August 2008 Archives
From Russia Policy; Trying to Make a Virue Out of Having Ceded the Initiative at Zenpundit in a comment by Seerov.
"This war is the result of the old Soviet policy of demographic engineering. The Soviets (Especially Stalin) would "dilute" its bordering States with ethnic Russians. This gave the Soviet leadership some "good guys" in every surrounding country. Sometimes this demographic engineering would entail removing an ethnic group and "replanting" it somewhere in Siberia or the Caucuses. China has similar policies towards Tibet and other breakaway regions. They’ve relocated millions of Han-Chinese into Tibet in order to have "goodguys" there. There’s some who accuse the US government of doing the same thing. A working/middle class ethnic coalition of European Americans in the US is a threat to the US elite. In order to "dilute this threat," the elites had to push by forced diversity initiatives, and remove the freedom of association from people. The US government also uses psychological and economic warfare to make sure that the White middle/working classes accept forced diversity.
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This policy may have worked while the Soviet apparatus was in place, but once it fell, these groups then started pursuing their own ethnic interests, instead of "Soviet Interests." Of course, as the old Nation State Order gives-way to Hyper-Globalization, I’m pretty sure that more and more ethnic groups will be asking "is it good for the _Fill_IN_THE_Blank_, when making a policy decisions.
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Today’s Russia uses ethnic Russians in a way that constitutes some sort of Warfare(5GW?)? I think we can call it demographic warfare? The Soviets conducted "demographic engineering," as these actions were for the "health" of the State. The US and China conduct "demographic engineering." Modern Russia conduct’s "demographic warfare" to help control territory past its borders. Russia can use the excuse that its "preventing genocide" in almost all of its bordering nations."
I think the idea of Demographic Warfare is interesting but I don't think it really qualifies as 5GW, rather more along the lines of ethic gerrymandering.
The 5GW approach, to my mind, would be more along the line of triggering a specific identity in a targeted individual, group or organization. We all carry around many, many identities, they come from our familes and our professions, where we went to school, the country we are a citizen of, as well as what country our ancestors came from. To be able to cause a target to think of something through the lens of a specific identity is, as far as I am concerned, is the most subtle and effective manipulation of context possible, and therefore 5GW.
(Major hat tip to Stephen Pampinella)
Halting State is set in the near furure and centers initially around a bank robbery. That in itself isn't especially SciFi or even 5GWish except that this particular bank robbery was carried out against a bank in an MMORPG virtual world by a band of Orcs backed up by a Dragon. As the investigation starts to gain a clear picture of what actually happened this has very serious national security implications.
Much like Daemon, the 5GWish aspect of Halting State involves how communications technology, MMORPGs, Augmented Reality (AR) and other concepts that people now use for, or look to be the next wave in, entertainment and work, can be easily and invisibly turned into platforms for warfare. Especially warfare by proxy.
Not to spoil any plot aspects of the story but those interested in 5GW should pay very close attention to SPOOKS, an espionage game played by two of the main characters and STEAMING, a game that is under development at the beginning of the book.
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