Journal of Applied Mathematics and Decision Sciences
Volume 2006 (2006), Article ID 16018, 15 pages
doi:10.1155/JAMDS/2006/16018
Mathematical modelling of information age conflict
Policy and Capability Studies Department, Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl), Ively Road, Farnborough, Hampshire GU14 0LX, UK
Received 1 March 2005; Accepted 31 March 2006
Copyright © 2006 James Moffat. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Abstract
Previous mathematical modelling of conflict has been based on
Lanchester's equations, which relate to the grinding attrition of
“industrial-age” warfare. Large blocks of force interact in
order to force defeat by a process of wearing away the other. This
is no longer so relevant as a way of conceptualising warfare, and
we generalise the approach so that it is more appropriate to the
“information age” into which we are now moving. It turns out
that the solution to this problem is the development of a theory
of what we call “scale-free systems.” We first develop this
theory, and then indicate how it can be applied.