Professor Randy H.
Katz
Computer Science Division
Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department
University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, California 94720-1776
Necessity drives invention. In this seminar, we will examine the interweaved historical development of information technology, broadly defined as computing, communications, and signal processing, in the 20th Century within the context of modern warfare and national defense. Topics include: cryptography/cryptanalysis and the development of the computer; command and control systems and the development of the Internet; the war of attrition and the development of the mathematics of operations research; military communications and the development of the cellular telephone system; precision munitions and the development of the Global Positioning System. While we will endeavor to explain these developments in technical terms at a tutorial level, our main focus is to engage the students in the historical sweep of technical development and innovation as driven by national needs, and whether this represents a continuing framework for the 21st Century. No scientific or technical background is assumed for this course.
"Only the dead have seen the end of war." Plato
"It is well that war is so terrible--we should grow too fond of it." Robert E. Lee
"You may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you." Trotsky
"War: first, one hopes to win; then one expects the enemy to lose; then, one is satisfied that he too is suffering; in the end, one is surprised that everyone has lost." Karl Kraus
"He who does not remember history is condemned to repeat it." Santayana
"I must study politics and war, that our sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. Our sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history and naval architecture, navigation, commerce and agriculture in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry and porcelain." John Adams
Room 310 Soda Hall, Tuesday, 3:30-5:30 PM
2 Units, Pass/Fail based on attendance, seminar participation, one
group paper and presentation (analyzing a world insurgency) plus one
individual research paper (on a topic of the student's choice to be
negotiated with the instructor).
Discussions will be augmented with video selections to
provide context for the technologies and events being discussed.
In addition, we make extensive use of group "games" to imerse the
participants into the issues being discussed.
Students really enjoy these, but your active participation is
essential; you get out of this course what you put in.
CS 39K | Information Technology Goes to War! | |||||||
Week | Date | Themes | Minilecture Topics | Group Activity | Screenings | Wikipedia Readings | ||
1 | 22-Jan-13 | Seminar Introduction | Four Wars of the Late 19th/Early 20th Century: | Students' Background and Experience | Saving Private Ryan | Spanish American War | ||
Course Mechanics | Spanish-American War; Reconquest of Sudan; | Universal Conscription vs. All-Volunteer Army | (Omaha Beach sequence) | Reconquest of the Sudan | ||||
Getting Acquainted | Boer War; Russo-Japanese War | Second Boer War | ||||||
Russo Japanese War | ||||||||
2 | 29-Jan-13 | Early 20th Century Naval Warfare | Technology of Naval Gunnery | The Naval Warfare Game | WW1 at Sea | Dreadnoughts | ||
Military Planning | UK vs. Germany, 1900-14 | Student Insurgency Group Project | (Battle of Jutland) | Battle of Jutland | ||||
(Naval) Arms Race | ||||||||
Role of Technological Surprise | ||||||||
3 | 5-Feb-13 | Early/Mid-20th Century | Radio Communications | The Radio Game | A Bridge Too Far | Radio | ||
Tactical Communications | (Radio Failure) | Electronic Warfare | ||||||
4 | 12-Feb-13 | WW2 Strategic Bomber Offensive | Radar: Radio Detection and Ranging | The Air Warfare Game | Battle of Britain | Radar | ||
Aircraft Navigation and Interception | (Battle of Britain Defensive edition) | (The Shift to London) | Radio Navigation | |||||
Electronic Warfare and Counter Measures | The Blitz | |||||||
Fighters and Bombers | ||||||||
5 | 19-Feb-13 | WW2 Strategic Air Defense | Measures and Counter Measures Revisited | The Air Warfare Game | Memphis Belle | Strategic Bombing | ||
(Strategic Bomber Offensive edition) | The 1000 Bomber Raid | 1000 Bomber Raids | ||||||
6 | 26-Feb-13 | WW2 Battle of Atlantic | Battle of the Atlantic | Breaking the Code | Das Boot | Battle of the Atlantic | Destroyer | Magic |
Cryptography | Submarines vs. Convoys | (Hunter Becomes the Prey) | Signals Intelligence | Submarine | ||||
Enigma Machine | Enigma | Ultra | Torpedo | |||||
(How the code was broken) | Convoys | Battle of Midway | ||||||
7 | 5-Mar-13 | Post WW2 ICBMs | German V-1 and V-2 Weapons | Red Dragon Rising Game | Kinetic Energy Interceptors | China Military Strength | ||
Ballistic Missile Offense and Defense | Cold War and Mutually Assured Destruction | Global Ballistic Missile Defense | China Military Developments | |||||
Ballistic Missile Interception and Destruction | North Korea | |||||||
US-North Korea Missile Diplomacy | ||||||||
8 | 12-Mar-13 | Post WW2 Insurgency | Theory of Small Wars | Student Insurgency Group Project Reports | Battle of Algiers | Guerrilla Warfare | ||
and Counter-Insurgency | Strategies for Counter-Insurgencies | (Counter-insurgency tactics) | Counter-Insurgency Strategy | |||||
9 | 19-Mar-13 | Modern Counter-Insurgency Tactics | The Islandia Game: American Forces vs. | Black Hawk Down | U. S. Army Counterinsurgency Manual | |||
Peacemaking and Peacekeeping | a popular uprising in a Third World Country | (Rules of Engagement) | U. S. Army Counterinsurgency Website | |||||
Student Individual Essay Assigned | ||||||||
10 | 26-Mar-13 | Spring Break | ||||||
11 | 2-Apr-13 | Class Cancelled | Prof. Katz traveling | |||||
12 | 9-Apr-13 | Terrorism | What We Knew About September 11, 2001 | The Spy Factory | Counter Terrorism (FBI) | |||
(NSA vs. CIA vs. FBI) | Annual Threat Assessment | |||||||
Cyber Warfare | CNN Cyber Shockwave | Defense Intelligence Assessment 2012 | ||||||
(Cyber attack vs. USA) | Patterns of Global Terrorism | |||||||
13 | 16-Apr-13 | Precision Targeting | GPS | Th New American Way of War | ||||
Smart Bombs and UAVs | Afghanistan and the Future of Warfare | |||||||
14 | 23-Apr-13 | Surveillance and Remote Sensing | Spy Planes and Satellites | North Korean Imagery | ||||
San Francisco Imagery | ||||||||
http://www.digitalglobe.com/ | ||||||||
http://terraserver.microsoft.com/ | ||||||||
15 | 30-Apr-13 | Presentation/Discussion of Student Projects | Student Individual Essay Due | |||||
Course Wrap-up, Summary, and Evaluation | ||||||||
End of Semester Celebration |