Computers have made possible the prospect of a push-button war, and while that prospect both thrills and frightens military leaders, it isn't very realistic, according to James Adams, author of The Next World War: Computers are the Weapons and the Front Line is Everywhere.
Adams, the CEO of United Press International and former defense correspondent for the London Sunday Times, says old-fashioned troops are going to be needed to fight battles for the foreseeable future, and money shifted to computer warfare may be needed just as badly elsewhere. At the same time, he says, the military may be underestimating the threat of information warfare (IW) aimed at the United States and overestimating its ability to conduct such warfare in other countries.
His book describes a number of research projects in a variety of areas such as protection of U.S. information infrastructure, and destruction of such infrastructure in enemy countries. He describes how soldiers, ships, and airplanes may be revolutionized by the use of computers. Adams also says that, for the first time since World War II, military technology now trails, rather than leads, civilian technology. Instead of military spending creating trickle-down benefits for consumers, consumer spending is creating trickle-down benefits for the military.
In a telephone interview from his UPI office in Washington, D.C., Adams told Paul Schindler about his definition of IW and about a military exercise that exposed America's unpreparedness for IW. Adams began by reading the conclusion of his book.
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CEO of United Press International
Washington, D.C., bureau chief, managing editor and defense correspondent, London Sunday Times. Special interest: terrorism and intelligence. Twelve books of fiction and nonfiction. Began on the Evening Chronicle in Newcastle, England.
Lives in Cabin John, Maryland
Introduced computers into the editorial operations of the London Sunday Times.
We are all part of an information revolution. You squander the revolution at your peril. Drive forward or die.