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Informing your decisions with actionable intelligence
Start your day with intelligence. Get The OODA Daily Pulse.
Informing your decisions with actionable intelligence
Matt Devost and Winn Schwartau talk discuss what has happened in the information warfare and cyberconflict space over the past twenty years.
The recent theft of a truckload of highly radioactive material in Mexico unearthed a series of panicked questions about the homeland security threat of dirty bombs. “What are they?”, “what can they do?”, “who has them?”, and “who could have them?” were questions the media found themselves mostly unprepared to answer. Before long, however, the…
We are pleased to present this monograph on frame reflection. As the authors note: “Our hope is that the insights gained from institutional barriers in the modern military may provide insights for designers in other walks – with ideas on framing messy situations. We have advocated that frame reflection is essential to design practice in…
“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.…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
Iran has released five US-Iranian dual nationals into house arrest, according to US officials. The individuals include Siamak Namazi, Emad Shargi, and Morad Tahbaz, the latter of whom also holds a British passport. A fourth individual and a fifth who had been previously released were also among those affected. The releases were reportedly part of…
Ukraine has issued a mandatory evacuation order for all civilians in 37 settlements in the north-east of the country due to increased Russian attacks in the area. The order comes as Russia intensifies its attacks on Ukraine. Ukrainian officials report that Russian troops have gained some ground in the area, while Ukraine claims to have…
A BBC survey across nine African countries has found that women on the minimum wage in Ghana have to spend one in every seven dollars they earn on sanitary pads. The survey compared the minimum wage to the cost of the cheapest sanitary pads and found that in many cases, the cost was beyond the…
The individuals arrested in connection with the killing of Ecuadorian presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio have been identified as Colombian nationals. A seventh suspect, who died in a shootout with police, was also Colombian. Villavicencio was assassinated leaving a campaign event in Quito, and his murder has sparked concerns about organized crime’s involvement in Ecuadorian politics.…
Portugal is currently facing intense wildfires that have engulfed thousands of hectares of land, as firefighters struggle to contain the flames amid soaring temperatures. The fires near the southern town of Odemira have forced more than 1,400 people to evacuate and have so far destroyed around 6,700 hectares of land. The extreme heatwave, with temperatures…
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has stated that Russia’s Wagner mercenary group is exploiting the instability in Niger following a recent coup. The country’s ruling junta, which came to power after ousting President Mohamed Bazoum, is reported to have requested assistance from Wagner, which is active in neighboring Mali. While Blinken doesn’t believe that…
The eight countries sharing the Amazon basin have fallen short of their agreed goal to end deforestation at a summit in Belém, Brazil. While a joint declaration formed an alliance to combat deforestation, each country was left to pursue its own conservation goals. The Amazon, which covers around 60% of Brazil, plays a crucial role…
The UK Scouts, the largest group at the World Scout Jamboree in South Korea, are leaving the event early due to extreme heat. Temperatures reached 35°C (95°F), causing hundreds of participants to fall ill. The British group, which consists of over 4,000 members, is relocating from Saemangeum to Seoul in an effort to alleviate the…
NASA has successfully reestablished contact with its Voyager 2 probe, which had lost communication with Earth in July due to a wrong command. Thanks to an “interstellar shout” command, the probe’s antenna has been realigned to face Earth again, allowing NASA to regain contact. Mission controllers used a powerful transmitter to send the command, and…
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, imprisoned since 2021, has had his jail term extended to 19 years after being found guilty of founding and funding an extremist organization. Navalny, a vocal critic of the Kremlin, has been serving a nine-year term for other charges, widely regarded as politically motivated. He will now be held in…
The ongoing conflict in Ukraine has entered a critical phase, with the country launching a counter-offensive against Russian forces. While aided by Western military equipment, progress has been slow due to Russia’s extensive fortifications. Despite some small gains and strategic advancements, such as the potential disruption of Russian supply routes, the overall territorial situation remains…
Informing your decisions with actionable intelligence
Informing your decisions with actionable intelligence