Newswise — Since the start of the Iraq War, improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, have accounted for nearly half of the combat deaths reported by U.S. coalition forces. The death toll underscores a grim paradox of the ongoing conflict: during the last four and a half years the United States and its allies have fielded the most advanced and complex weaponry ever developed, but they are still not winning the war.
Although there has been much debate and finger-pointing over the various failures and setbacks suffered during the prolonged conflict, some military analysts and counterterrorism experts say that, at its heart, this war is radically different from previous ones and must be thought of in an entirely new light. As events are making painfully clear, warfare is being transformed from a closed, state-sponsored affair to one where the means and the know-how to do battle are readily found on the Internet and at your local RadioShack. Open global access to increasingly powerful technological tools is in effect allowing small groups to declare war on nations.
Some observers have dubbed the new style of conflict open-source warfare, because the ways insurgent groups are organizing themselves, sharing information, and adapting their strategies resemble the open-source movement in software development.
In the November 2007 issue of IEEE Spectrum, contributing editor Robert N. Charette explores how the nature of warfare is evolving and why countries with more traditional militaries, like the United States, find it so difficult to keep up with the changes.
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