ABSTRACT
Network Centric Warfare (NCW) seems to offer the possibility of true integration between multinational military formations, in a manner rarely experienced in conflict. NCW burst onto the military scene in 1998 in a seminal article by the late Vice-Admiral Arthur Cebrowski and John Garstka, two individuals who would go on to have important roles in shaping how the US military thinks about the future at the Pentagon's erstwhile Office of Force Transformation.' At the time, NCW was simply the latest in a long line of ideas influencing military thinking, stretching back to antiquity. Since its appearance, however, it has become a master concept underlying the direction of America's military 'transformation'. NCW, or variations on its themes, has also been adopted by many other armed forces around the world. However, it is still a concept under much operational and doctrinal development; even at this point in the 'war on terror', much of the work on NCW remains speculative.
