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Military Leaks in the Modern Times

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In the age of computers, the Internet, extensive use of mobile phones and other portable advanced communications devices, keeping secrets is an ever-growing challenge. This is the case as well with armed services around the world. Their ability to serve as a potent defense of a state as well as their capacity to wage war heavily depends on information. To be effective they must have more, if not equal, information than the enemy. Moreover, the enemy as much as possible should have the least information about them. This has become perhaps the most urgent issue faced by armed services globally.

Lack of absence of security

The lack of or total absence of security opens the modern state to attack. Attacks do not need to be conventional. It could be indirect through proliferation of information. Imagine terrorists gaining access to the restricted information of the military or the industrial secrets of a state’s economy, which they could use these to directly assault the state or undermine its stability. Due to the growing avenue for distribution of information, restricting its circulation has become difficult, especially information of a classified nature.

Information age warfare

Warfare in the ages of human history has been determined primarily by the technology of the time. In the 21st century, which is known as the information age, information is the foremost weapon. Therefore, the access to information would be the main concern of the military and the prime target of the enemy.

Information is the lifeblood of modern society. It is the main component in socialization, and the institutions that deal with it are the new power structures of the polity. In recent news, the military institutions in the US are preparing to deal with the anticipated release of restricted documents on the war in Iraq by Wikileaks website. The main point of this is that it best manifests the working of the kind of warfare of this age.

Security issues

The structure of society, the culture of openness, and the institutionalization of information dissemination make keeping information difficult. More so if such information is to be kept secret from enemies of the state. The adversaries of a country would try to gain access and possession of this secret information in any way they can. Before, they used to employ spies to gain this knowledge. Now there exists the internet. It can be a means to gain access to these restricted pieces of information.

On the political side, there is a growing movement demanding greater disclosure on the part of the military in terms of its operations and activities. Perhaps the public has the right to know but this right will be catered to at the expense of national security. This is the kind of usual yet undesirable trade-off that would exist. In fact, countries expend much effort and resources dealing with leaks and the consequence they have on a country’s security.

References:
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE69G19520101017

http://www.fas.org/sgp/eprint/kaspar.pdf

October 30, 2010 - Posted by alijha prestowe | News | Information Age Warfare, Military Leaks, Military Secrecy in the 21st Century, Security Issues