"Scholars have noted that in every society there are plenty of people who are dissatisfied with the status quo, but most don't become activists or join together to form a social movement. What needs to happen before discontented people form a social movement is that people need to recognize that they share their grievances and interests and that together they can do something about them. This is insurgent consciousness."1
Non-state actor super-empowerment is revolutionizing the 21st century security environment. Small groups can now do more damage to civilization than ever before. Nineteen men and $500,000 are sufficient resources to execute large scale attacks against the most powerful nation-state in the world.
Many are aware of non-state actor super-empowerment. Unfortunately, this shared understanding has not motivated a commensurate response and adaptation. The current U.S. national security institutions are not up to the task of protecting us against these threats. Offensively, seven years of war have failed to find and destroy Al Qaeda central. It retains its sanctuary in Pakistan and is still capable of large scale terrorist attacks. Defensively, there are simply too many vulnerable points to protect. Even the most obvious targets are poorly-guarded.
If there is to be an effective adaptation to non-state actor super-empowerment, it will originate from small groups of highly motivated, technologically-interconnected individuals.
This blog's goal is to build the insurgent consciousness necessary for the disparate individuals that share our vision to coalesce into a tribe.
(1. paraphrased from the 2008 Naval Post-Graduate School Information Operations Conference.)
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