Information warfare and sub-state actors

Although the Gulf War was subsequently labelled the first information war, at the time few had heard of the term information warfare (IW). With remarkable speed thereafter, however, the term became a central concept in American strategic thought. By the mid-1990s, the American armed forces were investing billions of dollars in acquiring IW capabilities and in developing doctrine. Meanwhile, thanks to the efforts of notorious hackers and popularization of the topic by IW ‘gurus,’ the entertainment industry and the media, the concept has entered the public consciousness. ¹ In the USA, since 1996 the issue has been addressed at the highest levels and in the spring of 1998 President Clinton himself devoted a major speech to the problem (Clinton 1998). In Europe and other parts of the post-industrial world, governments are also beginning to pay serious attention to the topic.