Brian Michael Jenkins is a long term OODA Network member and friend to the community. He is a researcher, thinker and writer known for producing books which have broad impact on decision-makers in government and industry. Brian was a Green Beret who initiated one of the first terrorism research programs in the nation.  We will be reviewing one of his more recent books soon, he recently published “Plagues and Their Aftermath”, which takes a long historical look at epidemics and pandemics and extracts lessons for our post COVID world.

Brian also recently published an essay we recommend to all our network members. The topic is so important in our view we have asked Brian to give us an overview at our 18 November member meeting.

The topic is domestic political violence.

This is such a thorny problem that many chose to ignore it or simply hope it becomes better. Many in the national security space have spent a career in organizations that are almost forced to ignore domestic political violence because of the foreign national focus of DoD and the IC. And many in federal law enforcement are still focused hard on preventing 9/11 style attacks, and the rise of this new threat has yet to be as recognized as it should be. It is different.

But other forward thinkers have been hitting this topic directly. We are fortunate that Brian is one of those. In his essay in the West Point Counterterrorism Center’s Sentinel titled Elements of a Pragmatic Strategy to Counter Domestic Political Violence Brian provides fantastic context that goes far beyond just capturing the issues. He leads to practical things that should be done now. These practical steps are not things that require dramatic changes to the law (there are few that changes to the law could help with). For the most part law enforcement and other government agencies have plenty of authorities to execute on these practical steps.

For more context please join us 18 Nov at 1pm eastern. Members should have already received an invite to this session. If you did not get yours please get in touch.

And if you are interested but have not applied to be a member yet see: Join OODAloop

About the Author

Daniel Pereira

Daniel Pereira is research director at OODA. He is a foresight strategist, creative technologist, and an information communication technology (ICT) and digital media researcher with 20+ years of experience directing public/private partnerships and strategic innovation initiatives.