Category: Government

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John Robb: Hollow States & Crisis of Capitalism

Blog Wisdom, Commerce, Corruption, Government, Policies
John Robb

Tuesday, 06 September 2011

HOLLOW STATES and a CRISIS OF CAPITALISM

Had fun with this post.  Working on getting the thinking on this right.  Tough to do.

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Hollow, bankrupt states and crisis of capitalism is not a “dystopian future” if it is actually happening now. With almost hourly updates.

I coined the term, “hollow state” back in 2007.  The idea derived from what I was seeing develop due to open source warfare and primary loyalties.  Here's a run down on what it means:

The modern nation-state is in a secular decline, made inevitable by the rise of a global market system. Even developed nations, like the US, are not immune to this process. The decline is at first gradual and then accelerates until it reaches a final end-point: a hollow state. The hollow state has the trappings of a modern nation-state (“leaders”, membership in international organizations, regulations, laws, and a bureaucracy) but it lacks any of the legitimacy, services, and control of its historical counter-part. It is merely a shell that has some influence over the spoils of the economy. The real power rests in the hands of corporations and criminal/guerrilla groups that vie with each other for control of sectors of wealth production. For the individual living within this state, life goes on, but it is debased in a myriad of ways.  The shift from a marginally functional nation-state in manageable decline to a hollow state often comes suddenly, through a financial crisis.

Continue reading “John Robb: Hollow States & Crisis of Capitalism”

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Penguin: CIA’s Metamorphis Into the Drone Machine

03 Economy, 07 Other Atrocities, 10 Security, 11 Society, Corruption, Director of National Intelligence et al (IC), Government, IO Deeds of War
Who, Me?

If you build it, they will come….

CIA's Push for Drone War Driven by Internal Needs

Gareth Porter

The World News, 6 September 2011

EXTRACT:

The shift in the CIA mission's has been reflected in the spectacular growth of its Counter-terrorism Center (CTC) from 300 employees in September 2001 to about 2,000 people today – 10 percent of the agency's entire workforce, according to the Post report.

The agency's analytical branch, which had been previously devoted entirely to providing intelligence assessments for policymakers, has been profoundly affected.

More than one-third of the personnel in the agency's analytical branch are now engaged wholly or primarily in providing support to CIA operations, according to senior agency officials cited by the Post. And nearly two-thirds of those are analysing data used by the CTC drone war staff to make decisions on targeting.

Read full article.

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Koko: China’s Spilled Secrets–A Tipping Point

02 China, 10 Security, Advanced Cyber/IO, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government
Koko

Koko Signs:  Secrecy–when it is pervasive–cannot be micro-managed.  As governments decline in legitimacy, and personal technologies become more pervasive than the instruments of secrecy, a tipping point is reached.  We're there.

Op-Ed

China's spilled secrets

A remarkable YouTube video shows how hard it is to maintain control in a wired world.

By David WiseLos Angeles Times, September 6, 2011

Maj. Gen. Jin Yinan of the People's Liberation Army, in what he apparently thought was an internal briefing, revealed half a dozen cases of Chinese officials who had spied for Britain, the United States and other countries. Somehow, the video of his sensational disclosures leaked out. Clips of his hours-long talk appeared on at least two Chinese websites, Youku.com and Tudou.com, but were quickly removed by government censors.

Read full Op-Ed.

Phi Beta Iota:  Colin Gray teaches us in Modern Strategy that time is the one thing that cannot be purchased nor replaced.  The USA has blown a quarter century in its continuing corrupt quest for secrecy and its exploitation of secrecy and other information pathologies to further programs that are neither needed nor affordable.  America, like China, is at a tipping point.  The ability of the few to impose secrecy against the interests of the many is now done–expanding the Open Source revolution must be our highest priority, to include a year of paid retraining for every person now unemployed and every contractor about to become unemployed.

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Paul Fernhout: How Security Clearance Process Harms National Security by Eradicating Cognitive Diversity

10 Security, 11 Society, Civil Society, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, DoD, Government, IO Deeds of War, IO Impotency, Military, Officers Call, Peace Intelligence, Threats
Paul Fernhout

This essay discusses how the USA's security clearance process (mainly related to ensuring secrecy) may have a counter-productive negative effect on the USA's national security by reducing “cognitive diversity” among security professionals. Background refs:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Security_clearance#United_States
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secrecy

Scott Page wrote an insightful book about the value of “cognitive diversity” in making effective groups, called The Difference: How the Power of Diversity Creates Better Groups, Firms, Schools, and Societies. From a review:

“Rather than ponder moral questions like, ‘Why can't we all get along?' Dr. Page asks practical ones like, ‘How can we all be more productive together?' The answer, he suggests, is in messy, creative organizations and environments with individuals from vastly different backgrounds and life experiences.”

Ralph J. Perro (a pseudonym) wrote an essay called: “Interviewing With An Intelligence Agency (or, A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To Fort Meade)”. From the document:

“After the process was over, I was talking to one of my references – a veteran Silicon Valley software executive, and former manager of mine. My reference commented on what transpired “That’s disappointing. If they can’t hire you, I have no idea who they can hire. That process seems to be designed to retain only the most bland.” The ‘bland’ comment might be a bit severe, however, considering the 1999 External Management report it would appear that the agency would appear to need creative thinkers & problem-solvers more than ever.”

What happens if you think about both of these together and consider the implications for US national security?

Continue reading “Paul Fernhout: How Security Clearance Process Harms National Security by Eradicating Cognitive Diversity”

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Winslow Wheeler: True Cost of Post-9/11 Wars $5T+

03 Economy, 04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 07 Other Atrocities, 09 Justice, 10 Security, 11 Society, Civil Society, Corruption, DoD, Government, IO Deeds of War, Military, Peace Intelligence
Winslow Wheeler

What Has Been the Cost of the Post-9/11 Wars?

Email from Winslow Wheeler

This week, as the media runs its displays on America ten years after the 9/11 attacks, there will be references to the dollar costs.  A figure some will use is the one trillion dollars President Obama cited as for the war in Iraq.  That figure is a gross underestimate.

The war in Iraq and its costs are inseparable from the wars in Afghanistan, Yemen, Pakistan, the Philippines, Somalia and elsewhere.  Indeed, when the Defense Department seeks appropriations for them, it does not distinguish the costs by location; nor does Congress in appropriations bills.

Moreover, the DOD costs are hardly the whole story: add costs in the State Department budget for aid to the governments (such as they are) of Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen and elsewhere.

Add also the costs to care for the US veterans of these wars.  That would include the care already extended and the care now obligated for the duration of these men's and women's lives.

Add to that the expanded costs of domestic security against terrorism.

Add also the interest we annually pay for the deficit spending that has financed the wars.

Continue reading “Winslow Wheeler: True Cost of Post-9/11 Wars $5T+”

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Joseph Stiglitz: The True Cost of 9/11 — Includes 18 Veteran Suicides a Day

04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 07 Other Atrocities, 09 Justice, 09 Terrorism, 10 Security, 11 Society, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, DoD, Government, IO Deeds of War, Military, Officers Call
Joseph E. Stiglitz

The True Cost of 9/11

Trillions and trillions wasted on wars, a fiscal catastrophe, a weaker America.

By Joseph E. Stiglitz

Slate, Thursday, Sept. 1, 2011

The Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks by al-Qaida were meant to harm the United States, and they did, but in ways that Osama Bin Laden probably never imagined. President George W. Bush's response to the attacks compromised America's basic principles, undermined its economy, and weakened its security.

The attack on Afghanistan that followed the 9/11 attacks was understandable, but the subsequent invasion of Iraq was entirely unconnected to al-Qaida—as much as Bush tried to establish a link. That war of choice quickly became very expensive—orders of magnitude beyond the $60 billion claimed at the beginning—as colossal incompetence met dishonest misrepresentation.

Indeed, when Linda Bilmes and I calculated America's war costs three years ago, the conservative tally was $3 trillion to $5 trillion. Since then, the costs have mounted further. With almost 50 percent of returning troops eligible to receive some level of disability payment, and more than 600,000 treated so far in veterans' medical facilities, we now estimate that future disability payments and health care costs will total $600 billion to $900 billion. The social costs, reflected in veteran suicides (which have topped 18 per day in recent years) and family breakups, are incalculable.

Read full article…

See Also:

The Worst Mistake America Made After 9/11

How focusing too much on the war on terror undermined our economy and global power.

By Anne Applebaum  Slate, 4 September 2011

noble gold