Dragon Bytes
"Dragon Bytes - Chinese Information-War Theory and Practice" by Timothy L. Thomas.
The hardest part of this book is finding a copy. It was published by the Government Printing Office for the Foreign Military Studies Office (FMSO) at Ft Leavenworth in 2004. Fortunately two people in my business network came up with personal copies to lend. Not sure what that says about my circle of associates.
I'm drawn to the main theme of this work - that a far different culture (such as the Chinese) would not only develop a far different perspective on IW (we expected that), but that this will require us to change our perspective as a counter measure. The book doesn't make suggestions on what changes the West should make.
The perspective of Chinese IW reflects their 36 Stratagems, Mao's thoughts on war, a focus on control, and "People's War". The emphasis is on protecting their own network while controlling the adversary. They don't focus as much on destruction or direct action, recognizing that influence by any means may be more effective.
It's not clear how to measure effectiveness at the tactical level. At the strategic level it would be the achievement of their goals. But to gauge the effect of a single operation or campaign by this perspective must be hard.
