Online, the Armies Have No Borders

Internet armies don't necessarily have fatigues, guns, or the same citizenship. What they do have, however, is internet technology and a common ideology. As author Richard Hunter contends in an interview with the New York Times, groups ranging from anti-globalization activists to Al Qaeda terrorists are increasingly held together by the internet. Though the fluid spread of ideas across continents is one of the most lauded attributes of new technologies, Hunter warns about their manipulation by terrorist groups like Al Qaeda. "If you're talking about a threat that's distributed among your own people, you can't use the centralized power of a traditional army to fight it," he says. "We need to create networks of individuals, private companies, law enforcement and the military who can cooperate in generating information about finding and fighting Al Qaeda network cells." – YaleGlobal