Likely a lot of think tanks have already published findings regarding the new face of war, given social media, and global telecommunications. The curtain went up on "networking" back in the early 1980s, in terms of what people are up to. Didn't you know? We network now.
When they say "a military trains to fight the last war" that's not a criticism so much as a statement of what there is to go on and extrapolate from. When a new war starts, one finds out then if the training was apropos. Usually a lot of it is, and feedback from the theater helps the training get better.
My impression is that more people than ever are casually following world affairs at a level even State Department officials would have had trouble engaging with, at the speed of yesterday's media.
Even while riding a city bus, one can lurk in on the latest secret discussions between German military planners thinking of ways to take out that bridge in Crimea. The stamps commemorating that event are already printed, with the celebratory cakes going stale in the fridge.
I was listening to a Canadian mercenary last night, talking about his motivations for joining a unit fighting Russia, only a few weeks out of uniform, and after fifteen years of service. He wanted to continue with the lifestyle and he had a simple ideology: to fight an evil dictatorship. He went to the front voluntarily. That's the kind of theater he felt drawn to, now that he'd tasted combat. Some guys relish the flavor. They like the bonding, the sense of a team.
