As today the Iraq Study Group announces we need a new strategy – news flash! – they might consider how the war on terrorism is more of a war within the skin of a collective humanity, a War on Ourselves. Here’s some dimensions of that war.

According to Human Security Report, the nature of war is changing.

“With the demise of colonialism, one that had caused 81 wars since 1816, simply ceased to exist…Then the cold war came to an end – no more proxy wars…a growing number of preventive diplomacy missions by UN since 1991. So, War is mostly within states…”Between 1991 and 2004, 28 struggles for self determination were started or restarted, while 43 were contained or ended…Just 25 armed secessionist conflicts under way in 2004, the lowest number since 1976.”

http://www.humansecurityreport.info/component/option,com_frontpage/Itemid,1/

Here’s a glimpse of the new nature of war, in Israel/Palestine.

“Although several thousand soldiers and Palestinian guerrillas were manoeuvring simultaneously in the city, they were so ‘saturated’ into the urban fabric that very few would have been visible from the air. Furthermore, they used none of the city’s streets, roads, alleys or courtyards, or any of the external doors, internal stairwells and windows, but moved horizontally through walls and vertically through holes blasted in ceilings and floors. This form of movement, described by the military as ‘infestation’, seeks to redefine inside as outside, and domestic interiors as thoroughfares. The IDF’s strategy of ‘walking through walls’ involves a conception of the city as not just the site but also the very medium of warfare – a flexible, almost liquid medium that is forever contingent and in flux.”

http://www.frieze.com/feature_single.asp?f=1165

Writer Bruce Sterling once wrote that the war on terrorism is the same thing as the Internet bubble. Interesting then that the European Union initiative on the Information Society as within it a new program on Global Cybersecurity.

“The purpose of the Cybersecurity Gateway is to provide an easy-to-use information resource on national and international cybersecurity related initiatives worldwide. In today’s interconnected world of networks, threats can now originate anywhere – our collective cybersecurity depends on the security practices of every connected country, business, and citizen.”

http://www.itu.int/cybersecurity/index.html