Of course, there are other considerations that affect military funding for science and technology. These include financial constraints, availability of skilled and willing scientists and technologists, political support or opposition, possible civilian spinoffs and arms control treaties, among others. But the general approach, namely of listing key areas and seeing which technical fields are most useful to them, still has merit.
This approach can now be applied to social defence. The first thing to do is to list key areas important to a social defence system. This is not so easy! There is no generally accepted list, and certainly no list designed for this purpose. So, on the basis of my knowledge of social defence and in consultation with Mary Cawte, who had just read through many of the writings on social defence, I wrote down a number of areas. I then sent the list to a few social defence experts, who suggested additions.[8] Here is the list that resulted from this process.
Key Factors in a Social Defence System
Active factors
Psychological and organisational factors
• morale, unity, will
• knowledge, education, understanding, analysis, strategy, tactics, evaluation
• coordination, decision-making, organisation, leadership
Physical infrastructure
• communication
• survivaclass="underline" food, water, clothing, shelter, energy, transportation, health
• industry, production, economics
Other factors
• skills
• self-reliance
• allies
• constructive programme (building a nonviolent society)
Reactive factors (including direct disarmament[9])
• anti-nuclear weapons (countering the threat and effects of nuclear weapons)
• anti-biological weapons
• anti-chemical weapons
• anti-conventional weapons.
It is impossible to give weights to these factors in terms of their importance, since there is no theoretical framework available for this purpose. Nevertheless, a general ranking is possible by looking at studies of nonviolent struggles. Undoubtedly the greatest attention is given to psychological and organisational factors, as suggested by the 24 Dutch social defence research proposals.
The priority given to psychological and organisational factors also can be illustrated by examining the views of writers on social defence who have examined the centre of gravity, a key concept proposed by the classic military strategist Carl von Clausewitz.[10]
Anders Boserup and Andrew Mack, in their pioneering book War Without Weapons, apply Clausewitzian strategic theory to social defence. The centre of gravity is the opponent’s central source of strength, which should be the main target for destruction. The centre of gravity of the defence is determined by the mode of defence, which is the basis for Clausewitz’s idea of the superiority of the defence over the offence. Boserup and Mack conclude that for a social defence system, the centre of gravity is the unity of the resistance: “It is against this point that the whole thrust of the attack must be directed and to its preservation that all efforts of the defence must tend.”[11] If the defence is able to absorb the attack, then its next task is to mount a counterattack against the centre of gravity of the opponent. Boserup and Mack say that in the case of military attack against a social defence system, the centre of gravity of the offence depends on the mode of attack and that, generally speaking, it will be those things that allow the offence (for example, repression of the nonviolent defenders) to continue.
Other social defence theorists have built on Boserup and Mack’s analysis but differed about the precise nature of the centre of gravity. Gene Keyes, who studied the Danish resistance to the Nazis, concludes that the centre of gravity for a social defence system is the morale of the resistance.[12] Robert Burrowes, in a far-reaching Gandhian approach to social defence strategy, argues that the strategic aim of the defence is to “consolidate the power and will of the defending population to resist the aggression” and the strategic aim of the counteroffensive is to “alter the will of the opponent elite to conduct the aggression, and to undermine their power to do so.”[13] In Burrowes’ model, the centre of gravity is the sum total of social resources that support the strategy; more specifically, it is the power of a party to a conflict to conduct the struggle and its will to do so. Both Keyes and Burrowes say that the centre of gravity for the offence is the same as for the defence, namely morale for Keyes and power/will for Burrowes.
Although Boserup and Mack, Keyes and Burrowes differ concerning the location of the centre of gravity of a social defence system, they agree that it lies primarily in the social and psychological facets of the resistance, namely either unity, morale or will. It certainly is not technology (weapons). However, technology can be used to bolster unity, morale and will.
As for factors classified as physical infrastructure in the list of key factors in a social defence system, communication technology is probably the most important because of its close link to psychological and organisational factors. Only seldom is survival of the population threatened in a nonviolent resistance,[14] and industry only occasionally plays an important role. The capacity to understand, resist, and dismantle weapons of the aggressor is a topic seldom discussed in the nonviolence literature.
This list of key factors provides a preliminary way to assess the importance of scientific fields to nonviolent struggle. For example, consider biology: it can offer some help in the task of survival, for example via understanding of ecology, such as knowledge of species not requiring pesticides or fertilisers (which might be unavailable in event of a blockade) or fruit-bearing species. Biologists could also provide some insight into the capability of biological weapons and how to counter them.
Proceeding in this fashion for all the key factors leads to the following list.
Relevance of Science and Engineering to Key Elements in a Social Defence System
biology: survival; anti-biological weapons
chemistry: anti-chemical weapons
earth sciences: survival
medicine: survival
agricultural science: survival
physics/mathematics: communication
computing/electrical engineering: communication
engineering: survival; industry, etc.; communication; anti-conventional weapons
psychology: morale, etc.
languages: communication
economics: industry, etc.
sociology, politics, philosophy, history, education: knowledge, etc.; coordination, etc.
Although this list is not definitive, it gives a good indication of the relevance of various fields to nonviolent struggle. It is apparent that a number of fields of science and engineering can contribute to survival (earth sciences, medicine, agricultural science, most branches of engineering) and a number of them can contribute to communication (computer science, electrical engineering, mathematics). But aside from a few other areas (chemistry can contribute to anti-chemical warfare; engineering has a crucial role in designing industry for a social defence system), the bulk of science and engineering has little to offer to nonviolent struggle.
9.
Direct disarmament is the disabling and dismantling of weapons by people without the permission of governments and commanders.
10.
Carl von Clausewitz,
11.
Anders Boserup and Andrew Mack,
12.
Gene Keyes, “Strategic non-violent defense: the construct of an option,”
13.
Robert J. Burrowes,
14.
One case is the Palestinian intifada, though the resistance is better described as unarmed than nonviolent.