Information warfare, as any casual observer of the Pentagon can attest, remains a hot-button topic in the military community. Thus does war follow commerce into cyberspace, pitting foes against one another for control of this clearly critical high ground. But does this facile comparison have a basis in reality? In this iconoclastic spirit, the six essays in this book are characterized by a continuing search for the meaning of information warfare.

In the weeks leading up to Desert Storm, anxious analysts tried to forecast the course of the war by counting what the coalition and Iraq each brought to the battlefield: they have this many men, we have that many men; they have this much armor, we have that much armor; their air fleet is this big; ours is that big. Few doubted which side would prevail in battle, but many analysts were not so sure the war could be won swiftly and with acceptable casualties.

The Secretary of the Treasury has applied his attention to the subject of manufactures; and particularly to the means of promoting such as will tend to render the United States independent on foreign nations for military and essential supplies.