Outsourcing Information Operations and Information Warfare (Essay Sample)

The Private Sector: Outsourcing Information Operations and Information Warfare
Instructor:
Course:
Date:
Name:
Introduction
Outsourcing information operations and information warfare to the private sector has of late become of increasing importance to the military, the intelligence community and to the business world at large. This move to the private sector has helped many players, like decision makers, non-governmental actors, military advisors and the business people to understand the aspects of information warfare and information operations from both the military and the civilian life. Information warfare, considering the level of technology today, has become the umbrella concept for understanding net war, hacker war, cyber war and other technological related conflicts (Armistead, 2007). They have become so often with the rise in the level of technology. Victims of these conflicts have lost so much money to the cyber criminals. Cyber crime has also cost the government and the entire world a lot of money in a bid to get rid of it.
There are different types of information warfare, which have adverse effects to the world at large. The concept of information warfare is not only physical, but also psychological. For example, if someone hacked into an Automated Teller Machine (ATM) and stole money from private people, the damage is very small technically but psychological behaviour influence may have long term effects on the people affected. The ATM machine may work properly after it has been repaired, but people will be reluctant in using the machine again, in fear of a similar incident. An information operation on the other hand, is the action of the information warfare. This can be divided into offensive IO, public affairs, civil affairs and defensive IO offensive IO may include computer network attack, or command and control warfare, while defensive IO includes counter propaganda, or computer network defence (Armistead, 2007).
Concept of outsourcing
Privatization of IO and IW is a viable and necessary edge to the future defense of the nation and to gain information superiority. The viability of outsourcing the IO and IW is possible as long as there is good management and if the improvements are well measured. This means there has to be close monitoring taking place. Both the public and the private sector have to come together in order to make sure that the concept of outsourcing work effectively. The government must therefore measure all the improvements in order to see the true value of outsourcing. Information is an element of power and it is the most transferable aspect in all sectors (Armistead, 2010). We are living in the information era and it comprises networks and international organizations. To conduct business between the government and the private sectors, truth and guarded openness are the only possible approaches. Features of this era include open and wide communication links and little or no censorship, where an individual is expected to control his or her own information flow. Therefore, outsourcing to the private sector, will help in the control of information warfare and information operations.
When the government outsource information operations and information warfare to the private sector, it will be able to reduce its costs or expenditure, improve efficiency support strategic initiatives and decrease cycle times. The reasons, the government may consider outsourcing is need for more focused expertise in the private sector, if it has low staff capacity, resource allocation challenges and the desire for fresh minds and objectives. This eventually leads to improved performance and the results are more preferable. Outsourcing is being encouraged especially within the civil service, which is aimed at improving the efficiency and quality of services. By encouraging outsourcing, the concept of “big market” and “small government” is attained. The government is also bale to make use of the free market in providing better services and allows the civil service sector to mainly focus on the policy and statutory service delivery functions that should be performed by the civil servants (Shearer, 1998). In order for outsourcing to be effective, there are some critical factors that should be considered. They include setting of clear objectives, effective communication with the service providers, defining precisely the outsourcing scope and the required service levels and planning and managing transitions from one service provider to the other.
Necessity of outsourcing
For the government to enhance public sector productivity, it must make the best use of both the public and private sectors to ensure that its activities do not absorb more of the domestic products than is necessary for economic success. The private sector is more flexible and thus it is able to inject new thinking and initiatives to enhance the quality and efficiency of information operations and information warfare. It is necessary to privatise information warfare so that a solution to this problem is reached. Information warfare is termed as the “soundless war” which normally causes less physical damage but is lethal to a country (Global Security. 2014). Information warfare has also been used in the military and thus poses a danger to the national security. It is lethal because it not only destroys the military’s assets, but also impacts political, economic, social and psychological foundations. It can also destroy information infrastructure and operations. Some of the main reasons that have made it necessary for outsourcing information operations and information warfare to the private sector include:
Financial, political and institutional constraints
From the time of the cold war, most of the western governments have been reluctant in committing their national troops to coalition warfare, low intensity conflict and peacekeeping missions. Therefore, when the government employs private contractors, it is able to help in overcoming the political reluctance and thus able to get involved in situations where there are high risks. Since most multinational organizations like the UN, do not have the capability of intervening in all the conflict zones in the world, private military organizations are a good alternative in overcoming such problems. These private organizations are also able to offer a more cost effective way of providing an equal number of military personnel since their organizational structure and their limited overhead costs allow them unlike in the state’s armed forces. It also becomes cost effective when calling upon the private companies when needed rather than maintaining a permanently fixed military force (Brassey, 2004).
The decision making process in the public sector requires consensus and most of the times it is lengthy and thus, in case of a crisis, it is not able to respond quickly and deploy its troops. However, the decision making process in the private sector is very fast and requires short procedure and thus response time will be short.
The Changing Geostrategic Environment
The key changes in the geostrategic environment determine the kind of world we will have in future, in terms of national security. The future security structures are expected to change, which will make the multipolar security system complex. The current main sources of conflict in many nations include ethnic rivalry, religious differences, nationalism and the competition of resources. There is also growing threats such as cyber warfare, transitional crimes and drug trafficking, which is creating security problems that are different from those that were experienced in the earlier days (Johnathan, 2005). However, the major security threat in many countries is terrorism. There is an increasing connectedness among economies and states, which is making it harder to control this phenomenon all over the world. Due to these factors, the government alone cannot fight them on its own. Thus other players, like the private sector, have to come into play in order to help eliminate or neutralize the security threats. The changing security environments have consequences to the security of nations across the world. One of the consequences is that the armed forces will be forced to execute more missions across the world. Therefore, controlling these conflicts will be critical since there will be increased humanitarian, economic and environmental costs, which will reach beyond the area of conflict. The other change that will be experienced is the shifting of power to smaller non-state actors who will be able to organize control networks more efficiently than the state. Thus, to overcome these changes, the government will have to rely on the private sector and other organizations, which are cost effective and will be capable of executing agile, quick and flexible field operations.
The Paradox of Transformation
There is a huge transformation in the security sector where the ways of offering security is changing. The military forces are becoming smaller, they are depending less on the individuals who are physically fit, and have become more technology reliant. In this case, the private military will become more effective and competitive than the public military. For example, when there is security threat from a computer terminal using computer viruses, the state security will begin by contracting out national security instead of undertaking the expense of forming and sustaining armed forces. The growth of internet and massive expansion of information is making the private intelligence to proliferate.
There will be certain implications after the privatization of war. It will limit the probability of an escalation by allowing a closer linkage and proportionality between means and objectives. Private military organizations are more adaptable and agile...