Network Centric Warfare & Globalization

Hugh Hewitt spotted a lengthy essay "Netwar" at The Belmont Club, which in turn is reaction to a piece by Josh Manchester (aka "Chester"), Globalization and War. That is part of an on-line round-table on the subject at Zenpundit. (Also check the rest of the Zenpundit November archive for rebuttal pieces.)

An excerpt from the Belmont Club essay:

The fundamental issue [Manchester] discusses is whether nation-states are in some sense being replaced by distributed networks of people. Many activities, from community building to earning a living have jumped over traditional boundaries. Criminal and terrorist organizations have been among the first to exploit this fact. Viewed from one angle, modern Islamic terrorist cells are not so much a return to the forms of the 8th century as new structures made possible by 21st century technologies.

Of course, being the blogosphere, each post links to lots of other articles, and many have extensive comment threads too. I'm bookmarking these to read at my leisure.