Research Catalog

Title

The Zapatista "social netwar" in Mexico / David Ronfeldt ... [et al.].

Publication

Santa Monica, CA : Rand, 1998.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

• Ronfeldt, David F.
• Rand Corporation
• Arroyo Center

Description

xiii, 168 p. : ill.; 23 cm.

Summary

The information revolution is leading to the rise of network forms of organization in which small, previously isolated groups can communicate, link up, and conduct coordinated joint actions as never before. This in turn is leading to a new mode of conflict--"netwar"--In which the protagonists depend on using network forms of organization, doctrine, strategy, and technology. Many actors across the spectrum of conflict--from terrorists, guerrillas, and criminals who pose security threats, to social activists who may not--are developing netwar designs and capabilities. The Zapatista movement in Mexico is a seminal case of this. In January 1994, a guerrilla-like insurgency in Chiapas by the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN), and the Mexican government's response to it, aroused a multitude of civil-society activists associated with human-rights, Indigenous-rights, and other types of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to "swarm"--electronically as well as physically--from the United States, Canada, and elsewhere into Mexico City and Chiapas. There, they linked with Mexican NGOs to voice solidarity with the EZLN's demands and to press for nonviolent change. Thus, what began as a violent insurgency in an isolated region mutated into a nonviolent though no less disruptive "social netwar" that engaged the attention of activists from far and wide and had nationwide and foreign repercussions for Mexico. This study examines the rise of this social netwar, the information-age behaviors that characterize it (e.g., extensive use of the Internet), its effects on the Mexican military, its implications for Mexico's stability, and its implications for the future occurrence of social netwars elsewhere around the world.

Alternative Title

Zapatista social netwar in Mexico

Subject

• Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional (Mexico) > Public opinion
• Since 1994
• National security > Mexico
• Internet > Social aspects > Mexico
• Information networks > Social aspects > Mexico
• Public opinion > Mexico
• Chiapas (Mexico) > History > Propaganda. > Peasant Uprising, 1994-
• Mexico > Military policy

Genre/Form

History

Note

• "Prepared for the U.S. Army, RAND Arroyo Center."

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. 155-168).

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

Ch. 1. Insurgency Becomes a Social Netwar -- Ch. 2. Advent of Netwar: Analytic Background -- Definition of Netwar -- Networks vs. Hierarchies: Challenges for Counternetwar -- Varieties of Netwar -- Mexico -- Scene of Multiple Netwars -- Ch. 3. Emergence of the Zapatista Netwar -- Three Layers to the Zapatista Movement -- Indigenas: Growing Desperation and Politicization -- EZLN: Mixture of Vertical and Horizontal Designs -- Activist NGOs: Global, Regional, and Local Networks -- On the Eve of War -- Ch. 4. Mobilization for Conflict -- EZLN in Combat -- A "War of the Flea" -- Transnational NGO Mobilization -- A "War of the Swarm" -- Ch. 5. Transformation of the Conflict -- Zapatista Emphasis on "Information Operations" -- Attenuation and Restructuring of Combat Operations -- Government Efforts at Counternetwar -- Ch. 6. Netwar Simmers -- and Diffuses -- Situational Standoff -- From the EZLN to the EPR -- Diffusion In Mexico -- Zapatista Netwar Goes Global -- Assessments of the EZLN/Zapatista Movement -- Actors to Watch: The Military and the NGOs -- Basic Implication for U.S. Military Policy: "Guarded Openness" -- Ch. 7. Beyond Mexico -- Toward a Demography of Social Netwar -- Evolution of Organization, Doctrine, and Strategy -- Favorable Conditions for Social Netwar -- Challenges to Authoritarian Systems -- Implications for the U.S. Army and Military Strategy -- Concluding Comment. App. A. Chronology of the Zapatista Social Netwar (1994-1996) -- App. B. Rethinking Mexico's Stability and Transformability.

ISBN

0833026569

LCCN

^^^98030809^

OCLC

• 39677863
• SCSB-12340524

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library