[PDF] Ideas As Weapons eBook

Author : G. J. David
Publisher : Potomac Books, Inc.
Page : 681 pages
File Size : 35,45 MB
Release : 2011-09
Category : History
ISBN : 1597976504

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The United States has struggled to define its approach to what has been called the "information battlefield" since the information era began. Yet with the outbreak of the war on terror, the United States has been violently challenged to take a position and react to the militants' use of emerging information technology. Ideological demigods operating against the United States now have unprecedented channels by which to disseminate their message to those targets who are uncertain, sympathetic, or actively supportive of their philosophy. From the caves of southeastern Afghanistan to the streets of Baghdad, "the message" has dominated the thinking of those who perpetrate horrific acts of violence, whether in the name of ideology, ethnic and sectarian partisanship, or religion. This anthology is divided into four sections: geopolitical, strategic, operational, and tactical. The geopolitical perspective covers world politics, diplomacy, and the elements of national power, excluding military force. The strategic view examines where the violence has begun and the military element of power. The operational perspective handles the campaigns to accomplish a specific purpose on the world stage--for example, as in the Iraq campaign. The tactical level takes the individual's role into account. Because the nexus of information conflict is most easily seen in the world's contemporary violent confrontations, this anthology reflects the experience and lessons learned by military personnel who have managed these difficult issues. With a foreword by Colonel H. R. McMaster, U.S. Army, the author of Dereliction of Duty: Johnson, McNamara, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Lies That Led to Vietnam.

Author : John B. Hench
Publisher : Cornell University Press
Page : 352 pages
File Size : 28,61 MB
Release : 2016-10-15
Category : History
ISBN : 1501727273

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Only weeks after the D-Day invasion of June 6, 1944, a surprising cargo—crates of books—joined the flood of troop reinforcements, weapons and ammunition, food, and medicine onto Normandy beaches. The books were destined for French bookshops, to be followed by millions more American books (in translation but also in English) ultimately distributed throughout Europe and the rest of the world. The British were doing similar work, which was uneasily coordinated with that of the Americans within the Psychological Warfare Division of General Eisenhower's Supreme Headquarters, Allied Expeditionary Force, under General Eisenhower's command. Books As Weapons tells the little-known story of the vital partnership between American book publishers and the U.S. government to put carefully selected recent books highlighting American history and values into the hands of civilians liberated from Axis forces. The government desired to use books to help "disintoxicate" the minds of these people from the Nazi and Japanese propaganda and censorship machines and to win their friendship. This objective dovetailed perfectly with U.S. publishers' ambitions to find new profits in international markets, which had been dominated by Britain, France, and Germany before their book trades were devastated by the war. Key figures on both the trade and government sides of the program considered books "the most enduring propaganda of all" and thus effective "weapons in the war of ideas," both during the war and afterward, when the Soviet Union flexed its military might and demonstrated its propaganda savvy. Seldom have books been charged with greater responsibility or imbued with more significance. John B. Hench leavens this fully international account of the programs with fascinating vignettes set in the war rooms of Washington and London, publishers' offices throughout the world, and the jeeps in which information officers drove over bomb-rutted roads to bring the books to people who were hungering for them. Books as Weapons provides context for continuing debates about the relationship between government and private enterprise and the image of the United States abroad. To see an interview with John Hench conducted by C-SPAN at the 2010 annual conference of the Organization of American Historians, visit: http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/id/222522.

Author : I. B. Holley, Jr.
Publisher : DIANE Publishing
Page : 239 pages
File Size : 37,76 MB
Release : 1998-05
Category :
ISBN : 0788148605

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Given the enormous destructive capacity of precision weapons in the modern era and the inherent vulnerabilities of modern society to high technology attack, this book is more relevant today than when it was first written in the midst of the nuclear age, in 1953. Remaining one of the finest texts ever written on the history of warfare and weapons acquisition, this is a thorough and reliable work that should be a standard reference for acquisition managers and decision-makers, providing a guide to informed decision-making that reflects the experience and lessons of the past. Bibliographical notes. Index.

Author : Sarah Sentilles
Publisher : Text Publishing
Page : 316 pages
File Size : 11,49 MB
Release : 2017-07-03
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 192549862X

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• Draw Your Weapons is essential reading in a time of global upheaval—a unique, impassioned and vital guide to peaceful, creative resistance in a violent era • A dazzling combination of memoir, history, reporting, visual culture, literature and theology which proposes that art can offer the tools for remaking the world • Centres on the stories of two very different men—one a former-soldier stationed at Abu Ghraib, and a consciencious objector from World War II. Both men respond to war, and reclaim their dignity, by making art • Sentilles almost became an episcopal priest. She holds a Doctorate of Theology from Harvard Divinity School and her ‘break-up with God’ was the subject of an earlier book • Sentilles is also the co-creator of Drone Alert Sutras, a project that prompts participants to create video responses to US drone attacks as they happen • Will appeal to fans of Rebecca Solnit, John Berger and Ta-Nehisi Coates

Author : Brad Smith
Publisher : Penguin
Page : 370 pages
File Size : 25,71 MB
Release : 2019-09-10
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 1984877712

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The instant New York Times bestseller. From Microsoft's president and one of the tech industry's broadest thinkers, a frank and thoughtful reckoning with how to balance enormous promise and existential risk as the digitization of everything accelerates. “A colorful and insightful insiders’ view of how technology is both empowering and threatening us. From privacy to cyberattacks, this timely book is a useful guide for how to navigate the digital future.” —Walter Isaacson Microsoft President Brad Smith operates by a simple core belief: When your technology changes the world, you bear a responsibility to help address the world you have helped create. This might seem uncontroversial, but it flies in the face of a tech sector long obsessed with rapid growth and sometimes on disruption as an end in itself. While sweeping digital transformation holds great promise, we have reached an inflection point. The world has turned information technology into both a powerful tool and a formidable weapon, and new approaches are needed to manage an era defined by even more powerful inventions like artificial intelligence. Companies that create technology must accept greater responsibility for the future, and governments will need to regulate technology by moving faster and catching up with the pace of innovation. In Tools and Weapons, Brad Smith and Carol Ann Browne bring us a captivating narrative from the cockpit of one of the world's largest and most powerful tech companies as it finds itself in the middle of some of the thorniest emerging issues of our time. These are challenges that come with no preexisting playbook, including privacy, cybercrime and cyberwar, social media, the moral conundrums of artificial intelligence, big tech's relationship to inequality, and the challenges for democracy, far and near. While in no way a self-glorifying "Microsoft memoir," the book pulls back the curtain remarkably wide onto some of the company's most crucial recent decision points as it strives to protect the hopes technology offers against the very real threats it also presents. There are huge ramifications for communities and countries, and Brad Smith provides a thoughtful and urgent contribution to that effort.

Author : Paul Scharre
Publisher : W. W. Norton & Company
Page : 388 pages
File Size : 46,49 MB
Release : 2018-04-24
Category : History
ISBN : 0393608999

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Winner of the 2019 William E. Colby Award "The book I had been waiting for. I can't recommend it highly enough." —Bill Gates The era of autonomous weapons has arrived. Today around the globe, at least thirty nations have weapons that can search for and destroy enemy targets all on their own. Paul Scharre, a leading expert in next-generation warfare, describes these and other high tech weapons systems—from Israel’s Harpy drone to the American submarine-hunting robot ship Sea Hunter—and examines the legal and ethical issues surrounding their use. “A smart primer to what’s to come in warfare” (Bruce Schneier), Army of None engages military history, global policy, and cutting-edge science to explore the implications of giving weapons the freedom to make life and death decisions. A former soldier himself, Scharre argues that we must embrace technology where it can make war more precise and humane, but when the choice is life or death, there is no replacement for the human heart.

Author : I. B. Holley, Jr.
Publisher : Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
Page : 240 pages
File Size : 43,37 MB
Release : 2016-02-23
Category :
ISBN : 9781530191321

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Professor Irving Brinton Holley, Jr.'s "Ideas and Weapons" remains one of the finest texts ever written on the history of warfare and weapons acquisition. Given the enormous destructive capacity of precision weapons in the modern era, and the inherent vulnerabilities of modern society to high technology attack, this book is more relevant today than when it was first written, in the midst of the nuclear age. As Profession Holley amply demonstrates, since antiquity the side with superior weapons has almost inevitably emerged victorious from conflict. With the rapid development of science and technology from 1945 onward, the history of the Air Force itself has, in many ways, been the history of weapons development. Informed decision-making can ensure that future weapons choices reflect the experience and lessons of the past. This book attempts to explore something of the background of the contemporary air weapon. The study was undertaken in an effort to distill from past experience in the development of air material those lessons which might be of help in formulating policies for exploiting the air weapons more successfully in the future. If the lessons derived are sound, it may be possible to find some principles for developing weapons in general.