Power to the People: How Open Technological Innovation is Arming Tomorrow's Terrorists PDF
Preview Power to the People: How Open Technological Innovation is Arming Tomorrow's Terrorists
Power to the People Power to the People Audrey Kurth How Open Technological Cronin Innovation Is Arming Tomorrow’s Terrorists 1 1 Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and certain other countries. Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press 198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016, United States of America. © Audrey Kurth Cronin 2020 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, by license, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reproduction rights organization. Inquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above. You must not circulate this work in any other form and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer. CIP data is on file at the Library of Congress ISBN 978– 0– 19– 088214– 3 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Printed by Sheridan Books, Inc., United States of America For Professor Sir Adam Roberts, who gave power to the pupil. CONTENTS Introduction: The Age of Lethal Empowerment 1 Part I Theory 1 Classic Models of Military Innovation: Shaped by the Nuclear Revolution 19 2 The Arsenal for Anarchy: When and How Violent Individuals and Groups Innovate 37 Part II History 3 Dynamite and the Birth of Modern Terrorism 61 4 How Dynamite Diffused 94 5 The Kalashnikov and the Global Wave of Insurgencies 126 6 How the Kalashnikov Diffused 143 Part III Convergence: Widespread Lethal Empowerment 7 Open Innovation of Mobilization: Social Media and Conquering Digital Terrain 171 8 Open Innovation of Reach: From AK- 47s to Drones, Robots, Smartphones, and 3D Printing 200 9 An Army of One Launches Many: Autonomy and Artificial Intelligence 231 Conclusion: Strategy for Democracies in an Age of Lethal Empowerment 256 Appendix A: Detailed Contents 269 Appendix B: Methodology 273 Notes 283 Books Cited 383 Index 401 Acknowledgments 431 viii Contents INTRODUCTION The Age of Lethal Empowerment W e live in an epoch of unprecedented popular empowerment. Increasing access to information, rising global living standards, growing literacy, and improving medical care and longevity are just a handful of the benefits derived from the modern march of technological innovation. Yet the same technologies that are furthering prosperity are creating critical new security vulnerabilities. The worldwide dispersal of emerging technologies, such as commercial drones, cyber weapons, 3D printing, military robotics, and autonomous sys- tems, is generating gaping fissures in the ability of conventional armed forces to combat lethal capabilities of non-s tate actors, most notably terrorists, but also rogue lone actors, insurgent groups, and private armies. As these malcontents gain power through emerging technologies, the defenses of the law- abiding are increasingly breached. Traditional rights, such as privacy, property ownership, and freedom of movement, are under unprecedented at- tack by autocratic regimes, not to mention private companies, which mon- etize our online behavior. Not only are democratic governments unable to protect innocent citizens from such invasions, they engage in them them- selves, reading individuals’ emails, monitoring their phone calls, tracking their every move online, and consolidating their behavioral data. Every day we learn of fresh examples of the new breed of technologies being used for malevolent ends or posing potential new dangers. But while we’ve become aware that intelligence services may be listening to your phone calls and tracking your emails, and that Apple, Facebook, Google, and other
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