The author examines the positive, confidence-building effects of the current race between China, Japan, and Taiwan to launch intelligence satellites.

The Afghan war has been the coming out party for the Internet as the new medium of modern warfare communications and planning. Just as it did in society at large, US military officials said that Web-based technology had sparked a profound revolution in the way armies wage war, bringing enormous advantages and an explosion in the information available to soldiers. But the new technology - originally devised for military purposes but now spearheaded by private enterprise - has also thrown up significant problems, not least information overload.

Pro-Islamic hackers are on the frontline of a potential new cyber-war after the end of a ceasefire by "hacktivists" and virus designers that followed the September 11 attacks on the United States, according to Internet experts.