It is acknowledged that Information Warfare is a reality that modern military organization will have to adapt to or be subject to it. New realities require new understandings and out of these understanding an evolution. New capabilities, organizations, skill sets as well as new modes of operation. For many this marks a turning point in military affairs as dramatic as when the airplane the tank or the radio became part of the military arsenal. But Information Warfare is even more dramatic than because it act in a systematic fashion in new dimensions. These are the abstract domains where knowledge created and information flows. Already we see that the open flows of information change the course of systems such as communism and other closed dogmatic systems. It is interesting to note that Information Warfare as a concept is in fact a meme that is growing in the mind of the common culture. If for nothing else we need to understand what it is so that we realize that there is no such thing as a silver bullet in warfare. Nor does any advantage stay for long on one side of the conflict. Information Warfare strictly as an element of an arsenal used to control will have its day shortly but more importantly Information Warfare also offers as a method a better understanding for the reasons of the conflict in the first place. This in itself is more important. The discussion of what and how to use Information Warfare should be a discussion not just within the military or the government but in all areas of society. Information Warfare is all about meta strategy. A search and reflection on the causes and linkages of conflict.
In itself the research into a new concept requires the concomitant development of an epistemology, an ontology, and a methodology. I have presented elements of all three. But there is much more to do and to debate. This study of concepts was not intended to determine which capabilities should be developed nor how to integrate into present military operations Information Warfare nor to determine which units in our organizations will become keepers of this knowledge. This has yet to be done. But hopefully this report will help those mandated with such responsibilities to better understand why and what makes Information Warfare so different.
Information Warfare represent a new challenge for societies. As the tank and radio combined to change the concepts of maneuver so does the network and the virus. There is a need to continue to debate the issues raised in this analysis and to try to understand what the technology permits and what ethics and morality dictates. This is not the end of the debate on what is Information warfare - It is the start.