Handbook: Peace Operations for the JTF Commander

Long over-due for re-issuance, this time with a great deal more participation from all Eight Tribes, and a really warm welcome for the US Institute of Peace (USIP) which hit its stride with Guiding Principles for Stabilization and Reconstruction (Paperback).  No one answers the phone when we call to ask about an update.

Review: A Question of Command: Counterinsurgency from the Civil War to Iraq (Yale Library of Military History) (Hardcover)

Brilliant but Narrow, Simplifies A Bridge Too Far December 19, 2009 Mark Moyar EDIT of 21 Feb 2010:  A colleague in COINSOC has pointed out that I missed one key aspect of this book and I hasten to add it: “Moyar’s point that we are applying peacetime personnel policies by putting people in place based …

Worth a Look: Contractors in Stability Operations

Stability Operations for Dummies: The Role of the Prvate Sector in Iraq (YouTube Briefing) Doug Brooks, founding President of the International Peace Operations Association (IPOA) has a video circulating that offers the soft sales pitch for outsourcing “contingency support.”  It is all positive and completely avoids all of the negatives, such as: 1.  Pillaging and …

Reference: General McCaffrey’s Trip Report on AF

After Action Report–General Barry McCaffrey, USA (Ret) Visit to Kuwait and Afghanistan 10-18 Nov 09 11 pages Extracted points 01 Phenomenally useful report with too much cheerleading.  This is a 10-year regional war, State Department and AID are pulling out for next several years (too dangerous), costing us roughly half per day what we paid …

Graphic: Multi-Lateral Sharing

This is a 2000-2002 slide that bears on the extraordinary possibilities inherent in creating a global multinational open source information sharing and sense-making grid.  The 80-20 rule really does seem to stand up under most circumstances.  White Hat (Stabilization & Reconstruction, Peaceful Preventive Measures) are especially responsible to shared open source information across all boundaries. …

Handbook: 12 Traits of Sustainable Communities

This is UNDER CONSTRUCTION but still useful to intelligence analysts thinking about stabilization & reconstruction, and when combined with our revolution preconditions matrix, can inform Strategic Communications as well as Information Operations (IO).  Notice the emphasis on identifying INDICATORS, in political science this is called “operationalization” and serves to connect outcomes with indicators with data …

Search: 1000 Ship Navy

The “1000 ship Navy” is a delusional concept that assumes we can count on other navies–the same delusion that led to the Navy being heavy in the 1980’s and 1990’s while completely lacking in “small craft” such as mine-sweepers.  We wrote the original J-2 Plans piece on Somali pirates in 2005 and nothing was done–years …