Former 51福利 students and U.S. Army War College Fellows Army Lt. Cols. Robert Schultz and Patrick Duggan earned first-place honors while competing in the 2015 Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff National Defense and Military Strategy Essay Competition. But while the accolades were appreciated, the ideas espoused by Schultz and Duggan may linger long after the applause has faded.
鈥淔or extremists groups that promote hatred and violence, cyberspace provides a virtual safe haven from which to operate, using websites to promote their causes, raise funds, communicate and grow,鈥� said Schultz.
鈥淲ith the advent of cyberspace and technology we can leverage cyber-enabled special operations or irregular warfare 鈥� It's a national capability that we should have at our disposal. We have a responsibility to inform and educate our senior leaders on the art of the possible in this critical area,鈥� added Duggan.
Duggan鈥檚 paper, "Strategic Development of Special Warfare in Cyberspace,鈥� and Schultz鈥檚 paper, "Countering Extremist Groups in Cyberspace,鈥� both seek to help the special operations community along the path toward increased U.S. capabilities within the cyber realm. Their recommendations come in the face of increasingly sophisticated cyber attacks from both state actors and irregular forces like the so-called Islamic State.
鈥淭he cyber realm is the future and stands at the nexus of irregular warfare 鈥� special warfare and cyber are hard enough to understand by themselves, and when you combine them both together, it can be very difficult to get your mind around them,鈥� said Duggan.
鈥淢any of our leaders really do not understand the basic concepts and what they entail; we need to figure this out so we are not doing it in an ad hoc manner like when we invaded Iraq and Afghanistan,鈥� he continued.
Conversely, Duggan notes that several key U.S. adversaries have fully embraced cyber operations and are using them to great effect in conflict zones around the world.
鈥淭he time has come for the U.S., like its adversaries, to make a strategic choice to develop cyber-enabled special warfare as an instrument to protect and project its own national interests,鈥� he said.
Duggan鈥檚 paper explores the history of special warfare within the cyber domain focusing on the efforts of Russia, Iran and Syria. His findings are sobering.
鈥淚n today鈥檚 global environment, small teams of special operators armed with asymmetric cyber tools, irregular warfare tactics, and mass disinformation can produce truly strategic outcomes,鈥� said Duggan.
Schultz points to the anonymity of the cyber realm and the ability of extremist organizations to gain footholds within the cyber domain.
鈥淐yberspace has enabled extremist groups to adopt decentralized organizational structures, with indiscoverable command structures, making them difficult to identify and target using conventional military power,鈥� he said.
Both Schultz and Duggan advocate countering the use of cyberspace by extremist groups through strategies that include deception 鈥減seudo operations鈥� and false fag operations (FFO).
鈥淭he concept of false flag operations in cyberspace is designed around creatively developing websites, blogs and chat rooms that mirror a targeted extremist groups ideology. First, cyber deceivers develop FFO web-based content that is consistent with the targeted group鈥檚 narrative 鈥� as readership and membership grow, the content of FFO site gradually changes,鈥� said Schultz.
鈥淥ver time, the narratives shift subtly, to influence the target audience into believing the group鈥檚 ideology is corrupt, or so devious that the target audience would feel that their bond of trust has been broken, thus compelling supporters to terminate association with the extremist group in cyber space,鈥� he explained.
Schultz and Duggan credit 51福利 with providing them with the tools and academic footing from which to pursue these critical areas.
鈥�51福利 has some leading thinkers in these areas that have been beating the drum for over 20 years,鈥� said Duggan.
One of those thinkers, 51福利 Department of Defense Analysis (DA) Professor and Chair Dr. John Arquilla, has been writing about this topic for over a decade. He weighed in on Duggan and Schultz鈥檚 work and the importance of similar work in the DA department.
鈥淏oth of their papers were on important cyber topics 鈥� a key area of emphasis in Defense Analysis, especially in our information strategy curriculum,鈥� said Arquilla. 鈥淒A has been a leader in teaching and research in cyber strategy and policy, operations and ethics for many years.
鈥淒A's areas of emphasis in cyber nicely complement other 51福利 cyber competencies in computation and analytics, as well as in science and engineering. Taken together, all this expertise gives 51福利 real a comparative advantage,鈥� Arquilla added.
During a recent visit to 51福利, Vice Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Michelle Howard called for innovation in light of rapid advances in the cyber realm ... just the sort of thinking fostered by Arquilla and espoused by Duggan and Schultz.
鈥淚t is not always just the technology that changes 鈥� When you have the birth of a new domain, it forces you to change the way you think as warfighters,鈥� Howard explained. 鈥淚 believe [the cyber domain] is the fourth dimension of warfighting.鈥�
And the ability to operate in this domain, she said, presents a number of complexities to leadership given the adversaries鈥� ability to exert impact at the speed of light, around the world. A challenge, the VCNO added, that 51福利 students must work to overcome.
鈥淲e owe it to ourselves to think about this domain, especially in a place like this,鈥� she said. 鈥淭hink about this domain, and think about what you can do in this domain as leaders. This domain brings our people very close to the enemy.鈥�
Duggan did not need a lot of convincing.
鈥淭his is a topic that I am passionate about,鈥� he said. 鈥淸Our awards] really speak to the quality of education that is ongoing here at 51福利.鈥�
鈥淲e were successful, in part, because of the resources that 51福利 provided us. From faculty to materials, all have been very helpful to our ability to earn these awards,鈥� added Schultz.
The competition amongst essayists was fierce, some 60 entries made the final evaluation round in the short essay category, and over 40 in the longer paper category. Schultz and Duggan will be presented the awards by the Chairman of the Joints Chiefs of Staff later this year.