Strategy – Page 12 – Public Intelligence Blog

2011/05/21

Global Guerrillas: Thriving as Old Economy Dies

Advanced Cyber/IO, Blog Wisdom, Collective Intelligence, Commercial Intelligence, Cultural Intelligence, Ethics, Gift Intelligence, Methods & Process, Policies, Strategy, Threats

Networked tribes, systems disruption, and the emerging bazaar of violence. Resilient Communities, decentralized platforms, and self-organizing futures.

By John Robb

HOW TO THRIVE (ECONOMICALLY) AS THINGS FALL APART

Posted: 20 May 2011 11:30 AM PDT

The most likely scenario for the next decade starts with the resumption of global economic depression (D2). Economies shrink. Wealth evaporates as former “assets” become worthless. Commodities fall (even energy) due to declines in economic activity. Currencies gyrate, explode, and/or evaporate.

In this environment, sovereigns will begin to default as the industrial nation-state model runs out of gas. Developed nation-states will find themselves crushed between bailouts of their cronies and excess spending (i.e. social spending (EU), national security spending (US), or mercantilist over-investment (China). Developing nations will just implode.

Things will continue on this track until one of two things happen:

things really begin to fail (complete system breakdown) or
new, better economic and social systems become viable as replacements to our broken one.

I'm betting on new economic and social systems. Part of that bet, and something many people now get, is accomplished through the establishment of self-reliant resilient communities. However, resilient communities aren't a sufficient replacement, in and of themselves (unless you want to turn back the clock to the 1800s). By themselves, they don't represent a superior alternative to a failing and flailing global system. Something else is needed, but what?

It's simple. What's needed are (note the plural here), virtual global economic systems built on a sound footing (i.e. better and more sensible rules than we currently have), prosperous participants, and a hard currency. Systems that people can flee to when currencies become scarce (deflation) or worthless (inflation) or nation-state political systems fail (corruption/crime) or flail (repression).

My advice to you: when you see a system that looks like the one outlined above, start to diversify your economic activity into it as soon as is practicable.

2011/05/192011/05/19

Obama Blows the Middle East Overture

02 Diplomacy, 08 Wild Cards, 10 Security, 11 Society, Corruption, Counter-Oppression/Counter-Dictatorship Practices, Cultural Intelligence, Government, History, InfoOps (IO), IO Impotency, Strategy, Threats

Obama's Middle East speech missed ‘historic opportunity,' say many Arabs

While those involved in Arab uprisings welcomed Obama's support, others were disappointed with his failure to apologize for US support for Middle East dictators

EXTRACT:

“Obama really had an opportunity to reshape and reframe the debate and … he gave it away,” says Shadi Hamid, director of research at the Brookings Doha Center, adding that there was nothing distinctive or imaginative about the address. “This speech was an opportunity to say to Arabs, ‘We as Americans made mistakes, we did not support democratic aspirations as much as we should have, but we’re going to do better.’ Obama didn’t say that.”

Read full article….

Phi Beta Iota: The USG has no strategic analytic model, no strategy, and no concept for how to achieve Whole of Government and multinational eight-tribe harmonized non-zero (win-win) outcomes….because to do so would stop the co-option of the USG on behalf of the few at the expense of the many. Obama–and Clinton–confuse “strategic communication” with strategic intelligence, and they are bad at it.

Review: Reconciliation–Islam, Democracy, and the West

Review: Leap of Faith–Memoirs of an Unexpected Life

Review: Faith-Based Diplomacy–Trumping Realpolitik

Review: Democracy Matters–Winning the Fight Against Imperialism (Hardcover)

Review: Palestine Inside Out–An Everyday Occupation

Review: Palestine–Peace Not Apartheid

Review: What Went Wrong? Western Impact and Middle Eastern Response

Review: Devil’s Game–How the United States Helped Unleash Fundamentalist Islam

Review: A Peace to End All Peace–The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and the Creation of the Modern Middle East

Review: Blood and Oil–The Dangers and Consequences of America’s Growing Dependency on Imported Petroleum

Review: Blood in the Sand–Imperial Fantasies, Right-Wing Ambitions, and the Erosion of American Democracy (Hardcover)

Worth a Look: Book Reviews on Empire as Cancer Including Betrayal & Deceit

2011/05/19

Lessons Learned on National Security Reform

Cultural Intelligence, Ethics, Government, Law Enforcement, Methods & Process, Military, Officers Call, Peace Intelligence, Policies, Strategy, Threats

Terrorists To Protest Organizers: Lessons Learned From The Demise Of bin Laden and The Future Of U.S. National Security

Phi Beta Iota: Below the line is a very ably crafted press release from the Project for National Security Reform (PNSR) led by Jim Locher and Dennis Blair, long-time champions of inter-agency reform or “Beyond Goldwater-Nicols.” This is a brilliant contribution to the dialog that points out that we no longer have money to win UGLY, we now have to win smart. That is what we, the Phi Beta Iota collective, have been advocating since 1988.

Continue reading “Lessons Learned on National Security Reform”

2011/05/18

Denmark to Claim North Pole–Really BAD Idea

06 Russia, 08 Wild Cards, Civil Society, Earth Intelligence, Government, IO Multinational, Strategy

Denmark to lay claim to North Pole

CNN, May 18th, 2011

The Kingdom of Denmark is preparing to claim ownership of the North Pole, according to a Danish media report.

In a document leaked to the Danish newspaper Information, Denmark will ask the United Nations to recognize the North Pole as a geologic extension of Greenland, the vast Arctic island that is a Danish territory. Danish Foreign Minister Lene Espersen confirmed the annexation attempt, Information reported.

According to The Copenhagen Post, “The kingdom is expected to make a demand for the continental shelf in five areas around the Faroe Islands and Greenland, including the North Pole itself.”

Read rest of article….

Phi Beta Iota: As much as we respect the Danish, this is a very BAD idea and should be promptly rejected (and vetoed) by the members of the UN Security Council. Both the North and the South regions are perfectly positioned to be what they have always been–commons–and to be administered by a hybrid trust that relies on transparency, truth, and trust to assure both regions are not “owned” by any mere state, but rather held in trust for all. How these two regions are managed could ultimately be a model for how we mange the Earth as a whole.

2011/05/172011/05/17

First Habitable Planet Confirmed by French

08 Wild Cards, 11 Society, Academia, Earth Intelligence, Strategy

First Habitable Planet Confirmed by French Scientists

Greg Tito | 17 May 2011

Escapist Magazine

French scientists believe that a planet orbiting the red dwarf star Gliese 581 could sustain life similar to Earth.

Twenty light years away is a small red star. Orbiting this sun are six planets that range in size from slightly smaller than Earth to about the size of Neptune. Several of these planets fall within the star's “Goldilocks” zone, neither too hot from proximity to the star nor too cold from being too far. If a planet is too hot, all water would be steam but if its too cold then it would be ice, neither of which can support life. Luckily, a group of astronomers from the National Centre for Scientific Research in France believe that the fourth planet – unimaginatively labeled Gliese 581d – is just right.

Read rest of article….

2011/05/16

Event: Free Online Download Why Stone-Age Instincts Run Your Life & How Science Can Change That

04 Education, 11 Society, Advanced Cyber/IO, Communities of Practice, Cultural Intelligence, Earth Intelligence, Ethics, Methods & Process, Strategy, Threats

Dear friends,

I’m excited to let you know about an upcoming free teleseminar by colleagues of mine, Michael Dowd and Connie Barlow. This couple is well known for their work in translating the various evolutionary sciences into practical wisdom for meeting the challenges of everyday life.

The focus of their hour-long audio seminar will be, as they summarize it: “Why the Stone-Age instincts we’ve all inherited can so often challenge us in our modern-day settings—and how new discoveries in the evolutionary and human sciences offer perspectives that are both practical and profound.”

Michael and Connie were the ones who launched me into my own evolutionary perspective, which expanded and deepened into the vision in my book REFLECTIONS ON EVOLUTIONARY ACTIVISM.

I'm beginning to see an emerging whole-life curriculum to bring actionable evolutionary understandings into virtually every aspect of life, just as feminist and ecological understandings have spread into every niche. The first rough outline of such an “evolutionizing” curriculum might look something like this:

* Evolutionize yourself and your relationships:
Connie and Michael's class
* Evolutionize your groups, organizations and communities:
Peggy Holman's ENGAGING EMERGENCE
* Evolutionize your society and social systems:
Tom Atlee's REFLECTIONS ON EVOLUTIONARY ACTIVISM
Robert Wright's NON-ZERO
John Stewart's EVOLUTION'S ARROW
Paul Ehrlich and Robert Ornstein's NEW WORLD, NEW MIND
* Evolutionize your worldview
Elisabet Sahtouris' EARTHDANCE
Thomas Berry and Brian Swimme's THE UNIVERSE STORY
Michael Dowd's THANK GOD FOR EVOLUTION
David Sloan Wilson's EVOLUTION FOR EVERYONE

There are many other dimensions that could be included in such a curriculum — evolutionizing technology, education, heatlh care, you name it — and dozens of other really fine books and other resources that could be used — but the general idea in this outline intrigues me and, I hope, others who might act on it.

I invite you get a good whiff of how this perspective could play out in your own life. Check out Connie and Michael's free evening teleclass this Wednesday (May 18th) — “Evolutionize Your Life: The Science of How to Decode Human Behavior, Eliminate Self-Judgment, and Create a Big-Hearted Life of Purpose and Joyful Integrity”. You can read more about it and register at http://bit.ly/EvolutionizeLifeClass .

Enjoy!

Coheartedly,
Tom

2011/05/162011/05/16

Australia to Microsoft: You’re Fired

04 Education, Academia, Advanced Cyber/IO, Collaboration Zones, InfoOps (IO), Methods & Process, Strategy, Technologies

Marc bails out Macquarie Uni on business intelligence

HTML5 business intelligence developed by Australians

James Hutchinson

ComputerWorld, 16 May 2011

Marc Bailey wants to kill the spreadsheet.

At least, that’s what the research fellows at Macquarie University asked for when he first stepped on board as CIO in late 2009. The proliferation of Microsoft Excel documents, changed countless times and shared between any number of siloed departments at the institution, had created “islands of data” that made one of his first challenges a seemingly insurmountable one.

Nearly 18 months later, and with nine months of development under the belt, the first release of the solution — Datamart — was pushed out to university staff in April this year. The offering, built upon Web-based software offered by Melbourne outfit Yellowfin, replaced multiple business intelligence systems and, of course, the spreadsheet.

. . . . . .

Bailey says the second year is all about leveraging the data often hidden under illusions of protection by university staff, and leveraging the infrastructure the IT team worked hard to replace in his first year at the institution.

. . . . . .

Bailey’s first year has been characterised by his challenge to form what is now known as the Informatics team and pursue technology goals centred around students and staff, rather than controlling the technology. The department has been split into nine groups, with Bailey heading the federation of those groups under his overarching strategy.

Read full article….

Phi Beta Iota: Emphasis added. This is a tremendously important initiative.