(55) Arquilla, Ronfeldt and Zanini, "Networks,
Netwar".
If
netwar was the means, the law-fare strategy was to excite such passions abroad that Sri Lanka, like Mexico, would be forced to end its Vanni Humanitarian Operation (the Vanni is the region in which the LTTE stronghold was located).
Netwar actions are committed by adversaries that are known, that have modified their structures and strategies in accordance with the "working" advantages offered by the network, but also with the confidentiality they offer.
Their methods may well be based on
netwar principles as described above.
Case studies following the
netwar model can usefully point toward the elements that have evolved in terrorists' structures.
This
netwar insurgency is not easily predictable and requires detailed study and understanding prior to initiating an attack to destroy it.
On seeing-as-targeting, see Samuel Weber, "Target of Opportunity: Networks,
Netwar, and Narratives," Grey Room, 1, no.
Rand Institute analysts John Arquila and David Ronfeldt have also contributed to the scholarhsip on networks, with an emphasis on their role in war, terrorism, crime, and politics, in a series of books, including The Advent of
Netwar (1996), In Athena's Camp (1997), The Emergence of Noopolitik (1999), Swarming and the Future of Conflict (2000), and Networks and
Netwars (2001), as well as Ronfeldt's case study, The Zapatista "Social
Netwar" in Mexico (1998).
From cases like this, Ronfeldt and Arquilla conceived a network-centric military paradigm, which they dubbed "
netwar" (or sometimes "cyberwar").
Over the past decade, they have written extensively about an aspect of information warfare they call "
netwar" which they define as "trying to disrupt or damage what a target population knows or thinks it knows about itself and the world around it.