Foreign Affairs, March/April, 1996, features two policy essays on "The Information Edge: A technological change is transforming the nature of power and the United States is clearly in the lead." In "America's Information Edge," Joseph S. Nye, Jr. former Chairman of the National Intelligence Council and Assistant Secretary of Defense, and Admiral William A. Owen, former Vice Chairman of the JCS, argue that information technology is transforming knowledge, and thereby power. They write of a "system of systems, an integration of ISR, C4I and precision force, which represents a qualitative change in U.S. military capabilities." They envision informational "soft power" -- the ability to achieve outcomes in international affairs through attraction rather than coercion -- as reinforcing the "information umbrella" shielding allies in lieu of the nuclear option. In "A Revolution in Warfare," Eliot A. Cohen, Professor of Strategic Studies at Johns Hopkins, takes issue with Nye and Owen on the radical impact of information technology, and argues that its revolutionary dazzle may distort historical understanding of the more general political and economic forces that are reshaping international and military affairs. He observes that misunderstanding of revolutionary technology all too often has had unexpected, disastrous, consequences: "A revolution in military affairs is under way. It will require changes of a magnitude that military people still do not completely grasp and political leaders do not fully imagine." DAZ_zle