The Internet and U.S. national security : cyberspace's technological impact on our national perspective

Includes bibliographical references (pages [65]-74)The scope and breadth of high-technology issues affecting national security have rapidly accelerated within the past 15 years due to the advent of the wide dissemination of personal computing technology. We are at the dawn of a new historical period that will be known as the Information Age, and the main transformative entity will be what we now know as the Internet. The Internet has dramatically changed the scope of communication, and has provided for the establishment of the information superhighway, but it has evolved free-form, totally devoid of planning beyond its initial stages. The ramifications of this malleable entity will greatly affect the national security of the United States unless proper planning is considered. At this time, a governmental entity cannot even begin to control what is on the Internet, but the creation of an international regime in the image of the IAEA will provide an agent where the United States could use this structure to influence how the superhighway is created. An emerging era of multilateral cooperation will rfl&ke the conceptualization of such a dramatic effort more feasible and beneficial to all its participants.M.A. (Master of Arts