1-7 Star Rating – Page 207 – Public Intelligence Blog

Valid Conclusions, Original, Missed Important Other Works

August 1, 2007

Dan Lindley

Information Peacekeeping and Peacekeeping Intelligence are topics of great importance to me, and I have been writing about them since the mid-1990's, while also publishing several books on the topic and reading others, all easily found on Amazon and listed below. Hence I was most disappointed in the overly academic nature of the book.

I reduce it by one star because it does not focus on the transparency needed among predatory immoral corporations as well as covert operations by the United States and others that poison the well and retard possibilities for peace, and because while it is an original work and offers very valuable primary research in the form of numerous interviews, it completely missed the work done between the Brahimi Report and this book's publication.

The book discusses four kinds of transparency:
1) Cooperative (both formal and informal)
2) Ambient
3) Coerced
4) Unilateral (intelligence, confrontational, and proferred)

The author concludes that information is power and that the United Nations continues to be reluctant or unwilling to use this power (I would add that the US military has the same problem–commanders are spending 80% of their time on intelligence & information operations (I2O) but less than one percent of the staff and budget are assigned to this vital mission).

The author identifies the following impediments to UN success in information operations:
1) Staffing not there
2) Doctrine and procedures lacking
3) Bureacratic intertia
4) Continued fear of “intelligence” as evil instead of decision support

The author concludes that United Nations operations of all kinds could benefit from and be more effective if:
1) More information was collected and analyzed, and then shared
2) Transparency operations were an advanced form of presence beyond patrols and static monitoring–a pro-active form of UN operations
3) Strategic communications (the author appears unfamiliar with the term) are mounted against hate-mongering (the first stage of genocide).

The author focuses on information transparency, but does not appear to see budget transparency as one of the most important means of validating policies and beliefs. “It's not real until it's in the budget” is a phrase taught to me by the former custodian of all national security funds in the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and I have come to the conclusion that transparency of budgets at all levels is the non-negotiable pre-condition for restoring the trust and engagement of all people in their own governance.

The author does recognize the excellent work published previously,
Peacekeeping and Public Information: Caught in the Crossfire (Cass Series on Peacekeeping, 5)

Below are books that complement this one and that are not, as best I can tell, drawn on in this work:

Intelligence Power in Peace and War
Intelligence Services in the Information Age (Studies in Intelligence Series)
Peacekeeping Intelligence: Emerging Concepts for the Future
Information Operations: All Information, All Languages, All the Time
Peacekeeping Intelligence New Players, Extended Boundaries (Studies in Intelligence)
The New Craft of Intelligence: Personal, Public, & Political–Citizen's Action Handbook for Fighting Terrorism, Genocide, Disease, Toxic Bombs, & Corruption

The following book, at $150, is grotesquely over-priced, but the content, should it ever be more ethically available, appears worthy:
Intelligence for Peace: The Role of Intelligence in Times of Peace (Cass Series on Peacekeeping, 5)

Readers may also wish to search online for:
VIRTUAL INTELLIGENCE: Conflict Avoidance and Resolution Through Information Peacekeeping as published by the US Institute of Peace online
PEACEKEEPING INTELLIGENCE: Leadership Digest 1.0
Information Peacekeeping: The Purest Form of War

I also understand that the Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) is moving forward with concepts and doctrine for harmonizing the many Joint Military Analysis Centers that MajGen Patrick Cammaert, NL RN inspired during his tour as Military Advisor to the Secretary General. Separately, I am advancing an effort to engage 120 nations in a discussion of Multinational Information Sharing to be institutionalized through an Office of Information Sharing Treaties and Agreements within any diplomatic service. It is slow going, but this book is another helpful stone in the road to peace through information.

2007/08/012009/10/16

Review: The Political Economy of Grand Strategy

5 Star, Economics, Politics, Strategy

Excellent Contribution

August 1, 2007

Kevin Narizny

This is a great piece of work, and I found it very worthwhile. The author has studied two liberal democracies, the USA and the UK, and tried to correlate the rising or waning power of specific economic blocks with US foreign policy.

He finds that material intersts consistently trump cultural or ideological interests, and that humanitarianism can play a surprisingly strong role in some cases (of course, today, we are ignoring not just Darfur but 15+ other genocides, poverty, infectuous disease, and so on).

The author concludes the the fortunes to be made on the periphery will continue to encourage America as a nation of varied interests, to pursue the fortunes on the periphery, and he therefore anticipates that spending on the military, and the use of the military, will continue into the future.

He ends rather delicately by pointing out that no theory can explain the manner in which Bush-Cheney took America to war in Iraq–this is no doubt his elegant way of saying that when you have thieves and liars in the White House, all bets are off.

I will also be reading in the near future:
The Domestic Bases of Grand Strategy (Cornell Studies in Security Affairs)

Among other books helpful to me that I have reviewed here at Amazon:
Modern Strategy
Wilson's Ghost: Reducing the Risk of Conflict, Killing, and Catastrophe in the 21st Century
Rogue Nation: American Unilateralism and the Failure of Good Intentions
The Sorrows of Empire: Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic (The American Empire Project)
Failed States: The Abuse of Power and the Assault on Democracy
Confessions of an Economic Hit Man
The Global Class War: How America's Bipartisan Elite Lost Our Future – and What It Will Take to Win It Back
Running on Empty: How the Democratic and Republican Parties Are Bankrupting Our Future and What Americans Can Do About It
The Manufacture of Evil: Ethics, Evolution and the Industrial System

2007/08/012019/09/09

Review: The Tao of Abundance–Eight Ancient Principles for Living Abundantly in the 21st Century

7 Star Top 1%, Consciousness & Social IQ, Culture, Research, Democracy, Economics, Intelligence (Wealth of Networks), Philosophy

7 Star Life Transformative Very Satisfying, Will Take Time to Fully Appreciate – Collective Intelligence Primer

August 1, 2007

Laurence G. Boldt

This has to be a preliminary review. This elegant offering has a ton of useful ideas and concepts and comparisons. My first time around I drew the following out of it:

1) System is the Ego. Escape the matrix by escaping ego.
2) Trust the innate intelligence of nature in harmony.
3) Money should not cost you your soul or everything else.

The best contribution I can make at this point is to point readers to a few other books that have inspired me as I expect this book to continue to inspire me, and a couple of DVDs.

Books:
The Tao of Democracy: Using Co-Intelligence to Create a World That Works for All
The World Cafe: Shaping Our Futures Through Conversations That Matter
Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Movement in the World Came into Being and Why No One Saw It Coming
The Soul of Capitalism: Opening Paths to a Moral Economy
Collective Intelligence: Mankind's Emerging World in Cyberspace
The Cultural Creatives: How 50 Million People Are Changing the World
Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution

DVDs
What the Bleep Do We Know!?
The Last Samurai (Full Screen Edition)
Peace One Day

One last thought: Michael Hinton and Jean-Francois Noubelle have pioneered Open Money, and that is one of the things I talk about in my forthcoming opening presentation at Gnomedex in Seattle. My slides and notes can be seen in advance by finding “Open Everything” at my web site in the Archives, EIN Library. In my view, Open Money could be the single most revolutionary idea that is liberating immediately and scales without a problem. Combined with distributed search (Grub) and CISCO AON individually-controlled sharing of both information and CPU power, I see a world well beyond Google in which our brains and our information are under our control and no one can loot that abundance.

Peace! Prosperity! Power in us, not above us.

2007/07/312009/10/16

Review: The Folly of War–American Foreign Policy, 1898-2005

6 Star Top 10%, Congress (Failure, Reform), Executive (Partisan Failure, Reform), Strategy, Values, Ethics, Sustainable Evolution, War & Face of Battle

Truly Brilliant, Reflects a Sea Change in Scholarship

July 31, 2007

Donald E. Schmidt

There are some fine reviews, so my primary purpose in posting this review is to flag it for the folks that keep an eye on what I read.

My one complaint is the tiny font size. I had to get special glasses from the supermarket to read this book, a $15 cost that should not have been necessary. The publisher made a serious mistake on the font size and I urge that all future printings be at least 11 font. This entire book is in a font normally used for obscure notes, and it takes dedication to get through this. Such valuable material should NOT be so parsimonesouly treated by a publisher, who should have known better.

I am among those that believe that war is a racket and that we live in an unconquerable world where the only possible positive outcome comes from combining the wealth of networks with the new craft of intelligence and free distance learning as well as on demand answers via cell phone, in order to empower the five billion at the base of the pyramid. Only they can create infinite wealth that stabilizes the entire planet in a sustainable fashion.

This author has ventured where few have had the imagination, persistence, or integrity to go. He has taken on the military-industrial establishment, the banks, the rule by secrecy and scarcity mandarins, and he has nailed it. This is a Nobel Prize level effort and I for one am deeply impressed.

His organization is superb, and even his fanciful conversation among all our Presidents is provocative. This is not “turgid text,” this is the fabric of history restored and rewoven.

Shortly Medard Gabel will have a book come out entitled “Seven Billion Billionaries,” and I urge one and all to buy that book along with this one. They are two sides of the coin. This book is focused on the folly of war (which today costs $900 billion a year across all nations, with the USA being the most spendthrift), while Medard's focuses on the inexpensiveness and achievability of peace and prosperity–in his carefully documented manuscript, every bit the equal of this author's, he shows how $230 billion a year–LESS than a third of what we spend on our varied militaries, could resolve every single one of the high level threats to mankind identified by LtGen Dr. Brent Scowcroft, USAF (Ret), and the other members of this United Nations panel.

I hope this book is put into the digital domain prompty, for the wealth of information it contains will be made all the more valuable as we move to an era of transparent budgets, digital democracy, and constant oversight from the people whose money has been wasted so cruelly all these years.

See my many lists for other recommended readings. Below are a handful of books that complement this one.
War Is a Racket: The Anti-War Classic by America's Most Decorated General, Two Other Anti=Interventionist Tracts, and Photographs from the Horror of It
The Unconquerable World: Power, Nonviolence, and the Will of the People
The New Craft of Intelligence: Personal, Public, & Political–Citizen's Action Handbook for Fighting Terrorism, Genocide, Disease, Toxic Bombs, & Corruption
Designing Web-Based Training: How to Teach Anyone Anything Anywhere Anytime
Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Movement in the World Came into Being and Why No One Saw It Coming
The Sorrows of Empire: Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic (The American Empire Project)
Rogue Nation: American Unilateralism and the Failure of Good Intentions
Wilson's Ghost: Reducing the Risk of Conflict, Killing, and Catastrophe in the 21st Century
Deliver Us from Evil: Peacekeepers, Warlords and a World of Endless Conflict
The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism

2007/07/292009/12/04

Review DVD: THE ART OF RACING SAILING

4 Star, Reviews (DVD Only), Sailing

Must Own, Must View Annually

July 29, 2007

Bennett Marine Video

It's a stormy day and the boat I crew on (as a grinder, the lowest of the low) is in for warranty work, so I spent the afternoon with this DVD.

It grabbed me right off by pointing out that many races are won or lost before the boat ever hits the water, and then going over a stem to stern list of all the warps and unevenness along the hull that could significantly reduce the boats symmetry and consequently, speed.

I can barely remember all the good stuff covering every position on the boat, but I know now that I am going to have to watch this DVD at least twice more this season, and then annually thereafter.

I'm a big fan of Gary Jobson and have his book; I dsicovered his DVD by wrting this review and will buy it. In the meantime, this specific DVD is a world-class opportunity to improve your racing sailing, at a price that so low that buying this could be the best $30 bucks you ever spend.

See my list of great sailing books, adding this DVD to it.

Gary Jobson's Championship Sailing : The Definitive Guide for Skippers, Tacticians, and Crew
Racing To Win with Gary Jobson
Getting Started in Sailboat Racing
Championship Tactics: How Anyone Can Sail Faster, Smarter, and Win Races
Whitbread 97/98: Pushing The Limits.
The Race: Extreme Sailing and Its Ultimate Event: Nonstop, Round-the-World, No Holds Barred
Volvo Round the World Race: The SEB Stopover Reports.
Advanced Racing Tactics

2007/07/292009/10/16

Review: High Tech Trash–Digital Devices, Hidden Toxics, and Human Health

6 Star Top 10%, Environment (Problems)

One of my top ten (new list) for saving the planet

July 29, 2007

Elizabeth Grossman

Fairly quickly into this book I was comparing it to Silent Spring and to Pandora's Poison: Chlorine, Health, and a New Environmental Strategy.

This is a brilliant elegant work. If you agree with its premises it is a fast read, ending with an appendix on how to recycle electronic waste, and a truly superb bibliography. This is a serious book, a PhD level accomplishment, and totally objective and meritorious.

I am particularly impressed that Apple accepts its computer back for recycling in Japan, something we need to demand here. Indeed, if Apple and CISCO (for its routers and hubs) were to commit to total recycling, what is called for in Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Movement in the World Came into Being and Why No One Saw It Coming and described in more detail in Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things I for one would immediately switch my business and my office to iPhone, MacIntoch, and Open Office from Sun (on verge of being fully implementable within Apple's operating system).

Other books on my top ten:
Where to find 4 billion new customers: expanding the world's marketplace; Smart companies looking for new growth opportunities should consider broadening … consultant.: An article from: The Futurist (Forthcoming as a book, see my keynote to Gnomedex, “Open Everything”
The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid: Eradicating Poverty Through Profits
The Manufacture of Evil: Ethics, Evolution and the Industrial System
Diet for a Small Planet
The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom
Thank God for Evolution!: How the Marriage of Science and Religion Will Transform Your Life and Our World

2007/07/282009/12/04

Review DVD: Peaceful Warrior

5 Star, Peace, Poverty, & Middle Class, Reviews (DVD Only)

Karate Kid on Steroids for Adults with a Brain,

July 28, 2007

Scott Mechlowicz

I spent an enchanting evening with this move. Having lived all over the world as the son of an oilman, an infantry officer, and a clandestine case officer (spy), everything here resonated with me. This was a wonderful way to spend the evening.

Here are some other items that complement the theme:
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values
Way of the Peaceful Warrior: A Book That Changes Lives
Gandhi (Widescreen Two-Disc Special Edition)
Peace One Day
The Age of Missing Information
Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Movement in the World Came into Being and Why No One Saw It Coming
The Tao of Democracy: Using Co-Intelligence to Create a World That Works for All
What the Bleep Do We Know!?

See also my list of Transpartisan Books. We are at a rare stage in history, when the elites are collapsing and We the People are re-emerging as soverign common sense for the common wealth.

Category: 1-7 Star Rating

Review: Promoting Peace with Information–Transparency as a Tool of Security Regimes

Review: The Political Economy of Grand Strategy

Review: The Tao of Abundance–Eight Ancient Principles for Living Abundantly in the 21st Century

Review: The Folly of War–American Foreign Policy, 1898-2005

Review DVD: THE ART OF RACING SAILING

Review: High Tech Trash–Digital Devices, Hidden Toxics, and Human Health

Review DVD: Peaceful Warrior