Chaos Program

I work for someone who often talks about “disruptive technology” and how hard it is to keep it alive. He believes that not only is the project we are building disruptive in the context of the technology world but also in the company itself. One definition of disruptive technology is found at the old standby, Wikipedia “A disruptive technology or disruptive innovation is a technological innovation that improves a product or service in ways that the market does not expect, typically by being lower priced or designed for a different set of consumers.”

The term came to my mind in a completely different context, though, when I was reading an article [at DefenseTech] about the U.S. Army and the developing – and struggling – doctrine of hybrid war. I was already familiar with the somewhat different concept of asymmetric warfare, in which a very weak opponent (such as Al Qaeda in Iraq) uses guerrilla or terrorist tactics to go after a much more powerful foe (such as the United States) [See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asynchronous_warfare for more on asymmetric warfare]. But the term hybrid war was new to me.

According to the article, hybrid war is fought against (surprise!) hybrid enemies who “come equipped with high-end, precision guided weapons, yet fight in distributed networks of small units and cells more akin to guerrillas.” This put me in mind of the Afghani Mujahideen of the 1980s, who used U.S. supplied stinger missiles against the invading Soviets. This kind of warfare is not fought with the traditional tank columns and carrier groups but can still do terrible damage. It is made possible both by modern weaponry and by the cleverness and determination of small group leaders. read more »