Conversations with History: Institute of International Studies, UC Berkeley

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This interview is part of the Institute's "Conversations with History" series, and uses Internet technology to share with the public Berkeley's distinction as a global forum for ideas.

Welcome to a Conversation with History. I'm Harry Kreisler of the Institute of International Studies. Our guest today is John Arquilla, who is a professor at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey. He is also a Senior Consultant for the RAND Corporation. His publications include Networks and Netwars: The Future of Terror, Crime and Militancy; In Athena's Camp: Preparing for Conflict in the Information Age; From Troy to Entebbe: Special Operations in Ancient and Modern Times; and Dubious Battles: Aggression, Defeat, and the International System

1. Background ... influence of parents ... education ... mentors ... importance of ideas ... issues of war and peace
2. Challenges Posed by Networks ... germ of ideas ... collaboration ... empowering of networks ... organizational forms ... swarming ... military implications ... decentralization
3. The Structure of Networks ... the story ... embedded information ... leaderless swarming ... pulsing ... technology ... control versus ground-level empowerment ... "dirtying" clean money ... social ties
4. Organizational Response ... moving toward networks ... 9/11 surprise as failure of imagination and organization ... implications for the military ... top sight ... eBay style of command ... empowering soldiers ... morale and ethnical dimension
5. Societal Networks ... innovation in civil and uncivil organizations ... limiting state power ... consequences for the nation state ... not chess but Go
6. Conclusion ... 9/11 ... advice to students ... prehistoric social norm of networking

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