By: John Arquilla, David Ronfeldt, RAND Corporation, 1999

This study discusses the opportunities that may be raised by the emergence of noopolitik--ranging from construction of noosphere to recommendations.

This report builds on what we have accomplished so far in a set ofstudies, since 1991, about future military affairs (cyberwar), societal-levelconflict and crime (netwar), and information strategy. Here we advance the idea of "noopolitik" , a new approach to state craft based principally on the primacy of ideas, values, laws, and ethics, as enabledby the emergence of the noosphere (an all-encompassingrealm of the mind), to extend our research agenda in a new direction. Primarily of interest to U.S. policymakers and strategists, this report will also interest those in academia and think tanks concerned withhow the information revolution is altering the conditions for and conduct of strategy.This study was prepared for a project on information strategy.

The project was sponsored by the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense/Command, Control, Communications, and Intelligence(OASD/C3I), and was conducted within both the Acquisition and Technology Policy Center and the International Security and DefensePolicy Center of RAND's National Defense Research Institute (NDRI). NDRI is a federally funded research and development center sponsoredby the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the Joint Staff, the Unified Commands, and the defense agencies.

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Book Description:

Strategy, at its best, knits together ends and means, no matter how various and disparate, into a cohesive pattern. In the case of a U.S. information strategy, this requires balancing the need to guard and secure access to many informational capabilities and resources, with the opportunity to achieve national aims by fostering as much openness as practicable.

The authors' term to represent such strategic balancing is guarded openness. They go on to describe noopolitik (nu-oh-poh-li-teek)--an emerging form of statecraft that emphasizes the importance of sharing ideas and values globally, principally through the exercise of persuasive soft power rather than traditional military hard power. This study discusses the opportunities that may be raised by the emergence of noopolitik--ranging from construction of a noosphere (a globe-spanning realm of the mind) to recommendations that, for example, the U.S. military should begin to develop its own noosphere (among and between the services, as well as with U.S. allies). In the area of international cooperation, the authors offer strategic approaches for improving the capacity of state and nonstate actors to work together to address transnational problems.

In addition, the authors recommend specific doctrinal developments, implied by the emergence of information strategy--including the pressing need to deal with such ethical concerns as the first use of information weapons, concepts of proportional response, and the need to maintain the immunity of noncombatants. Ultimately, the authors call for an innovative turn of mind as policymakers and strategists rethink how best to adapt to the epochal transformations being wrought by the information revolution.

Book Contents:

Preface PDF

Figure and Tables PDF

Summary PDF

Acknowledgments PDF

Chapter One:
Whither "Information Strategy"? PDF

Chapter Two:
Recognition of the Noosphere PDF

Chapter Three:
Emergence of Noopolitik PDF

Chapter Four:
International Cooperation and Conflict PDF

Chapter Five:
Moving Ahead PDF

Bibliography PDF

About the Author:

JOHN ARQUILLA (Ph.D., Political Science, Stanford University) is a RAND consultant and a professor of foreign policy at the United States Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California.

DAVID F. RONFELDT (Ph.D., Political Science, Stanford University) is a Senior Social Scientist at RAND whose research focus includes information revolution, netwar, cyberocracy, strategic swarming and the rise of transnational networks of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs).

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