Culture Matters: How Values Shape Human Progress. Edited by Lawrence E. Harrison and Samuel P. Huntington

A developed nation provides two things to its citizens: political freedom and a decent standard of living. Why are some countries able to accomplish this and others not? The world at the beginning of the twenty-first century is more divided than ever between the rich and the poor, between those living in freedom and those under oppression. Even in prosperous democracies, troubling gaps in well-being persist. As the credibility of traditional explanations-colonialism, dependency, racism-declines, many now believe that the principal reason why some countries and ethnic groups are better off than others lies in the cultural values that powerfully shape nations and peoples' political, economic, and social performance. Many of the distinguished contributors to Culture Matters believe that value and attitude change is indispensable to progress for those who are lagging. Among the prominent scholars and journalists contributing to the volume are Francis Fukuyama, Nathan Glazer, David Landes, Seymour Martin Lipset, Orlando Patterson, Michael Porter, Jeffrey Sachs, and Richard Shweder. Lawrence E. Harrison is a senior fellow at the Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies and the author of Who Prospers? and The Pan-American Dream.

Global Intelligence: The World's Secret Services Today by Paul Todd & Jonathan Bloch

The CIA, the KGB, MI5, Mossad, Boss, Savak, Dina - the names read like a rollcall of the seamier side of history in the years following the Second World War. In the 21st century the Cold War is dead; there are fewer dictatorships; and 9/11 has created a whole new raison d'etre for covert action. This volume explains the impact of the war on terrorism on the world's secret services and intelligence agencies and describes how ultra-modern new technologies have vastly increased their power to spy and eavesdrop. It also reveals the changing priorities and working methods of intelligence services around the world and raises issues including the new roles of the secret services as they target rogue states , the war on drugs , and terrorists . The authors explore the unsolved contradiction between secretive and unaccountable agencies operating on the fringes of the law, and the requirements of a free and democratic society.

Guns, Germs and Steel: A Short History of Everybody for the Last 13,000 Years by Jared M. Diamond

Why did Eurasians conquer, displace, or decimate Native Americans, Australians, and Africans, instead of the other way around? In this groundbreaking work, an evolutionary biologist dismantles racially-based theories and reveals the environmental factors actually responsible for history's broadest patterns. A whirlwind tour through 13,000 years of human history, beginning when Stone Age hunter-gatherers constituted the entire population. Here is a truly a world history, brilliantly written and radically new.
Jared Diamond argues that both geography and the environment played major roles in determining the shape of the modern world. This argument runs counter to the usual theories that cite biology as the crucial factor. Diamond claims that the cultures that were first able to domesticate plants and animals were then able to develop writing skills, as well as make advances in the creation of government, technology, weaponry, and immunity to disease.

Guns, Germs and Steel was initially subtitled ‘The Fates of Human Societies.’ Within a few months, this subtitle had evolved into ‘A Short History of Everybody for the Last 13,000 Years.’ Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for non-fiction, the Rhone Poulenc Science Book Prize, along with three other international literary prizes, Guns, Germs and Steel has been translated into 25 languages and has sold millions of copies around the world.

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Prospects for Iraq’s Stability: Some Security Progress but Political Reconciliation Elusive. August 2007 update to the National Intelligence Estimate

This assessment updates the January 2007 National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iraq entitled, Prospects for Iraq’s Stability: A Challenging Road Ahead; it has been prepared at the direction of the Director of National Intelligence in response to a request from the National Security Council. It provides the Intelligence Community’s analysis of the status of the critical factors identified in the January Estimate that are driving Iraq’s security and political trajectory. Using the January Estimate as a baseline, this update examines the prospects for progress on the security and national reconciliation fronts over the next six to 12 months.

Mission Al Jazeera: Build a Bridge, Seek the Truth, Change the World by Josh Rushing

Josh Rushing was a US Marine Corps Captain who served as a spokesperson for United States Central Command (USCENTCOM) during Operation Iraqi Freeedom (OIF) in 2003. Unbeknownst to him the documentary film, Control Room, captured his efforts to communicate the American message on Al Jazeera. He currently works for Al Jazeera English as a military and current affairs correspondent.

If we are to win the war on terror, Rushing explains, we have to interact with the media at home and abroad in order to control the way we are perceived. By refusing to appear on Al Jazeera, Western leaders allow people who disagree with the current administration to represent the West to the Arab world in a skewed, negative way. By taking readers inside Al Jazeera, Rushing offers a unique behind-the-scenes look at the controversial news channel and shows how the West can harness it to its advantage, relay a positive message to the Arab public, and hear what it has to say in return.

While challenging Pentagon assumptions and policies, Rushing continues to remain passionately engaged with the US military. He regularly addresses conferences of flag officers and speaks at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, the National Defense University, Command and General Staff Colleges, and the Defense Information School.

Video: Interview on 'Kevin Sites in the Hot Zone'

Josh Rushing Website

Spin: The Art of Selling War Part 1, Part 2
War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death by Norman Solomon

CDC Influenza Pandemic Operation Plan (OPLAN)

The Operation Plan (OPLAN) delineates how Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will prepare for and fight a devastating outbreak of infectious disease for our Nation, and the world. This CDC Influenza Pandemic OPLAN describes the internal processes within the CDC as a subordinate operating division (OPDIV) of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

Information provided in this OPLAN is intended as directive guidance for subordinate CDC organizations but will assist responsible individuals and others at all levels outside CDC to understand operational planning. All OPLANS need to be comprehensive enough to be used as guides for day-to-day operations, once an influenza pandemic appears anywhere in the world. This OPLAN is designed to allow the planners at every level within CDC to gain insights into "what" actions need to be taken in preparing for an influenza pandemic. The "how" to carry out these actions is left for the Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) selected to review and take actions articulated in this plan.

This document in no way prescribes guidance for any entity other than CDC agencies.


Link: PandemicFlu.gov

Scenarios: The Art of Strategic Conversation by Kees van der Heijden

This book deals with how managers can set out and negotiate a successful course into the future for an organization in the face of significant uncertainty. Uncertainties about the future are often felt to be uncomfortable and thus “swept under the table” by collapsing them into a single-line forecast. This is tantamount to abdication of managerial responsibility. Facing up to uncertainty changes the perspective on the future completely. The secret of success moves from “finding the best strategy” to “finding the best process.” Thinking about scenarios – the different plausible future environments that can be imagined – is the key to thinking the process through and to keep thinking about it as the plans for the future unfold. Scenarios deals first with the principles of organizational learning and then moves on to describe practical and down-to-earth ways in which the organization can develop its skill in conducting an ongoing scenario-based strategy process. The methods described are based on many years of experience of managers in both large and small organizations, and they are grounded in solid logic.

This second edition features brand-new material throughout, and places increased emphasis on the essential link between organizational success and unique insights and original ideas. In addition, the entire text has been rewritten to bring it up to date and make it more practical, while retaining its underlying rigor.

Handbook of Intelligence Studies by Loch Johnson

This topical volume offers a comprehensive review of secret intelligence organizations and activities.

Intelligence has been in the news consistently since 9/11 and the Iraqi WMD errors. Leading experts in the field approach the three major missions of intelligence: collection-and-analysis; covert action; and counterintelligence. Within each of these missions, the dynamically written essays dissect the so-called intelligence cycle to reveal the challenges of gathering and assessing information from around the world. Covert action, the most controversial intelligence activity, is explored, with special attention on the issue of military organizations moving into what was once primarily a civilian responsibility. The authors furthermore examine the problems that are associated with counterintelligence, protecting secrets from foreign spies and terrorist organizations, as well as the question of intelligence accountability, and how a nation can protect its citizens against the possible abuse of power by its own secret agencies.

The Handbook of Intelligence Studies is a benchmark publication with major importance both for current research and for the future of the field. It is essential reading for advanced undergraduates, graduate students and scholars of intelligence studies, international security, strategic studies and political science in general.

The Art of War by Sun Tzu

The Art of War (孙子兵法, literally "Sun Tsu's military strategy") is a Chinese military treatise written during the 6th century BC. Composed of 13 chapters, each of which is devoted to one aspect of warfare, it has long been praised as the definitive work on military strategies and tactics of its time.

Unrestricted Warfare by Senior Colonel Qiao Liang and Senior Colonel Wang Xiangsui, PLA

Unrestricted Warfare (超限战, literally "warfare beyond bounds") is a book on military written in 1999. Its primary concern is how a nation such as China can defeat a technologically superior opponent (such as the United States) through a variety of means. Rather than focusing on direct military confrontation, this book instead examines a variety of other means.

Emerging U.S. Commercial Remote Sensing Satellite Firms: An Overview

Full RAND Report
USGS Commercial Remote Sensing Space Policy (CRSSP)
Commercial Imagery Available from the U.S. Government
USGS Imagery Products:

• IKONOS/GeoEye
• OrbView-3/GeoEye
• DigitalGlobe QuickBird
• European Space Agency (ESA) Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR)
• SPOT
• LANDSAT

RADARSAT (Canada)

IRS (India)

Russian GIS НОВОСИБИРСК, РОССИЯ

(U) Signal Intelligence

(U) NSA SIGINT Overview
(U) NSA/CSS SIGINT FAQs
(U) Interception Capabilities
(U) Traffic Analysis Capabilities
(U) TEMPEST
(U) ECHELON

SIGINT Operational Platforms by Nation
Eye on SIGINT: The New Electronic Warfare
Prophet

Tactical SIGINT: Tagging, Tracking and Locating via Low-level Voice Intercept (LLVI), ground surveillance radar (GSR), direction finding (DF), Precision Geo-Location (PGL), and electronic attack (EA). Techniques include Watson-Watt, pseudo-doppler, correlative interferometer, TDOA, FDOA, beam forming, null steering, and higher-order statistics approaches. Documents

(U) FM 3-05.102 Army Special Operations Forces Intelligence (Inactive Publication)
(U) AR 190-53 Interception of Wire and Oral Communications for Law Enforcement Purposes

(U) FM 2-22.401 Multi-Service Tactics, Techniques and Procedures for Technical Intelligence Operations
(U) FM 3-90.15 Sensitive Site Operations

State of the Art: Competitive Intelligence

A Competitive Intelligence Foundation Research report 2005-2006, Executive Summary

A snapshot of who we are (competitive intelligence professionals), what we are doing (what competitive intelligence is), and who we are doing it for (clients and companies). Based on answers supplied by 520 CI professionals.

The Competitive Intelligence Foundation, a SCIP-supported 501(C)3 non-profit corporation, develops and promotes the body of knowledge for the competitive intelligence community through research and education. This study was jointly developed by the Competitive Intelligence Foundation and Cipher Systems.

The National Intelligence Estimate, July 2007. The Terrorist Threat to the US Homeland

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