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Analysis

  • Why “Cyberwar” Isn’t Happening

    “Cyberwar” is an imprecise and ugly term. Equal parts misleading and ambiguous, the term cyberwar has somehow battled its way into our modern lexicon and is used vaguely to describe acts of virtual aggression. Most often, cyberwar is used to describe an ill-defined and inevitable sate of computer-centric conflict between two nation states or groups.…

  • We’re only Human: Addressing the Cyber Threat Origin

    Private entities are pouring money and manpower into creating the best technologies to help mitigate a host of threats in the cyber realm. The US federal government is increasingly following this strategy. Yet, even cutting edge technology cannot determine one of the most critical and elusive intelligence questions: motivation. What drives the adversary? What does…

  • Destruction and Creation

    To comprehend and cope with our environment we develop mental patterns or concepts of meaning. The purpose of this paper is to sketch out how we destroy and create these patterns to permit us to both shape and be shaped by a changing environment. In this sense, the discussion also literally shows why we cannot…

  • Skid Row Terrorist

    The rubric of terrorism studies embeds terrorist TTPs (Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures) within the overall context of motivations and intent that a terrorist are/is presumed to have. This is further fundamentally subordinate to the over-arching al-Qaeda framework. However, if we consider characters such as the ‘dishevelled or nihilist terrorist’ (Flaherty, 2012), then terrorist TTPs have…

  • The Cyber Moscow Rules: Trust no one. Trust no device.

    Lessons learned from US agents who operate in enemy territory have been captured for years and transformed into a code of conduct popularly known as “Moscow Rules.” Those old rules existed for a reason. Real-world experience proved their effectiveness when agents had to operate in the presence of adversaries. Since modern cyber defenders are also…

  • When Armies Divide: The Security of Nuclear Arsenals During Revolts, Coups, and Civil Wars

    In this brief volume Jenkins takes a detailed look at the General’s putsch, which was a 1961 coup attempt by a group of retired French Generals against President Charles de Gaulle. However, it is not the putsch itself that attracts Jenkins’ analytical attention, but the chaos surrounding the status of a nuclear device that was…

  • West Africa: Terrorism’s New Front Yard

    Introduction There is a new front in the global fight against terrorism and terrorists. Ethnic, religious, and political tensions in West Africa, simmering for the past few years, have boiled over into widespread violence and coordinated military efforts throughout the region. A recent attack at an oil facility in Algeria has highlighted the wealth of…

  • Slavery and Human Trafficking in 2013

    Introduction Reports and statistics from the UN, national governments, and politically diverse NGO’s demonstrate that human trafficking and slavery are as common today as they were during the years when transAtlantic slave trading was a legal enterprise. Estimates place the number of global victims as high as 29 million. The reality of this twenty-first century…

  • Adam Lanza and Dangerous Minds

    We asked Chris Flaherty, author of the recent OODA sponsored monograph entitled “Dangerous Minds: The Relationship between Beliefs, Behaviors, and Tactics” for his thoughts regarding the recent Adam Lanza attacks. What follows is his response. “Adam Lanza, has been the subject of much media speculation, however if some of the reporting is to be credited…

  • The International Drug Trade and West Africa: An Enforcement Quandary

    “In the past decade, there has been significant growth in the illicit trafficking of drugs, people, firearms, and natural resources. Trafficking in these and other commodities is generally characterized by high levels of organization and the presence of strong criminal groups and networks. While such activities existed in the past, both the scale and the…


OODAcasts

  • John Chambers on Risk and Opportunity in the Modern Age

    John Chambers on Risk and Opportunity in the Modern Age

    John Chambers is the legendary former CEO of Cisco, a company he helped grow from $70 million in revenue per year when he joined in 1991 to $1.2 billion a year the year he became CEO to over $48 billion a year by the time he retired in 2015. As a leader John was always…

  • Simon Clark on Investigating the Key Man and a Billion Dollar Fraud

    Simon Clark on Investigating the Key Man and a Billion Dollar Fraud

    In this OODAcast, we talk with Pulitzer Prize nominated journalist Simon Clark about his book the “The Key Man: The True Story of How the Global Elite Was Duped by a Capitalist Fairy Tale “. The book tells the story of Arif Naqvi and his Dubai-based private-equity firm Abraaj and attracted he billions of dollars…

  • Charity Wright on China’s Digital Colonialism
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    Charity Wright on China’s Digital Colonialism

    Charity Wright is a Cyber Threat Intelligence Analyst with over 15 years of experience at the US Army and the National Security Agency, where she translated Mandarin Chinese. Charity now specializes in dark web cyber threat intelligence, counter-disinformation, and strategic intelligence at Recorded Future. Her analysis has provided deep insights into a variety of incidents,…

  • Jan Chipchase on Field Research for Actionable Insights

    Jan Chipchase on Field Research for Actionable Insights

    Jan Chipchase is the founder and director of Studio D Radiodurans, a research, design and innovation consultancy. He specializes in identifying nuanced patterns of human behavior. The insight it generates informs and inspires design, strategy, brand and public policy. Jan describes his work in design anthropology in terms of a satellite launched into space that…

  • Ben Dubow on Detecting and Countering Malign Influence Operations

    Ben Dubow on Detecting and Countering Malign Influence Operations

    Ben Dubow is CTO and founder of Omelas, a firm that provides data and analysis on how nations manipulate the web to achieve their geopolitical goals. He has a background in research on Russian and Chinese online information operations and is a recognized expert, having appeared on international media including Reuters, Bloomberg and Roll Call.…

  • Jahon Jamali On Bitcoin, Ethereum, and the Coming Metaverse

    Jahon Jamali is a leading expert on emerging technologies, global risk management and international relations. He began his career as a U.S. Intelligence Officer with the Defense Intelligence Agency. He also has extensive experience in the high tech community creating and growing startups through to successful exits. All this makes him an even more credible…

  • Maury Rogow: Every Corporation Will Have A Metaverse Strategy

    Maury Rogow: Every Corporation Will Have A Metaverse Strategy

    Maury Rogow builds a solid case that your brand will live or die based on the story you tell in the metaverse. Maury is a pioneer in applying the art of storytelling to convey the value of technology in the Internet age. He built a successful approach to storytelling that made direct contributions to the…

  • Alan Cohen of DCVC on Investing in Deep Tech For Humanity

    Alan Cohen of DCVC on Investing in Deep Tech For Humanity

    Alan Cohen is a partner at DCVC, a highly regarded venture capital firm who pioneered the concept of investing in Deep Tech. He has helped lead and grow some of the most influential enterprise IT companies in the world. We talk tech with Alan, and he is the perfect guy to examine some of the…

  • Digital Self Sovereignty and Avoiding the Long Night with John Robb

    Digital Self Sovereignty and Avoiding the Long Night with John Robb

    John is one of the most disruptive thinkers of our time and is capable of drilling down on critical issues like security, society, and technology with deep authority and insights. In this conversation we cover a lot of topics, including John’s concept of OODA Shear, data and digital self sovereignty, Afghanistan, AI, Bitcoin, and the…

  • Inman’s Rules: The Enduring Principles of Operational Intelligence

    Inman’s Rules: The Enduring Principles of Operational Intelligence

    Admiral Bobby Ray Inman retired from the US Navy in 1982. But his influence endures. His principles, which he codified into a list still exchanged among intelligence community leaders today, is now known as Inman’s Rules. In this OODAcast interview of Admiral Inman we review these rules, seeking insights into how they can be applied to…

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