its original possessor.

Human capital and labor-power

In some way, the idea of "human capital" is similar to Karl Marx's concept of labor-power: to him, under capitalism workers had to sell their labor-power in order to receive income (wages and salaries). But long before Mincer or Becker wrote, Marx pointed to "two disagreeably frustrating facts" with theories that equate wages or salaries with the interest on human capital. # The worker must actually work, exert his or her mind and body, to earn this "interest." Marx strongly distinguished between one's capacity to work (labor-power) and one's very human activity (practice) of working. # A free worker cannot sell human capital to receive money revenues; it's far from being fungible, a liquid asset. Even a slave, whose human capital can be sold, does not earn an income him- or herself; instead, the slave-owner gets the income. Under capitalism, to earn income, a worker must agree to the labor conditions (including obedience to the rules and directives) of an employer who wants to hire for a specific period of time. The latter means that the employer must be receiving an adequate rate of profit from his or her operations, so that workers must be producing surplus-value, i.e., doing work beyond that necessary to maintain their labor-power. (See Capital, volume III, ch. 29[http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1894-c3/ch29.htm], pp. 465-6 of the International Publishers edition.) Though having "human capital" gives workers some benefits, they are still dependent on the owners of non-human wealth for their livelihood.

Debates about the concept

Modern labor economics has criticized the simple Chicago-school theory that tries to explain all differences in wages and salaries in terms of human capital. The concept of human capital can be infinitely elastic, including unmeasureable variables such as personal character or connections with insiders (via family or fraternity). This allows the theory to be tautologically true without explaining anything. Often, it is not the education or training that one has which determines the value of one's education, but the prestige of the credential or degree received. Someone who gets a degree from an elite school will likely get a higher income than one from a large government-funded one, even if they have exactly the same knowledge. Others point to the existence of market imperfections (which are especially rampant in labor markets) that imply the existence of non-competing groups or labor-market segmentation. In these theories, the "return on human capital" differs between different labor-market segments. Similarly, discrimination against minority or female employees imply different rates of return on human capital. Following Becker, the human capital literature often distinguishes between "specific" and "general" human capital. Specific human capital refers to skills or knowledge that is useful only to a single employer (and who will likely be willing to pay for it), whereas general human capital (such as literacy) is useful to all employers. Other analysis, for instance in human development theory, differentiate social trust (social capital), sharable knowledge (instructional capital), and the individual leadership and creativity (individual capital) as three distinct capacities of a human applying him or her self in economic activity. The term human capital in human development theory, thus refers to ambiguous combinations of these. Interactions with the welfare, education and health care systems can be modelled even past retirement (whereas, according to classical and neoclassical analysis, human capital would be zero, as no "labour", "employment" or "goods" are now involved).

Mobility between nations

There is a global debate regarding the fair distribution of human capital. This is most pointed with respect to educated individuals, who typically migrate from poorer places to richer places seeking opportunity, making 'the rich richer and the poor poorer'. When workers migrate, generally, their early care and education now benefit the country where they move to work. And, when they have health problems or retire, their care and retirement pension will typically be paid in the new country. African nations have invoked this argument with respect to slavery, other colonized peoples have invoked it with respect to the "brain drain" or "human capital flight" which occurs when the most talented individuals (those with the most individual capital) depart for education or opportunity to the colonizing country (historically, Britain and France and the U.S.A.). Even in Canada and other developed nations, the loss of human capital is considered a problem that can only be offset by further draws on the human capital of poorer nations via immigration. The rights of individuals to travel and opportunity, despite some historical exceptions such as the Soviet bloc and its "Iron Curtain", seem to consistently outweigh the rights of nation-states that nurture and educate them. Thus, the problem continues, and developed nations deny reparations are appropriate, necessary, or effective, as developing nations lose their talent. This debate resembles, in form, that regarding natural capital.

External links

- [http://www.humancapitalinstitute.org/ The Human Capital Institute]
- [http://www.performance-management.ws/ Performance Management A-to-Z]
- [http://www.human-capital-management.net/ Human Capital Management]
- [http://www.performance-management.us/ Journal of Performance Management]
- [http://lists.repec.org/mailman/listinfo/nep-hrm New papers and articles on human Capital, a free Newsletter edited by the RePEc academic Project]
- [http://www.humcapinc.com Human Capital Consulting and Talent Acquisition]
- [http://www.peoplefit.com Human Capital Management Consulting, Training, and Articles]
- [http://www.peoplefitsuccession.com Human Capital Management: Identifying Leadership Potential and Succession Planning] Category:Labor Category:Capital

Psychology

Psychology (ancient Greek: psyche = "soul" or "mind", logos/-ology = "study of") is an academic and applied field involving the study of mind and behavior. "Psychology" also refers to the application of such knowledge to various spheres of human activity, including problems of individuals' daily lives and the treatment of mental illness. Psychology differs from sociology, anthropology, economics, and political science in part because it involves studying the mental processes and behavior of individuals (alone or in groups) rather than the behavior of the groups or aggregates themselves. Psychology differs from biology and neuroscience in that it is primarily concerned with the interaction of mental processes and behavior and of the overall processes of a system, and not simply the biological or neural processes themselves. Although psychological questions were asked in antiquity (see Aristotle's De Memoria et Reminiscentia or "On Memory and Recollection"), psychology emerged as a separate discipline only recently. The first person to call himself a "psychologist", Wilhelm Wundt, opened the first psychological laboratory in 1879.

History

Main article: History of psychology History of psychology The late 19th century marks the start of psychology as a scientific enterprise. The year 1879 is commonly seen as the start of psychology as an independent field of study, because in that year German scientist Wilhelm Wundt founded the first laboratory dedicated exclusively to psychological research in Leipzig, Germany. Other important early contributors to the field include Hermann Ebbinghaus (a pioneer in studies on memory), the Russian Ivan Pavlov (who discovered the learning process of classical conditioning), and the Austrian Sigmund Freud. Freud's influence has been enormous, though more as cultural icon than a force in (scientific) psychology. Freud's basic theories postulated the existence in humans of various unconscious and instinctive "drives", and that the "self" existed as a perpetual battle between the desires and demands of the internal id, ego, and superego. The mid century saw a rejection of Freud's theories among many psychologists as being too unscientific, as well as a reaction against Edward Titchener's abstract approach to the mind. This led to the formulation of behaviorism by John B. Watson, which was popularized by B.F. Skinner. Behaviorism proposed epistemologically limiting psychological study to overt behavior, since that could be quantified and easily measured. Scientific knowledge of the "mind" was considered too metaphysical, hence impossible to achieve. The final decades of the 20th century have seen the rise of a new interdisciplinary approach to studying human psychology, known collectively as cognitive science. Cognitive science again considers the "mind" as a subject for investigation, using the tools of evolutionary psychology, linguistics, computer science, philosophy, and neurobiology. This new form of investigation has proposed that a wide understanding of the human mind is possible, and that such an understanding may be applied to other research domains, such as artificial intelligence.

Principles of psychology

Mind and brain

Psychology does not necessarily refer to the brain or nervous system and can be framed purely in terms of phenomenological or information processing theories of the mind. Increasingly, though, an understanding of brain function is being included in psychological theory and practice, particularly in areas such as artificial intelligence, neuropsychology, and cognitive neuroscience.

Schools of thought

Various schools of thought have argued for a particular model to be used as a guiding theory by which all, or the majority, of human behavior can be explained. The popularity of these has waxed and waned over time. Some psychologists may think of themselves as adherents to a particular school of thought and reject the others, although most consider each as an approach to understanding the mind, and not necessarily as mutually exclusive theories. See psychological schools of thought for a comprehensive list.

Scope of psychology

Psychology is an extremely broad field, encompassing many different approaches to the study of mental processes and behavior. Below are the major areas of inquiry that comprise psychology. A comprehensive list of the sub-fields and areas within psychology can be found at the list of psychological topics.

Biological basis: the brain

list of psychological topics Main articles: Behavioral neuroscience, Cognitive neuroscience, Neuropsychology, Evolutionary psychology Because all behavior is controlled by the central nervous system, it is sensible to study how the brain functions in order to understand behavior. This is the approach taken in behavioral neuroscience, cognitive neuroscience, and Neuropsychology. Neuropsychology is the branch of psychology that aims to understand how the structure and function of the brain relate to specific psychological processes. Often neuropsychologists are employed as scientists to advance scientific or medical knowledge. Neuropsychology is particularly concerned with the understanding of brain injury in an attempt to work out normal psychological function. The approach of cognitive neuroscience to studying the link between brain and behavior is to use brain imaging tools, such as fMRI, to observe which areas of the brain are active during a particular task.

Information processing: the mind

fMRI Main articles: Cognitive psychology, Cognitive science The nature of thought is another core interest in psychology. Cognitive psychology studies cognition, the mental processes underlying behavior. It uses information processing as a framework for understanding the mind. Perception, learning, problem solving, memory, attention, language and emotion are all well researched areas. Cognitive psychology is associated with a school of thought known as cognitivism, whose adherents argue for an information processing model of mental function, informed by positivism and experimental psychology. Techniques and models from cognitive psychology are widely applied and form the mainstay of psychological theories in many areas of both research and applied psychology. Cognitive science is very closely related to cognitive psychology, but differs in some of the research methods used, and has a slightly greater emphasis on explaining mental phenomena in terms of both behavior and neural processing. Both areas use computational models to simulate phenomena of interest. Because mental events cannot directly be observed, computational models provide a tool for studying the functional organization of the mind. Such models give cognitive psychologists a way to study the "software" of mental processes independent of the "hardware" it runs on, be it the brain or a computer.

Change over time: development

computational models Main articles: Developmental psychology, Educational psychology Largely focusing on the development of the human mind through the life span, developmental psychology seeks to understand how people come to perceive, understand, and act within the world and how these processes change as they age. This may focus on intellectual, cognitive, neural, social, or moral development. Researchers who study children use a number of unique research methods to make observations in natural settings or to engage them in experimental tasks. Such tasks often resemble specially designed games and activities that are both enjoyable for the child and scientifically useful, and researchers have even devised clever methods to study the mental processes of small infants. In addition to studying children, developmental psychologists also study processes throughout the life span, especially at other times of rapid change (such as adolescence and old age). Urie Bronfenbrenner's theory of development in context (The Ecology of Human Development - ISBN 0-674-22456-6) is influential in this field, as are those mentioned in "Educational psychology" immediately below, as well as many others. Developmental psychologists draw on the full range of theorists in scientific psychology to inform their research. Educational psychology largely seeks to apply much of this knowledge to understanding how learning can best take place in educational situations. Because of this, the work of child psychologists such as Lev Vygotsky, Jean Piaget and Jerome Bruner has been influential in creating teaching methods and educational practices.

Interaction with others

Main articles: Social psychology, Community psychology, Personality psychology Social psychology is the study of the nature and causes of human social behavior, with an emphasis on how people think towards each other and how they relate to each other. Social Psychology aims to understand how we make sense of social situations. For example, this could involve the influence of others on an individual's behavior (e.g., conformity or persuasion), the perception and understanding of social cues, or the formation of attitudes or stereotypes about other people. Social cognition is a common approach and involves a mostly cognitive and scientific approach to understanding social behavior. A related area is Community psychology, which examines psychological and mental health issues on the level of the community rather than only on the level of the individual. "Sense of community" has become its conceptual center (Sarason, 1986; Chavis & Pretty, 1999). Personality psychology includes theories of career development.

Study of animals in psychology

Psychology as a science is primarily concerned with humans, although the behavior and mental processes of animals is also an important part of psychological research, either as a subject in its own right (e.g., animal cognition and ethology), or somewhat more controversially, as a way of gaining an insight into human psychology by means of comparison (including comparative psychology) or via animal models of emotional and behavior systems as seen in neuroscience of psychology ( e.g., affective neuroscience and social neuroscience).

Mental health

Main articles: Clinical psychology, Health psychology Clinical psychology is the application of psychology to the understanding, treatment, and assessment of psychopathology, behavioral or mental health issues. It has traditionally been associated with counselling and psychotherapy, although modern clinical psychology may take an eclectic approach, including a number of therapeutic approaches. Typically, although working with many of the same clients as psychiatrists, clinical psychologists do not prescribe psychiatric drugs. Some clinical psychologists may focus on the clinical management of patients with brain injury. This area is known as clinical neuropsychology. In recent years and particularly in the United States, a major split has been developing between academic research psychologists in universities and some branches of clinical psychology. Many academic psychologists believe that these clinicians use therapies based on discredited theories and unsupported by empirical evidence of their effectiveness. From the other side, these clinicians believe that the academics are ignoring their experience in dealing with actual patients. The disagreement has resulted in the formation of the American Psychological Society by the research psychologists as a new body distinct from the American Psychological Association. Whereas clinical psychology focuses on mental health and neurological illness, health psychology is concerned with the psychology of a much wider range of health-related behavior including healthy eating, the doctor-patient relationship, a patient's understanding of health information, and beliefs about illness. Health psychologists may be involved in public health campaigns, examining the impact of illness or health policy on quality of life or in research into the psychological impact of health and social care.

Applied psychology

Main articles: Applied psychology, Industrial and organizational psychology, Forensic psychology, Human factors The basic premise of applied psychology is the use of psychological principles and theories to overcome practical problems in other fields, such as business management, product design, ergonomics, nutrition, and clinical medicine. Applied psychology includes the areas of industrial/organizational psychology, human factors, forensic psychology, as well as many other areas.

Industrial and organizational

Industrial and organizational psychology focuses to varying degrees on the psychology of the workforce, customer, and consumer, including issues such as the psychology of recruitment, selecting employees from an applicant pool which overall includes training, performance appraisal, job satisfaction, work behavior, stress at work and management.

Forensic psychology

Forensic psychology is the area concerned with the application of psychological methods and principles to legal questions and issues. Most typically, this involves a clinical analysis of a particular individual and an assessment of some specific psycho-legal question. Forensic psychology refers to any application of psychological principles, methods or understanding to legal questions or issues. In addition to the applied practices, it also includes academic or empirical research on topics involving the relationship of law to human mental processes and behavior.

Human factors

Human factors is the study of how cognitive and psychological processes affect our interaction with tools and objects in the environment. The goal of research in human factors is to better design objects by taking into account the limitations and biases of human mental processes and behavior.

Research methods

Psychology is conducted both scientifically and non-scientifically, but is to a large extent wholly rigorous. Mainstream psychology is based largely on positivism, using quantitative studies and the scientific method to test and disprove hypotheses, often in an experimental context. Psychology tends to be eclectic, drawing on scientific knowledge from other fields to help explain and understand behavior. However, not all psychological research methods strictly follow the empirical positivism philosophy. Qualitative research utilizes interpretive techniques and is descriptive in nature, enabling the gathering of rich clinical information unattainable by classical experimentation. Some psychologists, particularly adherents to humanistic psychology, may go as far as completely rejecting a scientific approach, viewing psychology more as an art rather than a rigid science. However, mainstream psychology has a bias towards the scientific method; the dominant school of cognitivism and other scientific approaches are thus the guiding theoretical framework used by most psychologists to understand thought and behavior. The testing of different aspects of psychological function is a significant area of contemporary psychology. Psychometric and statistical methods predominate, including various well-known standardised tests as well as those created ad hoc as the situation or experiment requires. Academic psychologists may focus purely on research and psychological theory, aiming to further psychological understanding in a particular area, while other psychologists may work in applied psychology to deploy such knowledge for immediate and practical benefit. However, these approaches are not mutually exclusive and most psychologists will be involved in both researching and applying psychology at some point during their work. Clinical psychology, among many of the various discipline of psychology, aims at developing in practicing psychologists knowledge of and experience with research and experimental methods which they will continue to build up as well as employ as they treat individual with psychological issues or use psychology to help others. Where an area of interest is considered to need specific training and specialist knowledge (especially in applied areas), psychological associations will typically set up a governing body to manage training requirements. Similarly, requirements may be laid down for university degrees in psychology, so that students acquire an adequate knowledge in a number of areas. Additionally, areas of practical psychology, where psychologists offer treatment to others, may require that psychologists be licensed by government regulatory bodies as well.

Controlled experiments

Main article: Experimental psychology The majority of psychological research is conducted in the laboratory under controlled conditons. This method of research relies completely on the scientific method to determine the basis of behavor. Common measurements of behavior include reaction time and various psychometric measurements. Experiments are conducted to test a particular hypothesis. As an example of a psychological experiment, one may want to test people's perception of different tones. Specifically, one could ask the following question: is it easier for people to discriminate one pair of tones from another depending upon their frequency? To answer this, one would want to disprove the hypothesis that all tones are equally discriminable, regardless of their frequency. (See hypothesis testing for an explanation of why one would disprove a hypothesis rather than attempt to prove one.) A task to test this hypothesis would have a participant seated in a room listening to a series of tones. If the participant would make one indication (by pressing a button, for example) if they thought the tones were two different sounds, and another indication if they thought they were the same sound. The proportion of correct responses would be the measurement used to describe whether or not all the tones were equally discriminable. The result of this particular experiment would probably indicate better discrimination of certain tones based on the human threshold of hearing.

Correlational studies

A correlational study uses statistics to determine if one variable is likely to co-occur with another variable. For example, one might be interested in whether or not a person's smoking is correlated with that individual's chance of getting lung cancer. One way to answer this would simply be to take a group of people who smoke and measure the proportion of those who get lung cancer within a certain time. In this particular case, one would probably find a high correlation. (Tobacco is already known to have a deleterious effect on the lungs). Based on this correlation alone, however, we cannot know for certain that smoking is the cause of lung cancer. It could be that those more prone to cancer are also more likely to take up smoking. A third alternative is that some other variable caused both conditons. This is a major limitation of correlational studies, exemplified by the fact that correlation does not imply causation.

Longitudinal studies

A longitudinal study is a research method which observes a particular population over time. For example, one might wish to study specific language impairment (SLI) by observing a group of individuals with the condition over a period of time. This method has the advantage of seeing how a condition can affect individuals over long time scales. However, since individual differences between members of the group are not controlled, it may be difficult to draw conclusions about the populations.

Neuropsychological methods

Neuropsychology involves the study of both healthy individuals and patients, typically who have suffered either brain injury or mental illness. Cognitive neuropsychology and cognitive neuropsychiatry study neurological or mental impairment in an attempt to infer theories of normal mind and brain function. This typically involves looking for differences in patterns of remaining ability (known as 'functional dissociations') which can give clues as to whether abilities are comprised of smaller functions, or are controlled by a single cognitive mechanism. In addition, experimental techniques are often used which also apply to studying the neuropsychology of healthy indviduals. These include behavioural experiments, brain-scanning or functional neuroimaging - used to examine the activity of the brain during task performance, and techniques such as transcranial magnetic stimulation, which can safely alter the function of small brain areas to investigate their importance in mental operations.

Computational modeling

Computational modeling is a tool often used in cognitive psychology to simulate a particular behavior using a computer. This method has several advantages. Since modern computers are extremely fast, many simulations can be run in a short time, allowing for a great deal of statistical power. Modeling also allows psychologists to visualise hypotheses about the functional organization of mental events that couldn't be directly observed in a human. Several different types of modeling are used to study behavior. Connectionism uses neural nets to simulate the brain. Another method is symbolic modeling, which represents different mental objects using variables and rules. Other types of modeling include dynamic systems and stochastic modeling.

Criticisms of psychology

Although mainstream psychology today endeavors to be a wholly scientific endeavor, the field has a history of controversy. Some criticisms of psychology have been made on ethical and philosophical grounds. Some have argued that by subjecting the human mind to experimentation and statistical study, psychologists objectify persons; because it treats human beings as things, as objects that can be examined by experiment, psychology is sometimes portrayed as dehumanizing, ignoring or downplaying what is most essential about being human. Another common criticism of psychology concerns its fuzziness as a science. Since it relies on "soft" methods such as surveys and questionnaires, some have said, psychology is not as scientific as it claims to be, although many would argue this is an outdated criticism based on misconceptions. Many believe that the mind is not amenable to quantitative scientific research, and as support for their criticism cite the vast theoretical diversity of psychology, a discipline which agrees on very little about how the mind works. Some point out that astronomy's claim to being a science is also open to argument because its theories are largely untestable, being based in part on events that cannot be directly observed (philosophically, a scientific theory must be falsifiable: testable and open to the possibility of being proven false). One approach calling itself critical psychology takes almost an opposite approach. Rather than scientific validity being the standard against which psychology research should be judged, critical psychology uses Marxism to criticize mainstream psychology, claiming among other things that it serves as a bulwark of an unjust or unsatisfying status quo when it should, instead, use its methods and knowledge base to critique and change societal norms.

References

- Aristotle, Joe Sachs (translator). (350 BCE / 2001) On Memory and Recollection (De Memoria et Reminiscentia). Santa Fe, NM : Green Lion Press. ISBN 1888009179
- Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979). The Ecology of Human Development. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-22456-6
- Chavis, D.M., and Pretty, G. (1999). Sense of community: Advances in measurement and application. Journal of Community Psychology, 27(6), 635-642.
- Sarason, S.B. (1986). Commentary: The emergence of a conceptual center. Journal of Community Psychology, 14, 405-407.

External links

Psychology Resources

- [http://www.vanguard.edu/faculty/ddegelman/amoebaweb/ AmoebaWeb Psychology Resources]
- [http://www.apa.org/monitor/dec99/toc.html A Century of Psychology (APA)]
- [http://psychclassics.yorku.ca Classics in the History of Psychology]
- [http://allpsych.com/dictionary/ Dictionary of Psychology]
- [http://www.psychology.org/ Encyclopedia of Psychology]
- [http://reference.allrefer.com/encyclopedia/categories/psych.html Psychology Articles]
- [http://essays.org.uk/psychology/ Psychology Essays]
- [http://www.sonoma.edu/psychology/psychart.html Pictures of famous psychologists]
- [http://www.conferencealerts.com/psychology.htm Psychology Conferences]
- [http://www.perfectionnement.info/fr/agenda.php?i_pays=0&i_date=0&keywords=congr Psychology Congresses] (mostly European)
- [http://www.sciencedaily.com/news/mind_brain.htm ScienceDaily Mind and Brain news]
- [http://www.psychcentral.com PsychCentral]
- [http://www.wam.umd.edu/~stwright/psych/index.html Psychology Resources] (including some unique material on Community Psychology and also on Cumulative Risk and Resilience)
- [http://www.fireflySun.com/book/careers_in_psychology.php Psychology Career Ladders] (criticism)

Psychology Societies

- [http://www.apa.org American Psychological Association]
- [http://www.psychologicalscience.org/ American Psychological Society]
- [http://www.psychology.org.au/ Australian Psychological Society]
- [http://www.bfp-fbp.be/ Belgian Psychological Association]
- [http://www.bps.org.uk British Psychological Society]
- [http://www.apdeba.org Buenos Aires Psychoanalytic Association]
- [http://www.cpa.ca Canadian Psychological Association]
- [http://www.psykologienkustannus.fi/sps/seurasta/index.htm Finnish Psychological Society]
- [http://www.dgps.de German Psychological Association]
- [http://www.psykologisk.no Norwegian society for Master in Psychology]
- [http://www.singaporepsychologicalsociety.org/ Singapore Psychological Society] Category:Human behavior Category:Social sciences Category:Behavioural sciences Category:Academic disciplines ko:심리학 ms:Psikologi ja:心理学 simple:Psychology th:จิตวิทยา

Information warfare

Information warfare is a kind of warfare where information and attacks on information and its system are used as a tool of warfare. Information warfare may include giving the enemy propaganda to convince them to give up, and denying them information that might lead to their resistance. Information warfare may also include feeding propaganda or even disinformation to one's own population, either to build support for the war effort or to counter enemy propaganda. Information warfare may also mean a strategy for undermining an enemy's data and information systems, while defending and leveraging one's own information edge. This type of war has no front line; potential battlefields are anywhere networked systems can be accessed --oil and gas pipelines, electric power grids, telephone switching networks, etc. Information warfare can take countless forms: trains and planes can be misrouted and caused to collide, stock exchanges can be sabotaged by electronic "sniffers" which disrupt international fund-transfer networks, and the signals of television and radio stations can be jammed and taken over and used for a misinformation campaign. During the Gulf War, Dutch crackers stole information about U.S. troop movements from U.S. Defense Department computers and tried to sell it to the Iraqis, who thought it was a hoax and turned it down. In January 1999, U.S. Air Intelligence computers were hit by a coordinated attack, part of which appeared to come from Russian cracking.

Origins

The competition for information is as old as human conflict. It is virtually a defining characteristic of humanity. Nations, corporations, and individuals each seek to increase and protect their own store of information while trying to limit and penetrate the adversary's. Since around 1970, there have been extraordinary improvements in the technical means of collecting, storing, analyzing, and transmitting information.

Why are we talking about information now?

Because there is a technological revolution sweeping through information systems and their integration into our daily lives leading to the term 'Information Age.' information-related technologies concentrate data, vastly increase the rate at which we process and transmit data, and intimately couple the results into virtually every aspect of our lives. The Information Age is also transforming all military operations by providing commanders with information unprecedented in quantity and quality (2). The commander with the advantage in observing the battlespace, analyzing events, and distributing information possesses a powerful, if not decisive, lever over the adversary. We must distinguish between information age warfare and information warfare. We make this distinction because much of the literature treats information warfare and advances in information technology synonymously. Information age warfare uses information technology as a tool to impart our combat operations with unprecedented economies of time and force (3). Ultimately, information age warfare will affect all combat operations. In contrast, information warfare views information itself as a separate realm, potent weapon, and lucrative target. Information, as we will show below, is technology independent. However, information age technology is turning a theoretical possibility into fact: directly (4) manipulating the adversary's information.

Information

It is impossible to discuss information warfare meaningfully without rigorously defining the central concept: information. Information derives from phenomena. Phenomena, observable facts or events, are everything that happens around us. Phenomena must be perceived and interpreted to become information. Information, then, is the result of two things:
- 1) perceived phenomena (data) and
- 2) the instructions required to interpret that data and give it meaning. This distinction is important, and easily encompassed by a familiar paradox: If a tree falls, but no one was around to hear it, did it make a noise? The falling tree caused pressure waves in the atmosphere, a phenomenon. Noise, the information denoting a falling tree, occurs when someone's ear detects the pressure waves, creating data, and the brain's instructions manipulate that data into the sound recognizable as a falling tree. Within that person's context, there is no falling tree until the person hears (or sees) it. Phenomena become information through observation and analysis. Therefore, information is an abstraction of phenomena. Information is the result of our perceptions and interpretations, regardless of the means. As falling trees make clear, to define information requires only two characteristics:
- Information consists of data and instructions. :Note that the definition for information is absolutely distinct from technology. However, what we can do with information, and how fast we can do it, is very dependent on technology. Technology dramatically enhances our observational means, expands and concentrates data storage, and accelerates instruction processing.
- An Information Function is any activity involving the acquisition, transmission, storage, or transformation of information. :For example, the system that tells a machine to stamp eighty hubcaps is performing an information function. The sheet metal press stamping those hubcaps is not.

Military information functions

Quality information is the counter to the fog of war. As mentioned earlier, the commander with better information holds a powerful advantage over his adversary. Military operations make special demands on information functions in seeking to give the commander an information advantage.
- Intelligence Information regarding the threat environment, potential adversaries' capabilities and intentions. Surveillance and reconnaissance are our powers of observation. Intelligence and weather analysis are the bases for orienting observations. Some militaries use those bases to form an Air Tasking Order, which command and control operations execute and monitor in directing the conflict. Precision navigation enhances mission performance. Together, these are the kinds of military information functions that enhance all military operations. Collectively, some militaries use the term military information functions to describe force enhancing information functions.
- Logistics Information regarding supply needs, schedules, current status, and distribution requirements.
- A Military Information Function is any information function supporting and enhancing the employment of military forces. This definition serves to delineate militarily important information functions from the total universe of information functions.

Definition

At the grand strategy level, nations seek to acquire, exploit, and protect information in support of their objectives. This exploitation and protection can occur in the economic, political, or military arenas. Knowledge of the adversary's information is a means to enhance our own capabilities, degrade or counteract enemy capabilities, and protect our own assets, including our own information. This is not new. The struggle to discover and exploit information started the first time one group of people tried to gain advantage over another. Information warfare consists of targeting the enemy's information and information functions, while protecting our own, with the intent of degrading his will or capability to fight (5). Drawing on the definitions of information and information functions, information warfare may be defined as:
- Information Warfare is any action to deny, exploit, corrupt, or destroy the enemy's information and its functions; protecting ourselves against those actions; and exploiting our own military information functions (6). This definition is the basis for the following assertions:
- Information warfare is any attack against an information function, regardless of the means. Bombing a telephone switching facility is information warfare. So is destroying the switching facility's software.
- Information warfare is any action to protect our information functions, regardless of the means. Hardening and defending the switching facility against air attack is information warfare. So is using an anti-virus program to protect the facility's software.
- Information warfare is a means, not an end, in precisely the same manner that air warfare is a means, not an end. Information warfare may be used as a means to conduct strategic attack and interdiction, for example, just as air warfare may be used to conduct strategic attack and interdiction. Militaries have always tried to gain or affect the information required for an adversary to effectively employ forces. Past strategies typically relied on measures such as feints and deception to influence decisions by affecting the decision maker's perceptions. Because these strategies influenced information through the perception process, they attacked the enemy's information indirectly. That is, for deception to be effective, the enemy had to do three things:
- observe the deception,
- analyze the deception as reality, and,
- act upon the deception according to the deceiver's goals. However, modern means of performing information functions give information added vulnerability: direct access and manipulation (7). Modern technology now permits an adversary to change or create information without relying on observation and interpretation. Here is a short list of modern information system characteristics creating this vulnerability: concentrated storage, access speed, widespread information transmission, and the increased capacity for information systems to direct actions autonomously. Intelligent security measures can reduce, but not eliminate, this vulnerability; their absence makes it glaring.

Applications

Recalling the definition, information warfare consists of activities that deny, exploit, corrupt, destroy, or protect information. Traditional means of conducting information warfare include psychological operations, electronic warfare, military deception, physical attack, and various security measures.
- Psychological operations use information to affect the enemy's reasoning. (aka propaganda)
- Electronic warfare denies accurate information to the enemy (8).
- Military deception misleads the enemy about our capabilities or intentions (9).
- Physical destruction can do information warfare by affecting information system elements through the conversion of stored energy to destructive power. The means of physical attack range from conventional bombs to electromagnetic pulse weapons.
- Security measures seek to keep the adversary from learning about our military capabilities and intentions (10). The Information Age has provided new and practical means to deny, exploit, corrupt, or destroy information (11), as well as the vulnerabilities to make those attacks possible. Air Force doctrine does not yet acknowledge or define these assaults on information, which we call Information Attack. Information Attack: directly corrupting (12) information without visibly changing the physical entity within which it resides. Information attack, constrained by the definition of information, is limited to directly altering data or instructions. It is, therefore, just another means of conducting information warfare, one whose immediate effects do not include visible changes to the entity within which the information resides. That is to say, after being subjected to information attack, an information function is indistinguishable from its original state except through inspecting its data or instructions (13).

Indirect and direct

As previously described, there are two ways to influence the adversary's information functions: indirectly and directly. Indirect information warfare affects information by creating phenomena, which the adversary will perceive, interpret, and act upon. Military deception, physical attack, and [OPSEC] traditionally achieved their ends indirectly (14). For example, the goal of deception is to cause the adversary to make incorrect decisions; deception does this by creating an apparent reality. Generally, this entails creating phenomena for the enemy to observer Success, however, depends on several conditional events: the adversary actually observes the phenomenon, thereby turning it into data; analyzes it into the desired information; and acts upon the information in the desired manner. Direct information warfare affects information through altering its components without relying on the adversary's powers of perception or interpretation. Information attack acts directly upon the adversary's information. Since nearly all modem information functions are themselves controlled by information, information attack may be directed against most information functions. Direct information warfare, the point of information attack, acts on the adversary's information without relying on the adversary's collection, analysis, or decision functions. It can short circuit the OODA loop (15) through creating observations and skewing orientation, or decapitate it by imposing decisions and causing actions. A short illustration will serve to demonstrate the difference between indirect and direct information warfare applications: One goal, using military deception, is to make the adversary think there is a wing of combat aircraft where, in fact, there is none, and act on that information in a manner benefitting operations. Indirect information warfare: Using military deception, we could construct fake runways and parking areas, and generate enough other activities to present a convincing image. We rely on the adversary to observe the pseudo combat operation and interpret it as real (as opposed to detecting the fake). Only then does it become the information we want the adversary to have. Direct information warfare: Conversely, if we use information attack to create the pseudo combat wing in the adversary's store of information, the result-deception-is precisely the same. But the means to that result, never mind the resources, time, and uncertainty, are dramatically different.

Security measures

The defensive side of information warfare security measures aimed at protecting information-prevents an adversary from conducting successful information warfare against our information functions. Current security measures such as OPSEC and [COMSEC] are typical means of preventing, detecting, and subverting an adversary's indirect actions on our military information functions. In contrast, security measures such as [COMPUSEC] encompass preventing, detecting, and subverting direct information actions on our information functions. Future security measures must evolve as information technology advances. Consequently, new-measures will likely take forms entirely different from today's security measures, rooted as they are in previous security requirements. As the simple examples in this paper illustrate, we must avoid falling victim to profound, debilitating effects of direct information warfare.

Military importance

Two reasons. First, because information warfare offers important means to accomplish Air Force missions. Second, because the widespread integration of information systems into Air Force operations makes our military information functions a valuable target set. A hypothetical example using information attack shows how information warfare might accomplish a typical Air Force mission: Interdiction prevents or delays essential resources from reaching combat units. One approach to interdiction is wrecking bridge spans using laser-guided bombs. Alternatively, we might be able to alter the adversary planners' information, falsely categorizing the bridges as destroyed, causing the planners to reroute forces and supplies. Each means performs interdiction; information attack offers the possibility of achieving our goal while consuming fewer resources or without exposing our assets to attack. As an example emphasizing the need for robust defenses against information warfare, imagine the chaos that would ensue should an adversary manage to penetrate our time-phased force deployment database. Subtle changes in it could be sufficient to bring our power projection capabilities to a near standstill.

Air Force doctrine

Presently, Air Force doctrine recognizes air warfare and space warfare. However, the doctrine doesn't identify separate missions for air warfare or space warfare. Instead, both cut across all roles and missions. Similarly, information warfare cannot be pigeonholed as a single mission. To do so would fail to completely integrate information warfare into Air Force doctrine. Recall that missions are operational tasks performed to achieve military objectives. Air warfare is a means, defined by the environment, to execute those missions. There are three objectives of air warfare:
- control the air while protecting our forces from enemy action,
- exploit control of the air to employ forces against the enemy, and,
- enhance our overall force effectiveness. In our doctrine, the objectives of control, exploit, and enhance translate into the roles of aerospace control, force application, and force enhancement. In many respects, one can consider information as a realm, just as land, sea, air, and space are realms (16) information has its own characteristics of motion, mass, and topography, just as air, space, sea, and land have their own distinct characteristics (17). There are strong conceptual parallels between conceiving of air and information as realms. Before the Wright brothers, air, while it obviously existed, was not a realm suitable for practical, widespread military operations. Similarly, information existed before the Information Age. But the Information Age changed the information realm's characteristics so that widespread military operations within it became practical. Information warfare, like air warfare, is the means defined by the environment to execute military missions. There are three objectives of information warfare:
- control the information realm so we can exploit it while protecting our own military information functions from enemy action,
- exploit control of information to employ information warfare against the enemy, and,
- enhance overall force effectiveness by fully developing military information functions. The first objective of information warfare, to control the realm so we can exploit it while protecting our own military information functions from enemy action, contributes significantly to controlling the combat environment. Presently, Air Force doctrine recognizes two missions to control the combat environment: counterair and counterspace. Counterair comprises missions whose objectives are control of the air; counterspace comprises those missions whose objectives are control of space. Clarity and consistency require we term those activities dedicated to controlling information as counterinformation. Counterinformation: actions dedicated to controlling the information realm. Further, counterinformation, like counterair and counterspace, has both offensive and defensive aspects. Offensive counterinformation enables us to use the information realm and impedes the adversary's use of the realm. Typical means include physical attack, military deception, psychological operations, electronic warfare, and information attack. Defensive counterinformation includes both active and passive actions to protect ourselves from the adversary's information warfare actions. Defensive counterinformation is accomplished, for instance, through physical defense, physical security, hardening, OPSEC, COMSEC, COMPUSEC, and counterintelligence. Successful aerospace control enables us to use the air and space realms without suffering substantial losses, and inflict substantial losses on the enemy's use of those realms. Counterinformation, working with counterair and counterspace, seeks to create such an environment. The second objective of information warfare is to exploit our control of information. In air warfare's force application role, the missions of strategic attack, interdiction, and close air support exploit air control. Similarly, information warfare might also be used to achieve the same ends. We have already cited an example of how information warfare can perform interdiction. It can also perform strategic attack: Suppose we want to limit the enemy's long-term mobility by restricting his POL resupply. We first identify his refineries as the most suitable target to achieve this goal. Through research we further identify the specific refineries comprising most of his production capacity. For each refinery, we find there is one critical cracking tower. We mount a strike and, with admirable economy of force, put the refineries out of operation by destroying just those towers, while leaving everything else untouched. This is a classic example of strategic attack. Same situation. Like all modern refineries, these have extensive automated control systems. These extensive information functions offer a potential target for information warfare. Early in the conflict we performed an offensive counterinformation mission by penetrating and characterizing the refinery's automated control system. In the process, we uncovered several vulnerable information dependencies, giving us the means of affecting the refineries' operations at a time of our choosing. Later in the conflict, combined with interdiction and ground maneuvers, we choose to exploit one of the vulnerabilities. We have just disabled their refineries. This, too, is a classic example of strategic attack. Information technology is already tightly woven with our military operations, providing heretofore unimaginable amounts of information. Exploiting this information has provided us striking capabilities; relying on it inevitably creates potentially crippling vulnerabilities. This, coupled with advances in the ability -to both locate and destroy command and control (C2) nodes makes C2, more than ever, a lucrative target set. History has shown successful militaries can achieve striking success through paralyzing the enemy's ability to exercise command and control. Airmen have always considered this an important objective and expended much effort against C2 (18). For these reasons, the efforts to disrupt and destroy the adversary's command and control elements have prompted us to identify a separate mission under force application. C2 Attack: any action against any element of the enemy's command and control system. The third objective of information warfare is to develop information functions to enhance total force effectiveness. Previously we described military information functions as supporting the employment of military forces. Our current doctrine does not include such a mission. To fill that void, we will include information operations under force enhancement. Some examples of information operations are: surveillance, reconnaissance, command and control, communications, combat identification, intelligence, precision navigation, and weather. The distinguishing characteristic of the information operations mission is that it deals primarily with information as both its resource and product.

Roles and missions of Aerospace Power

Information Operations: any action involving the acquisition, transmission, storage, or transformation of information that enhances the employment of military forces. Since we require relevant, accurate, and timely information for everything we do, information operations support the conduct of missions across all four roles', from aerospace control to force support. Information operations provide commanders the ability to observe the battlespace, analyze events, and direct forces. information operations provide logisticians the ability to know what is in inventory, and where it is needed. Information operations provide the flight lead the ability to know where the target is, its defenses, and select the most appropriate weapon. In sum, information warfare cuts across all Air Force roles and missions. It is another means to conduct our traditional missions. However, there are three additional operational tasks that information warfare enables us to execute which are not suitably addressed by our current doctrine: counterinformation, C2 Attack, and information operations. Similarly, we elected to delete two missions no longer relevant under regrouped missions: electronic combat, previously under force enhancement, is now subsumed by information warfare; surveillance and reconnaissance are now considered instances of information operations. However, this list is by no means exhaustive. As this paper's title conveys, the ideas contained herein provide the cornerstones, not the entire building. Invariably, as the Air Force fully accommodates the information technology revolution, additional operational tasks may arise which will in turn warrant adding or removing missions. To the extent these cornerstones continue to provide a valid litmus test for information warfare, all new missions need to meet and pass it.

Information warfare and command and control warfare

The focus of information warfare is any information function, whether it is C2, a refinery's control system, or a telephone switching station. C2 represents only part of the universe of military information functions. The Joint Staff defines command and control: Command and Control: the exercise of authority and direction by a properly designated commander over assigned forces in the accomplishment of the mission. [joint Pub 1-021] Command and control warfare (C2W) only addresses activities directed against the adversary's ability to direct the disposition and employment of forces, or those which protect the friendly commander's ability to do so. As we have illustrated, information warfare not only attacks the C2 process, but it also attacks the enemy's combat power itself. Conversely, by definition, C2W is not associated with reducing or nullifying the ability or desire of combat units to execute their orders. Tactical psychological operations and electronic countermeasures self-protection hinder the ability of units to execute orders. But they in no way affect commanders' ability to issue orders to those units, nor their ability to receive those orders. Although extraordinarily important, the JCS's policy of Command and Control Warfare is only a particular application of information warfare. For the military to concentrate only on C2W would be ignoring other legitimate target sets. Therefore, information warfare, and its attendant organizing, training, and equipping issues, is essential to fully effective C2W.

Military importance

We have established that information warfare is important to the Air Force for two reasons. First, since our military information functions present a valuable target set, we must make commensurate defensive efforts. Second, as the examples in this paper show, information warfare is a potential means to achieve typical Air Force ends: strategic attack, interdiction, etc. More fundamentally, the Air Force already does information warfare through such systems as the EF-111 and Compass Call. But in a broader sense, information warfare might be a means to conduct any mission the services already conduct - and the services are best positioned to choose the best means for their ends. Each service has its own unique operational demands. After all, the Army is best qualified to decide which means are best suited for pursuing the goals the joint Force Commander apportions to the Army. As a result of its service-unique expertise, its own OODA loop requirements, logistics, etc., each service has information warfare concerns. In developing the doctrinal constructs in this paper, we used airpower terminology and examples. That is our background, those are the terms and the environment with which we are familiar. But the argument we present is not dependent on terminology. Replacing Air Force terms with Army or Navy terms would leave the conclusions unchanged.

Conclusions

The information revolution, startlingly fast as it is, shows no signs of slowing. As armed forces more technologically sophisticated, they become more technologically dependent. We need to use that technological sophistication to avail ourselves of all the opportunities that information, as a target, presents. We also need to be aware that our technical dependencies represent potentially crippling vulnerabilities. Sophisticated, robust, multi-layered defenses for our military information functions may well be what separates us from joining the sorry league of military failures. Information, combined with modern information functions, has distinct characteristics that warrant it being considered a realm, just as land, sea, air, .and space are realms. Information warfare does not fill a discrete place in Air Force doctrine. just like air warfare, information warfare can be part of many AFM 1 -1 missions. just as when space warfare was integrated into Air Force doctrine, viewing information as a realm now leads us to add several missions:
- Counterinformation: controlling the information realm.
- C2 Attack: any action against the enemy's command and control system.
- Information Operations: any action involving the acquisition, transmission, storage, or transformation of information that enhances the employment of military forces. Since World War 1, airmen have had to control the air environment effectively to employ airpower. What is more, air and space superiority are virtually a sine qua non for employing ground and naval forces. Information is the next realm we must control to operate effectively and with the greatest economy of force. At the outset we stated the competition for information is as old as man's first conflict. It involves increasing and protecting our own store of information while limiting and penetrating the adversary's. The recent explosion in information technologies is prompting the current discussion in and outside government on the topic of information warfare - targeting the enemy's information functions, while protecting ours, with the intent of degrading his will or capability to fight. For airmen, controlling the combat environment is job One. With the advances in information technology, airmen must pursue information superiority just as they do air and space superiority. Only with these realms under our control can we effectively employ all our combat assets. Military information functions are essential to our combat operations-they are a tool for achieving the Joint Force Commander's campaign objectives. Targeting the enemy's information functions keeps him from achieving his. In this paper we have laid out information warfare's doctrinal foundation. Our goal is to provide a sound and widely accepted basis from which we can adapt Air Force doctrine to the Information Age. The ultimate aim? Incorporating information warfare into the way the Air Force organizes, trains, equips, and employs.

Further Definitions

- C2 Attack: Any action against any element of the enemy's command and control system.
- Command and Control: The exercise of authority and direction by a properly designated commander over assigned forces in the accomplishment of the mission.
- Counterinformation: Actions dedicated to controlling the information realm.
- Defensive counterinformation: Actions protecting our military information functions from the adversary.
- Direct Information Warfare: Changing the adversary's information without involving the intervening perceptive and analytical functions.
- Indirect Information Warfare: Changing the adversary's information by creating phenomena that the adversary must then observe and analyze.
- Information: Data and instructions.
- Information Attack: Directly corrupting information without visibly changing the physical entity within which it resides.
- Information Function: Any activity involving the acquisition, transmission, storage, or transformation of information.
- Information Operations: Any action involving the acquisition, transmission, storage, or transformation of information that enhances the employment of military forces.
- Information Warfare: Any action to deny, exploit, corrupt, or destroy the enemy's information and its functions; protecting ourselves against those actions; and exploiting our own military information functions.

References

- [http://www.historychannel.com/exhibits/science_war/iwar.html Science at War: Information Warfare], The History Channel

External links

Resources

- [http://www.iwar.org.uk IWS - The Information Warfare Site]
- [http://www.infowar-monitor.net The Information Warfare Monitor]
- [http://www.psycom.net/iwar.1.html Information Warfare, I-War, IW, C4I, Cyberwar]
- [http://www.fas.org/irp/wwwinfo.html Federation of American Scientists - IW Resources]
- [http://www.endtimepilgrim.org/infowar.htm Information Warfare and the Word of God]
- [http://infowars.com INFOWARS - Political Information Warfare site]

Counterterrorism

- [http://counterterrorism.information-warfare.info/ Destabilizing Terrorist Networks: Disrupting and Manipulating Information Flows in the Global War on Terrorism] Category:Modern warfare Category:Propaganda

Dirty bomb

The term dirty bomb is most often used to refer to a Radiological Dispersal Device (RDD), a radiological weapon which combines radioactive material with conventional explosives. Though an RDD is designed to disperse radioactive material over a large area, the conventional explosive would likely have more immediate lethal effect than the radioactive material. At levels created from most probable sources, not enough radiation would be present to cause severe illness or death. A test explosion and subsequent calculations done by the Department of Energy found that assuming nothing is done to clean up the affected area and everyone stays in the affected area for 1 year, the radiation exposure would be "fairly high". Because a terrorist dirty bomb is likely to cause few deaths (from the conventional explosive), many do not consider one to be a weapon of mass destruction. Its purpose would presumably be to create psychological, not physical, harm through mass panic and terror. Additionally, decontamination of the affected area might require considerable time and expense, rendering affected areas unusable, and causing extensive economic damage. Essentially, this kind of weapon is a terror weapon preying on public radiological ignorance. While it is well known that, even if detonated in a large population center, such a device would cause perhaps ten deaths from thyroid cancer within the next fifty years, this did not stop some degree of media hysteria. Indeed, it is thought that the Chechens (mentioned below) had no idea of the ineffectiveness of such a device. During the 1960's, it is thought that the UK Ministry of Defence evaluated RDDs deciding that a far better effect was achievable by simply using more high explosive in place of the radioactives. Presumably, this indicates that the effect of the radiological component would be negligible. In addition, any form of weapon designed to provoke biological damage other than death is banned under the Geneva Protocols, making the development, deployment and use by any State illegal.

Incidents

In 1995, rebels from Chechnya planted, but did not detonate, an RDD in Moscow's Izmailovo Park. The bomb consisted of dynamite and caesium-137 removed from cancer treatment equipment. Reporters were tipped off about its location, and it was defused.

Earlier uses of the term

The term has also been used historically to refer to certain types of nuclear weapons. Due to the inefficiency of early nuclear weapons (such as "Fat Man" and "Little Boy"), 2% or less of the nuclear material would be consumed during the explosion. Thus, they tended to disperse large amounts of unused fissile material in the form of nuclear fallout. During the 1950s, there was considerable debate over whether "clean" bombs could be produced, and these were often contrasted with "dirty" bombs. "Clean" bombs were often a stated goal, and scientists and administrators said that high-efficiency nuclear weapon design could create explosions which generated almost all of their energy in the form of nuclear fusion, which does not create harmful fission products. But the Castle Bravo accident of 1954, in which a thermonuclear weapon produced a large amount of fallout which was dispersed among many human populations, suggested that this was not what was actually being used in modern thermonuclear weapons, which derive around half of their yield from a final fission stage. While some proposed producing "clean" weapons, other theorists noted that one could make a nuclear weapon intentionally "dirty" by "salting" it with a material (see: Salted bomb and its subtype, cobalt bomb) which would generate large amounts of long-lasting fallout when irradiated by the weapon core. In the post-Cold War age, this usage of the term has largely fallen out of use.

References

- Adam Curtis's The Power of Nightmares, Part III -- [http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/video1040.htm Transcript at Information Clearing House (video no longer avaible)]

External links

- National Terror Alert Resource Center, [http://www.nationalterroralert.com/readyguide/dirtybomb.htm National Terror Alert Fact Sheet]
- U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, [http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/fact-sheets/dirty-bombs.html Factsheet on Dirty Bombs]
- Council on Foreign Relations, [http://www.cfrterrorism.org/weapon