Failure of a Paramilitary System: A Case History of Catastrophe

Abstract

The previous chapters argued that something much like a highly punctuated phase transition must be common at various scales in extended conflict. At the tactical level, this is expressed as sudden collapse consequent on a failure of control, even if the units involved are not simply overrun. At the strategic level, Larmarckian versions of Eldredge/Gould punctuated equilibrium may dominate. The implication is that cognitive networks, which are inherently information networks, may often, if not always, be subject to “symmetry breaking” transitions, involving changes in underlying group or, more likely, groupoid structures.