Information, Power, and Grand Strategy: In Athena's Camp - Section 2

摘要

According to tradition, power considerations drive strategic choices, and grand strategy consists of the knitting-together of a nation's political, economic and military resources and capabilities in pursuit of its overall aims. Indeed, the major dimensions of grand strategy have long been the political, economic, and military ones anything else has been deemed secondary, significant only as it affected the major dimensions. Information and related technologies and systems play a role in this tradition, but mainly a supporting one. Yet even though information is generally deemed a subsidiary factor, it sometimes has transformative effects. Examples abound throughout history. With regard to political power, one need only look at the effect the printing press had on society. Aside from being a catalyst for the Renaissance, the printed word succeeded in empowering individuals and states in ways previously unknown. An example is provided by the Protestant Reformation in which, despite efforts to restrict the dissemination of the Bible into the various vernaculars, the word did get out. This resulted in a movement which held, first, that the individual could enjoy a direct experience with God, as opposed to one filtered through a religious hierarchy. Second, the liberation of the individual from centralized control encouraged a number of emerging states to seek their own political independence from Rome. Thus, Lutheranism in Germany and Anglicanism in England were movements that fostered national political sovereignty as well as individual freedom of worship.