Revolution in Information Affairs Tactical and Strategic Implications of Information Warfare and Information Operations

A new era is born – the information age. Information technology is our means of reinforcing human knowledge and communications and opens up a revolutionary new world to mankind. A revolution in information affairs is envisioned. It is a slow motion revolution, thus not always clearly visible. Information age and information technology creates dependencies, capabilities, and vulnerabilities that have to be understood and managed. A revivalism for this revolutionary new era is needed. The purposes of this paper are to cast some light on new rising threats and opportunities and to discuss tactical and strategic implications of information warfare and information operations. It is important to increase awareness within private, government and military sectors. A picture of what the future might look like is given. The aspects presented include: the meaning of information operations and information warfare; what is really new; essential drawbacks, driving forces in the development; impact on information infrastructure; and countermeasures. The importance and the necessity to establish a strategy, to introduce processes and to organise resources for national security are explained.