DefDog: Jim Clapper On Way Out? + RECAP

Surprise, surprise…..such a disaster it could be a blessing in disguise…his replacement? General Flynn, the individual who said intel in Afghanistan was a failure…..and it is. DNI Jim Clapper Out in Fall? Rumor Mill Says Maybe Colin Clark WASHINGTON: Jim Clapper, the first Director of National Intelligence to order budget cuts across the intelligence community, …

The Drone Wars

  Recently, the New York Times (4 February 2012) published a story, “U.S. Plans Shift to Elite Units as It Winds Down in Afghanistan”, and the Washington Post (5 February 2012) followed with “U.S. to elevate Special Operations forces’ role in Afghanistan.” From the Washington Post version, I noted the following salient points. “The U.S. …

Event: AM 31 Mar Washington Panel on Complexity & Reflexivity, Washington Academy of Sciences + Meta-RECAP

Complexity and Reflexivity Papers presented at the Washington Academy of Sciences Washington, DC, March 31-April 1, 2012 UPDATED 24 Feb to post all links Conceptions of Complexity and Implications for Economics Stuart Umpleby, The George Washington University, Washington, DC Experiments in Reflexive Inquiry Kent Myers, Associate, Booz Allen Hamilton Conceptual Difficulties and Pragmatic Responses to …

Marcus Aurelius: Slouching Toward Persistent War

COMMENT:  Only a couple of things wrong with the scenario described below:  (1) Vickers works for a POTUS, Administration and Congress committed to emasculating the National security operation IOT underwrite the incompetent/unindustrious/etc.; and (2) not always possible to be optimally surgical. Los Angeles Times, February 19, 2012, Pg. 30 Slouching Toward Persistent War Even as our …

Robert Steele: Intelligent Management of Intelligence Agencies, and the New Craft of Intelligence

I have begun drafting my portion of the new Handbook of Intelligence Studies (Routledge, 2013), it is a chapter early on entitled “The Craft of Intelligence.”  I pick up where Allen Dulles and Sherman Kent left off.  My graphic on Intelligence Maturity captures the essence of my thinking at the strategic level, but of course …