Category: References

I will not replicate all that is at www.oss.net and to a much lesser extent, www.earth-intelligence.net, but do want to recognize a handful of extraordinary individuals by isolating their especially meritorious contributiions to the long-running debate about national intelligence reform and re-invention.

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Reference: Chinese Information Warfare

02 China, Monographs

Full Report Online
Full Report Online

Phi Beta Iota: Read the report and draw your own conclusions.  On balance we give it a C+ [this is actually a complement]  in part because it cost too much to get to this point, neglects all Chinese and other language sources, neglects or is unaware of the non-military capabilites, and is completely lacking in context–the Chinese are NOT emphasizing attack IW as much as capture and exploit IW, in all the languages we do not comprehend, and for the purpose of waging peace and conquering, with soft power, the entire Southern Hemisphere.  Our two-pager on Chinese Irregular Warfare is free and more policy-relevant.  See also:

Journal: CINCPAC Slams IC on China

Reference: Information Operations (IO) Newsletters

Review: Charm Offensive: How China’s Soft Power Is Transforming the World

Review: The Second World–Empires and Influence in the New Global Order

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Reference: United Nations Terrorism Desirata

09 Terrorism, Communities of Practice, Peace Intelligence, United Nations & NGOs

Berto Jongman
Berto Jongman

Recommended by Researcher Berto Jongman.

2009-11-15 UN Overview of Terrorism Research Desirata Gestation

2009-11-15 UN List of Terrorism Research Priorities

Phi Beta Iota: Researcher Berto Jongman is a disciple and most respectful student of the work of Alex Schmid and more recently, the Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) practices of Researcher Arno Reuser, who leads one of a handful of military OSINT teams that are truly on the bleeding edge of accomplishment and global access (analog & unpublished as well as the obvious).

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Worth a Look: Key Leader Engagement

02 Diplomacy, 04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 10 Security, Analysis, DoD, Key Players, Methods & Process, Military, Peace Intelligence, Worth A Look
Free Monograph Online
Free Monograph Online

Phi Beta Iota: Blessed commons sense from a Captain and intelligence professional in the U.S. Army.  When we first entered Iraq we were told to avoid the immams and tribal chiefs, and this wasted at least four years of key leader engagement.  Neither the secret world nor the military “Human Terrain Team” program have gotten a grip on cultural intelligence or a coherent holistic matrix for strategic, operational, and tactical exploitation of political-legal, socio-economic, ideo-cultural, techno-demographic, and natural-geographic Essential Elements of Information (EEI).  We still have not integrated provincial team civil reporting with military tactical reporting, and still have both hugh gaps and costly overlaps.  This monograph, this captain, are the tip of the spear not just in leadership engagement, but in reconcilation–there is a reason why “truth” is included “Truth & Reconciliation Commission.”  BRAVO ZULU.

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Reference: Information Operations (IO) Newsletters

Collaboration Zones, Communities of Practice, DoD, Ethics, Key Players, Mobile, Policies, Real Time, Threats, Topics (All Other)
IO Newsletter
IO Newsletter

This extraordinary resource is the personal initiative of Jeffrey S Harley,SMDC/ARSTRAT G39, Deputy, Information Operations.  As received, each new newsletter is posted to the Archives at the above permanent URL:

http://www.oss.net/IO

For many other references relevant to IO, see the original OSS page on IO.  See also our short Memorandum on Chinese Irregular Warfare.

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Reference: UK MoD Futures

DoD

Berto Jongman
Berto Jongman

Berto Jongman recommends…

The Future Strategic Context for Defence (UK 2007)

Revolution, flashmobs, and brain chips. A grim vision of the future (UK Guardian 9 Apr 2007)

Phi Beta Iota: C4I is the only “revolutionary” technology–Michael O'Hanlon said it first inTechnological Change and the Future of Warfare (2000).  Other highlights: private sector, not defense, is now the lead for technological change–gets climate change right (100 years and further out).  Morality is coming back into demand.  Defense operations in the future will be predominantly multinational in nature (which suggests that how urgently we need to get multinational sharing and sense-making ginned up).

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Journal: DNI Describes Losing Hand

Director of National Intelligence et al (IC)
Full Speech Online
Full Speech Online

Phi Beta Iota: Speaking to the World Affairs Council on 6 November 2009, Admiral Dennis Blair, USN (Ret), now the Director of National Intelligence (DNI), offered up a faint-praise indictment of a national intelligence community that is pedestrian and mis-directed.

Drawing on Global Trends 2025 and the National Intelligence Strategy, both of which are  lacking (see our comments at links), here is what he said and did not say.

Top five prognostications:

Climate change accepted as a given top priority;  state system still the foundation for analysis;  technology search still focused on extraction of fossil fuels; potential for conflict grrowing;  in 2025 the US will still be #1 power on Earth.

He stated that the goal of the U.S. Intelligence Community (IC) is to help policy-makers make wise policy; to provide effective actionable intelligence to the Whole of Government (WoG); and to move the IC toward the cutting edge of technology.

Here is what he did not say, and our critical comments:

Continue reading “Journal: DNI Describes Losing Hand”