Stray Voltage: War in the Information Age

Rating:
Summary: Knowledge Warfare in the Information Age
Review: "Stray Voltage" is, without doubt, one of the most intellectually hard-hitting and insightful books that you will ever read. This is a brilliant book that should be read and discussed by policy makers, warfighters and the intellectually hungry alike. BG (R) Wayne M. Hall, a seasoned scholar and warrior, skillfully presents the vital importance of Knowledge Warfare in the 21st Century. Readers will never view warfare in the same manner again.

In the opening pages BG(R) Hall starkly portrays our future operational environment and the growing asymmetrical threat to the National Security interests of the United States. He describes how a learning and adaptive adversary will continue to use asymmetrical means to circumvent the overwhelming and technologically superior forces of more militarily developed nations. Additionally, BG(R) Hall explains the concept of knowledge warfare and how it will form the underlying foundation of future conflict. At the heart of knowledge warfare lies the philosophy that advantages accrue to the side with the knowledge and decision-making capabilities to make decisions better and faster than their opponents. Hence, this need generates an intense competition for the valuable information and knowledge required by both sides to make rapid and insightful decisions.

Proceeding chapters further depict how the Nations adversaries will use knowledge warfare in an asymmetrical environment coupled with information operations. The book deftly explores information superiority, deception, knowledge management and cyber-warriors and their respective roles in knowledge warfare and information operations. Finally, in the chapter aptly titled "The Way Ahead," BG (R) Hall offers a wealth of ideas on how to deal aggressively with the threats we will face in the information age.

"Stray Voltage" is a balanced and readable examination of future warfare that, although written for a military audience and civilians interested in National Security, is suitable for a broad audience. A book like of caliber and impact only comes along once every millennium. BG(R) Hall joins the ranks of Clausewitz, Sun Tzu, and John Boyd as one of histories greatest theorist. Wayne M. Hall's innovative recommendations will serve as the catalyst for change within the military and government and provide a blueprint for organizational, leadership and warfighting transformation. For those searching for that book to soothe their intellectual hunger, "Stray Voltage" will fulfill their hunger. The books recommendations serve as a proscriptive reading to help readers of all levels to think about and deal with the learning and adaptive adversaries and complex environment they will continue to face in the 21st century. Wayne M. Hall is clearly a theorist whose time has come.

Rating:
Summary: Stray Voltage: War in the Information Age
Review: "Stray Voltage" is, without doubt, one of the most intellectually hard-hitting and insightful books that you will ever read. This is a brilliant book that should be read and discussed by policy makers, warfighters and the intellectually hungry alike. BG (R) Wayne M. Hall, a seasoned scholar and warrior, skillfully presents the vital importance of Knowledge Warfare in the 21st Century. Readers will never view warfare in the same manner again.

In the opening pages BG(R) Hall starkly portrays our future operational environment and the growing asymmetrical threat to the National Security interests of the United States. He describes how a learning and adaptive adversary will continue to use asymmetrical means to circumvent the overwhelming and technologically superior forces of more militarily developed nations. Additionally, BG(R) Hall explains the concept of knowledge warfare and how it will form the underlying foundation of future conflict. At the heart of knowledge warfare lies the philosophy that advantages accrue to the side with the knowledge and decision-making capabilities to make decisions better and faster than their opponents. Hence, this need generates an intense competition for the valuable information and knowledge required by both sides to make rapid and insightful decisions.

Proceeding chapters further depict how the Nations adversaries will use knowledge warfare in an asymmetrical environment coupled with information operations. The book deftly explores information superiority, deception, knowledge management and cyber-warriors and their respective roles in knowledge warfare and information operations. Finally, in the chapter aptly titled "The Way Ahead," BG(R) Hall offers a wealth of ideas on how to deal aggressively with the threats we will face in the information age.

"Stray Voltage" is a balanced and readable examination of future warfare that, although written for a military audience and civilians interested in National Security, is suitable for a broad audience. A book like of caliber and impact only comes along once every millennium. BG(R) Hall joins the ranks of Clausewitz, Sun Tzu, and John Boyd as one of histories greatest theorist. Wayne M. Hall's innovative recommendations will serve as the catalyst for change within the military and government and provide a blueprint for organizational, leadership and warfighting transformation. For those searching for that book to soothe their intellectual hunger, "Stray Voltage" will fulfill their hunger. The books recommendations serve as a proscriptive reading to help readers of all levels to think about and deal with the learning and adaptive adversaries and complex environment they will continue to face in the 21st century. Wayne M. Hall is clearly a theorist whose time has come.

Rating:
Summary: Merging brainpower with technology
Review: Enemies of the U.S. who lack military might and money will use the strategies and tools of asymmetric warfare to win future conflicts: that's the contention of Wayne Michael Hall, a retired general with thirty years of intelligence experience. From potential conflicts prepared for with cyberspace to information superiority and deception, Stray Voltage advises a public and a governmental focus on merging brainpower with technology to meet and master this new threat.

Rating:
Summary: Exceptional Contribution
Review: Stray Voltage provides rare insights into Information Age warfare and its practical prosecution in the physical, cyber, and cerebral domains . . . at a granularity I don't believe any author has achieved to date.

Hall presents Information Age warfare as a form of intellectual combat where the brightest, most cerebrally agile competitor moves to shape the environment, thinking, and practical outcome of his opponent--much like other futurists and military thinkers. But he goes much further. Hall's future battlefield is more than a geographically constrained force, state, or region; it's the here-and-now, day-to-day technical infrastructure delivering knowledge and knowledge advantage. Our opponents are not the seemingly predictable military forces of recent conflicts, but are thinking, adaptive threats maneuvering within the infrastructure, promising to become whatever our security posture is not. His view of the future soldier also defies convention. The future soldier is not simply the high tech-hybrid we see on posters, but a profoundly educated, well-trained cyber-warrior armed with knowledge engines, mining tools, protected infrastructures, and an unequalled capacity to sense, adapt, and act. . . as an individual, and in aggregate.

Exceptional. I gained something new in every chapter.

Stray Voltage deserves a careful read by any seeking to understand and apply Information Age principles in operations, security, and training. Advanced Warfighting and Homeland Defense practitioners probably should read it again within the first year, and annually thereafter. Too bad we can't encrypt the contents. I'm confident our opponents will read it as well.

Rating:
Summary: Don't bother with this!
Review: You call tell Hall was a military intelligence general; this book reads like a PowerPoint briefing! He displays only a rudimentary understanding of computers and cyberspace, although the discussion clearly fleshed out by outside reading. However, we're unable to follow his research because Hall fails to include a bibliography, although he does provide a short list of references in the endnotes. Hall's expertise does show when he is discussing military and intelligence subjects, but he falters when trying to link these topics to computers. A better text would be James Adams' "The Next World War: Computers Are the Weapons and the Front Line Is Everywhere."

Rating:
Summary: Don't bother with this!
Review: You call tell Hall was a military intelligence general; this book reads like a PowerPoint briefing! He displays only a rudimentary understanding of computers and cyberspace, although the discussion clearly fleshed out by outside reading. However, we're unable to follow his research because Hall fails to include a bibliography, although he does provide a short list of references in the endnotes. Hall's expertise does show when he is discussing military and intelligence subjects, but he falters when trying to link these topics to computers. A better text would be James Adams' "The Next World War: Computers Are the Weapons and the Front Line Is Everywhere."