New Thinking On How AFRICOM Can Help Increase Stability (Strategic Studies Institute)

The Army War College's Strategic Studies Institute has just published what I think is an extremely interesting and insightful monograph about the kinds of engagement activities AFRICOM needs to consider in order to help increase stability in sub-Saharan Africa.

Titled, "Civilian Skills for African Military Officers to Resolve the Infrastructure, Economic Development, and Stability Crisis in Sub-Saharan Africa," and authored by Diane Chido, this 56 page monograph contains "a good bit of good thinking" and should be required reading for anyone in the defense cooperation, defense partnership or security assistance communities that support African missions.  

Intelligence professionals should find this volume interesting as well for its exploration, in case-study format, of previous stability efforts in Africa.  The author highlights a number of indicators that probably aren't normally considered but seem to be highly relevant to any peacekeeping and stability operations in which the US might participate in Africa.

It is free to download here.  Worth checking out. 

(Full disclosure:  Diane is a friend and frequent co-author of mine.  I had nothing to do with this monograph, however (she wouldn't even let me see a draft...).  I first took a look at it today and was, as I usually am, impressed with her grasp of the issue and the quality of her recommendations.  As someone who spent several years working defense cooperation issues, I think she has hit the nail on the head.  While I may be biased, I still think that, if you work African issues at all, you owe it to yourself to read this book.)

Japanese Space Elevators, Terrorism In The Phillipines And Graffiti (Catching Up)

I love teaching strategic intelligence but it does take it out of me. The centerpiece of the class is a series of small group projects for real world decisionmakers on a variety of business, law enforcement or national security topics. In the past, we have done projects, for example, for the NIC, the 66th MI and the Army War College on topics ranging from bioterror preparedness in Europe to the role of non-state actors in sub-saharan Africa.

This last term (we are on the quarter system at Mercyhurst so we are just winding up our fall term) was no exception. I had good solid projects from decisionmakers that wanted and needed the results coupled with teams of hard-working, dedicated student analysts to get things done. 10 teams to be exact. For those of you keeping score at home, that is technically known as "a ton of strategic intelligence projects".

Anyway, Strategic (as it is fondly -- maybe? -- called by the students) kept me from blogging about all of the other interesting stuff that has been happening lately as well. I will try to catch up next week, but here are some recent highlights.

Cyndi Lee, a current grad student, recently had an article published by ISN talking about the prospects for a Japanese space elevator. Once thought to be just science fiction, Cyndi's research suggests that the technology is either here, right now, or within reach and that the Japanese are serious about trying to make it happen.

I may have mentioned this before but my long-time writing partner, Diane Chido, also had a piece published by ISN on the "exportability" of the model used in the Phillipines to reduce the threat posed by Abu Sayyaf. If you missed it (or I forgot to mention it), it is worth your time.

Diane has also recently established herself as a freelance intelligence analyst and launched the company DC Analytics. I am prejudiced, of course, but if you have read her thesis or any of her other articles on ISN or her books or her essays in Competitive Intelligence Magazine, you know she is a talented professional with all the right credentials to go "indie". She joins Mark Blair and Mike Thomas of Dagir Co. as Mercyhurst grads who have become intelligence entrepreneurs.

Finally, one of the strategic teams mentioned earlier, working for the Erie Graffiti Task Force, has really been making a spash locally. The Task Force is an ad hoc group of local business owners, politicians and academics trying to constructively tackle the issue of graffiti. With the limited resources they have at their disposal, they really needed strategic intelligence to help inform their strategy. The project turned out very well and was extremely well-received by not only the Task Force, but also by the Mayor of Erie, Joe Sinnott, who sat in on the final brief.

Abu Sayyaf Counterterror Model Unlikely To Work Globally (ISN)

Mercyhurst alum and freelance intel analyst (a job she is pretty much inventing), Diane Chido, has an interesting article on ISN today regarding the prospects for using the so-called Abu Sayyaf model of combatting terrorism to other parts of the globe. Diane is not sanguine: "Abu Sayyaf has been contained thru anti-terrorist measures as part of the war on terror, but this is due to several factors unique to this group – factors that do not make this process a model for successful application in other regions." Read the entire article here.

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