The 15 essays in this collection deal with real and perceived impacts on US national security resulting from continuing changes in the capabilities of advanced information technologies and their use by friendly and hostile forces. This is the third publication in a series intended to broadly review issues bearing on US national security and defense planning. The thrust of most of the essays is the national security policy implications of current and anticipated developments in and applications of information system technologies. Many thoughtful historical analogies serve as a foundation for improved understanding of the impact of current and future information system technologies. The policy recommendations developed in these essays are clearly directed at senior national security decision makers.

Within this framework, the authors of each essay attempt to assess how the role of information systems and their capabilities within the US defense establishment are being dramatically transformed. Each essay attempts to forecast emerging strengths and vulnerabilities to weapons, concepts relevant to warfare, and the effects of information technology on military organizations within a wide spectrum of scenarios. The importance and virtual domination of information in each of these scenarios is assumed to be critical as the information dimension of all elements of warfare becomes increasingly essential to their outcomes.

The essays are grouped in three parts. Part 1 analyzes the effects of evolving information technology on society and the international balance of power. Part 2 focuses on the United States and examines what new opportunities and vulnerabilities will be presented by emerging information technologies. Part 3 addresses current issues, lessons, and possible strategic options concerning the control and operational use of information technology. This discussion focuses on areas that are important to US decision makers.

Each essay stands alone, with its own separate footnotes and references. The focuses of several of the essays overlap somewhat, and there are annoying redundancies among them. However, the general presentation is thought provoking and intense with respect to critical issues concerning both information warfare and the overall impact of computer and communications technology on world society.

This text is highly recommended for the target audience of senior national security decision makers. It is also recommended to information technology professionals interested in the fundamental changes to national defense realities brought about by today’s computer and information systems and their ever-more-capable successors. This collection also seems to have some value for military and national policy historians.