Project White Horse Forum

As the day closed on September 11 2001, we began the process of “doing what we know”- we had been attacked – strangely suprising to some in other lands, Americans strike back hard when treaded upon – so we went to war in the way we know how.  The events of September 11, 2001 were of such magnitude, […]

Boundary Condition #1 (4) UPDATE 16 March: See the comments below from PWH’s contributors and advisors One significant element of an unconventional crisis as compared to other large catastrophes is the complex maps of actors – Catastrophic crises systematically involve an enormous variety of stakeholders, on an international scale. Pictures from Japan: http://www.cnn.com/interactive/2011/03/world/hires.japan.quake/index.html?hpt=T1 Preparation? Readiness? […]

Boundary Condition #1 (2)           “Conventional crises rarely require high levels of inbuilt resiliency from our systems. This is because such events tend to affect circumscribed “ground zeros,” and therefore can be tackled by bringing to bear the “normal” assets and strategies of the unscathed outside on the impacted area.  On the other hand, catastrophic […]

Boundary Condition #1 (1) The idea of Intersectional ideas – those resulting from combining concepts from multiple fields or areas of specialization gained through education and experience – has been previously introduced with it’s own PWH section. This is the first of several year ending posts intended to set the stage for intersectional discussions for […]

If one is to discuss leadership, what it requires to “decide and act” in severe crisis, the journey  should start here. A real love for the hard battle, knowing it offers the opportunity to be at your best when the best is required. Competiveness: John R Wooden  More reading about Coach Wooden and his “pyramid of […]

Essential Elements of Information for a Culture of Preparedness Alternative analysis is the super-class of techniques of which red teaming may be considered a member… these techniques are designed to help debias thinking, enhance decision making, and avoid surprise. (From Red Team Journal) http://redteamjournal.com/ As noted in The 2010 Announcement post, Project White Horse focus […]

Miranda Rights, IEDs, Counter Terrorism, Weapons of Mass Destruction, “reasonable doubt,” Counter Insurgency, cyber war, Geneva Conventions, enemy combatants gang warfare and Drug wars,etc., etc, are all elements that must be considered in defining or even just establishing boundary conditions in a search for “what kind of war.”  While certainly this series has not answered […]

Essential Elements of Information for a Culture of Preparedness There seems to be a trend toward treating events of terrorism as if they were specifically a law-enforcement problem , rather than  enemy operations in the context of war and warfare. Both require application of force  “but for force to be effective the desired outcome of […]

 Essential Elements of Information for a Culture of Preparedness America has an impressive record of starting wars but a dismal one of ending them well. Andrew J. Bacevich is professor of history and international relations at Boston University. He is a retired Army Colonel, graduate of  West Point, serving in Vietnam in 1970 and 71.  In […]