Category: Collaboration Zones

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Autarky is Dead–Dependency is Good

Cultural Intelligence
Seth Godin Home

Autarky is dead

Self sufficiency appears to be a worthy goal, but it's now impossible if you want to actually get anything done.

All our productivity, leverage and insight comes from being part of a community, not apart from it.

The goal, I think, is to figure out how to become more dependent, not less.

Phi Beta Iota: It is very hard for cultures that define themselves by secrecy rather than accomplishments to accept this.  The “eight tribes” of intelligence are  the antithesis to unilateral ineffective secret intelligence.  This is about complexity, integrity of feedback loops, and harnessing the collective intelligence of the Whole Earth.  Autarky [self-sufficiency] is an oxymoron–so is “central” intelligence.

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Why Boeing is Imploding–Spinney, Sprey, & Reality vs Political Engineering & Government Spec Cost Plus

10 Security, Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, Military
Chuck Spinney Sounds Off...

Below are three separate contributions:  Spinney on Sprey; Sprey on Boeing; and Seattle Times on Boeing.

CHUCK SPINNEY SOUNDS OFF

President Obama says that restoring America’s competitiveness is one of his top priorities.  Yet under his watch, deindustrialization, financialization, and globalization continue without interruption.  Many advocates of defense spending argue that spinoffs from the Pentagon's R&D and high tech engineering practices are keys to reinvigorating America’s manufacturing economy.  For whatever reasons, Mr. Obama shows no intention of reining in defense spending by anything more than a cosmetic amount, even though the defense budget is higher now that at any time since the end of WWII (after removing the cumulative effect of 60 years of inflation), and despite the fact that the United States is spending about as much on defense as the rest of the world combined.

Continue reading “Why Boeing is Imploding–Spinney, Sprey, & Reality vs Political Engineering & Government Spec Cost Plus”

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The Future of Journalism: A Conversation

Advanced Cyber/IO, Civil Society, Cultural Intelligence, Media
Jon Lebkowsky Bio

The Future of Journalism: a conversation

by jonl on February 7, 2011

With colleagues Pete Lewis, Tony Deifell, Kevin Anderson, Andrew Haeg, and Scott Rosenberg, I’m in a two week conversation about the future of journalism on the WELL. The WELL is the seminal online community; this conversation is in the Inkwell forums, where Bruce Sterling and I have our annual state of the world conversation. Inkwell usually has conversations with authors, but for this conversation we’re trying a panel format.

Here’s my latest contribution to the conversation:

Continue reading “The Future of Journalism: A Conversation”

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EGYPT: The Young, Not the Brotherhood, Anti-US?

08 Wild Cards, 11 Society, Advanced Cyber/IO, Cultural Intelligence

Phi Beta Iota: Below the line is an excellent overview from NIGHTWATCH.  Here are the key points:

1.  Muslim Brotherhood was caught by surprise, not just the US Intelligence Community.

2.  This is a revolution of young people focused on fundamentals, NOT an Islamic uprising.

3.  There is no overt anti-US aspect within the young, but Hezbollah and others are trying to tie the US to the dictators it supports–left unsaid is that if the US cannot turn on a DIME (pun intented) it will be skewered with its own sword.

4.  Dictator Mubarak may be shopping for an exile estate in Egypt.

INSIGHT: The US Government has no one thinking strategically–certainly not the Goldman Sachs lobbyist now enjoying the corner office and pretending to be national security advisor to the President, and certainly not the Department of State, which has lost its one strategic thinker back to Princeton and has no bench.  NOW IS THE TIME for President Barack Obama to decide he wants to create a Smart Nation with Whole of Government strategy and operations resting on a foundation of intelligent intelligence.  See ON INTELLIGENCE: Open Letter to the President.

Continue reading “EGYPT: The Young, Not the Brotherhood, Anti-US?”

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Report Casts Doubt on Taliban’s Ties With Al Qaeda

08 Wild Cards, Analysis, Cultural Intelligence, Government, History, Intelligence (government), Policy, Strategy
DefDog Recommends...

N.Y.U. Report Casts Doubt on Taliban’s Ties With Al Qaeda

By CARLOTTA GALL

Published: February 6, 2011

KABUL, Afghanistan — The Afghan Taliban have been wrongly perceived as close ideological allies of Al Qaeda, and they could be persuaded to renounce the global terrorist group, according to a report to be published Monday by New York University.

The report goes on to say that there was substantial friction between the groups’ leaders before the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and that hostility has only intensified.

The authors, Alex Strick van Linschoten and Felix Kuehn, have worked in Afghanistan for years and edited the autobiography of a Taliban diplomat, many of whose ideas are reflected in the report. The authors are among a small group of experts who say the only way to end the war in Afghanistan is to begin peace overtures to the Taliban.

Read more….

Phi Beta Iota: History is important not only to understanding others, but when used retrospectively to examine one's own actions, assumptions, beliefs, and motivations, most helpful in refining the art and science of intelligence (decision making) and public policy making (a mix of politics and professionalism that too often loses its integrity for lack of public intelligence).

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An excellent critique of Israel’s grand strategy …

08 Wild Cards, Cultural Intelligence
Chuck Spinney Sounds Off...

… which is to morally isolate itself by making enemies faster than it can kill them.

If Israel's behaviour continues unchecked, the pro-Israeli biases in and distortions of US policies will intensify our own isolation, until something snaps in our polity — and then, Israel will be all alone.

Read rest of article….

IMO … Israel's only constructive option is to do a grand strategic U turn, which Israel's leadership steadfastly refuses to do.  On the contrary, it shows every sign of digging itself deeper into the self-destructive bunker mentality described by M.J. Rosenberg below.

[Interested readers will find a summary of the basic ideas underpinning a constructive grand strategy, which are universal, in this blaster, where I criticized the US grand strategy pursued by the Bush Administration.]

Why Is Israel So Blind?

MJ Rosenberg, Political Correction, February 02, 2011 3:55 pm ET

Those of us in the pro-Israel, pro-peace camp do not enjoy being proven right — although we invariably are.

Our standard recommendation to Israel is that it should move quickly to achieve agreements with the Arab states and the stateless Palestinians before it is too late.

And the Israeli response is that there is no urgency to make peace — except on Israeli terms — because Israel is strong and the Arabs are weak.

Read rest of article….