John Arquilla (born 1954) is an American analyst and academic of

international relations International relations (IR), sometimes referred to as international studies and international affairs, is the scientific study of interactions between sovereign states. In a broader sense, it concerns all activities between states—such a ...

Biography

Arquilla received a

B.A. Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...

from

Rosary College Dominican University (DU) is a private Roman Catholic university in River Forest, Illinois, affiliated with the Sinsinawa Dominican Sisters. It offers bachelor's and master's degrees, certificate programs, and a PhD in information studies. Do ...

in 1975. Until 1987, he worked as a surety-bond executive. He then enrolled at Stanford University, where he studied

Political Science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and la ...

, receiving the

M.A. A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...

degree in 1989 and a

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

in 1991.CV
Naval Postgraduate school, Monterey From 1989 Arquilla also worked as analyst for

RAND The RAND Corporation (from the phrase "research and development") is an American nonprofit global policy think tank created in 1948 by Douglas Aircraft Company to offer research and analysis to the United States Armed Forces. It is finan ...

. In 1993 he joined the faculty of the US Naval Postgraduate School, where he has since taught courses in national security affairs and defense analysis, while keeping his post at Rand till 2003. Arquilla worked as a consultant to General

Norman Schwarzkopf Herbert Norman Schwarzkopf Jr. (; August 22, 1934 – December 27, 2012) was a United States Army general. While serving as the commander of United States Central Command, he led all coalition forces in the Gulf War. Born in Trenton, N ...

during

Operation Desert Storm Operation or Operations may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * ''Operation'' (game), a battery-operated board game that challenges dexterity * Operation (music), a term used in musical set theory * ''Operations'' (magazine), Multi-Ma ...

(1991), as part of a group of RAND analysts assigned to him. During the

Kosovo War The Kosovo War was an armed conflict in Kosovo that started 28 February 1998 and lasted until 11 June 1999. It was fought by the forces of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (i.e. Serbia and Montenegro), which controlled Kosovo before the wa ...

(1998-1999) he assisted

United States Deputy Secretary of Defense The deputy secretary of defense (acronym: DepSecDef) is a statutory office () and the second-highest-ranking official in the Department of Defense of the United States of America. The deputy secretary is the principal civilian deputy to the sec ...

John Hamre John Julian Hamre (born July 3, 1950) is a specialist in international studies, a former Washington government official and President and CEO of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a position he has held with that think tank since ...

on international information strategy.CV
Foreign Policy During the

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...

administration, Arquilla was one of many advisors to former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld (in office 2001-2006), who like Arquilla is an admirer of Andrew Marshall's RMA ( Revolution in Military Affairs). Arquilla has contributed op-eds to journals and publications such as ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'', ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also r ...

'', '' Foreign Policy'' magazine, ''

The Atlantic Monthly ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...

'', ''Wired'' and ''

The New Republic ''The New Republic'' is an American magazine of commentary on politics, contemporary culture, and the arts. Founded in 1914 by several leaders of the progressive movement, it attempted to find a balance between "a liberalism centered in hu ...

''. Academically, he has developed the concept of

netwar The following is a list of terms specific to anarchists. Anarchism is a political and social movement which advocates voluntary association in opposition to authoritarianism and hierarchy. __NOTOC__ A :The negation of rule or "government by ...

, or "swarm-tactics", referring to the particular fighting-style of network-organised groups. Networked cells can share precise information on a need-to-know basis without a hierarchical structure. This gives them the ability to disperse and "

swarm Swarm behaviour, or swarming, is a collective behaviour exhibited by entities, particularly animals, of similar size which aggregate together, perhaps milling about the same spot or perhaps moving ''en masse'' or migrating in some direction. ...

" in an extremely effective manner, as witnessed in the

9/11 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commerci ...

. Arquilla has promoted the idea of adapting militaries from a hierarchical structure to a network structure, suggesting that a network military will be the most able to defeat terrorist networks. He also points to the

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

concept of organized legions defeating the previous military paradigm of the

phalanx The phalanx ( grc, φάλαγξ; plural phalanxes or phalanges, , ) was a rectangular mass military formation, usually composed entirely of heavy infantry armed with spears, pikes, sarissas, or similar pole weapons. The term is particularly ...

. Likewise,

terrorist Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...

networks have evolved while older Cold War militaries hold on to antiquated

paradigms In science and philosophy, a paradigm () is a distinct set of concepts or thought patterns, including theories, research methods, postulates, and standards for what constitute legitimate contributions to a field. Etymology ''Paradigm'' comes f ...

. Arquilla's arguments for the US to use cyber war as an instrument of conflict prevention in areas such as South Asia, as described in a 2009 ''Wired'' article, have earned him criticism from Pakistani writers and web journals, such as TechLahore. Arquilla supports

preemptive war A preemptive war is a war that is commenced in an attempt to repel or defeat a perceived imminent offensive or invasion, or to gain a strategic advantage in an impending (allegedly unavoidable) war ''shortly before'' that attack materializes. I ...

and NSA wiretapping as antiterrorist methods: "the fact that preemption can only function on the basis of accurate insight should make the case for governments around the world to continue to amass and employ big data to search out the small cells that bedevil our era".Last War Standing
''Foreign Policy'', 12 August 2013

Works

*Bitskrieg: The New Challenge of Cyberwarfare (Polity, 2021). *Why the Axis Lost: An Analysis of Strategic Errors (McFarland, 2020). *Afghan Endgames: Strategy and Policy Choices for America’s Longest War (Georgetown, 2012). *Insurgents, Raiders, and Bandits: How Masters of Irregular Warfare Have Shaped Our World (Rowman, 2011). *Three Circles of War: Understanding the Dynamics of Conflict in Iraq (Potomac Books, 2010). *Worst Enemy: The Reluctant Transformation of the American Military (Ivan R. Dee, 2008). *Information Strategy and Warfare (Routledge, 2007). *The Reagan Imprint: Ideas in American Foreign Policy from the Collapse of Communism to the War on Terror(2006). *Networks and Netwars: The Future of Terror, Crime, and Militancy (National Defense Research Institute, 2001). *In Athena's Camp: Preparing for Conflict in the Information Age (RAND, 1997). *From Troy to Entebbe: Special Operations in Ancient & Modern Times (University Press of America, 1996). *Dubious Battles: Aggression, Defeat and the International System (Crane Russak, 1992).

External links

Resume ArticleConversations with History - International Relations in the Information Age - Video Interview
*

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Arquilla, John Naval Postgraduate School faculty 1954 births Living people

Biography

Works

See also

External links

References