2009 rebalancing instruments of national power

Rebalancing the Instruments of National Power:
Is a National Security Act of 2009 Necessary? Or 2008, Now?
By ROBERT DAVID STEELE (VIVAS)

America has hit bottom. The Comptroller as a reminder that America is a Republic and
General declared the Nation insolvent in the our Cabinet and flag officers have an obligation
summer of 2007, and—when Congress ignored to refuse illegal orders from the White House 3
him—resigned six months later to go public
with his concerns regarding the deficit, the The U.S. Army’s Strategic Studies Institute (SSI)
debt, and our future unfunded obligations. The held a conference 8-10 April 2008 on the topic
reality is that our domestic education, energy, of “Rebalancing the Instruments of National
health, infrastructure, water policies, among Power.”4 The gifted speakers resembled those
many others, are both foolish and unfunded. It who spoke in 1998 to the same conference,
is in this context that the militarization of with the title then of “Challenging the United
foreign policy and the elective engagement in a States Symmetrically and Asymmetrically,” a
three-trillion dollar war1 can be seen to have conference that questioned virtually every
further bankrupted the Nation of blood, aspect of Joint Vision 2010. The conclusions of
treasure, and spirit, while costing America its the two conferences are virtually identical. The
once-proud place as the ultimate champion of context is not: from 1988, when the
democracy, liberty, prosperity, stability, and Commandant of the Marine Corps, General Al
peace. Gray, called for a focus5 on the Third World
zones of instability, on non-traditional sources
As this is submitted to Joint Forces Quarterly, in of instability including gangs of revolutionaries,
May 2008, open source intelligence reports are terrorists, and criminals, and on a draconian
being confirmed to the effect that the President increase in attention to open sources of
and Vice President have told the Israelis information in 183 languages we do not speak,
privately that they intend to attack Iran before to as recently as 2006, nobody wanted to listen.
the end of their Administration. This article
reports on a recent and important conference. That has changed, and a great deal of credit
It does not seek to review the failure of must be attributed to The Honorable James
Congress to live up to Article 1 of the Locher, Admiral Dennis Blair, USN (Ret), and
Constitution, nor the unaccountability of the their network of sponsors, allies, and largely
Vice President for refusing Iran’s offer to pro bono participants in the working groups
negotiate across the board, an offer made in that comprise the Project on National Security
2003 via the Swiss and rejected by the Vice Reform within the Center for the Study of the
President with what can only be described as Presidency. With modest funding channeled via
nuclear negativity.2 the National Defense University, and with the
inputs from U.S. Army institutions such as the
However, it is in the above context that our U.S. Army Peacekeeping and Stability
Oaths of Office, which are to uphold the Operations Institute and the U.S. Army Strategic
Constitution, not the “chain of command,” Studies Institute, as well as many other
acquire the utmost importance. This article is organizations and individuals, they are ready to
presented not only as a summary of how best repeat the success of the Goldwater-Nichols
to improve the inter-agency policy process, but Act, and help the next President and the next

1

Congress implement “phase two” of national • We constantly underestimate willingness of
security reform with a mix of Presidential others to do great harm to bystanders
Directives, a National Security Act of 2009, and • Technology will not replace boots on the
recommended amendments to Senate and Hill ground
protocols, including a Select Committee for • We suffer from fallacy of misplaced
Inter-Agency Operations and Oversight in each concreteness (or more recently, from
Chamber. Their initiative is severely lacking in ideological fantasies unchecked by reality)
intelligence reform and has no multinational • We don’t do offensive asymmetry
information sharing and sense-making initiative, • Our planning process cannot deal with
but this deficiency is easily addressed. radical rapid shifts
• Civil-military relationships are weak
The 1990’s
• States are unlikely to attack us directly
• Army-Marine Corps competing with Navy-
From “The Asymmetric Threat: Listening to the
Air Force for budget share
Debate,” Joint Force Quarterly (Autumn/ Winter
• Need four forces after next:
1998-1999), a summary and analysis of the US
Army’s 1998 strategy conference, a few key o Big War (60%)
points merit repeating here—a full reading of o Small War (20%)
that document and others in the Notes can o Peace War (10%)
provide a robust intellectual foundation for o Homeland Defense (10%)
appreciating the vital importance of draconian • Soldiers cannot be policemen
reform in how we govern our great Nation. • Active-reserve mix needs adjustment
Here is what we knew in 1998: • Private sector role needs examination
• Intelligence remains an afterthought
• Decisionmaking has forgotten to plan, • Issue is one of balance across the
cannot adapt to change, and is unable to instruments of national power
stimulate a serious dialogue
• Mobility is more important than mass Remember, this was 1998, and like many other
• Technology without intelligence is blind similar endeavors in decades past, this sound
• Weapons’ cost must be appropriate to the strategic thinking was simply ignored by
target profile and priority political leaders all too eager to claim a peace
• Time and space favor the asymmetric non- dividend while also ignoring Peak Oil, water
traditional enemy aquifers dropping at alarming rates, food
• We spread ourselves too thin, this also security, the importance of national education
favors the asymmetric enemy and national infrastructure, and so on. In
consequence, America has hit bottom instead
• America is its own worst enemy
of having used the post-Cold War period wisely
• Vulnerabilities are largely in the civil sector
—and—most perversely—sound strategic
• Enemies know how to wage war between
thinking is now even more essential if we are to
the seams of our legal systems
contain an arrogant and reckless White House. 6
• Anonymous attacks will become common
• Existing force structure is acutely vulnerable The good news is that America remains the
to asymmetric attack most powerful and wealthiest Nation on the
• Nation is vulnerable to campaigns that planet, with infinite potential to create new
leverage the international and local media wealth and thus to promote stabilization and
• Dependency on volunteer contractors in the reconstruction around the world. As one
battle area is a major Achilles’ heel individual commented during the April event,

2

you solve illegal immigration by assuring a good • Must understand the past to affect the
life for all, everywhere, not by building walls future of our inter-agency environment
between the good life here and the pathos that • National Security Act of 1947 cannot be
stems from political corruption and criminal understood without looking back to 1930’s
looting of commonwealths everywhere else. • Pearl Harbor “never again” was catalyst
• Military gained place at high table and
Here are the highlights from each segment of ultimately displaced Diplomacy as top voice
the Army conference on “Rebalancing the • National intelligence got new money
Instruments of National Power.” • Inter-agency coordination understood to be
desirable, but never really achieved
Keynote Address7
• White House militarized via the National
Security Council, lost ability to manage
• We are not well-organized for new era
economic or other forms of power
• Challenges and dangers more complex • Outside the secret intelligence community,
• Threats are more dispersed there is virtually no understanding of the
o New nations (and 60 failed states) proven process of decision-support
o Loose nukes (and bio-chem) • Technical intelligence has come to
o Globalization undermines government dominate the budget and the process
o Super-empowered individuals • Need to achieve warning, partner with
o Local impacts global (e.g. Danish decision-makers, orchestrate all forms of
cartoon that infuriated Muslims intelligence, and achieve selective denial
everywhere) • US suffers from a strategic deficit. We need
• There are three D’s [latter speakers added grand strategists and standing plans for
the fourth and fifth below]8 long-term inter-agency and multinational
o Diplomacy endeavors in our national interest
o Defense • We are not exercising U.S. influence in an
o Development intelligent cost-effective manner.
o Domestic Capacity (Private Sector)
o Decision-Support (Intelligence) LUNCHEON DAY 110
• AfricaCom intended to be an inter-agency
command able to orchestrate Operations • There are many battlefields out there. One
Other Than War (OOTW) where we are weakest is that of irregular
• Difficult for an outside state to impose warfare, including both counter-insurgency
peace—we influence other contributors, and stabilization & reconstruction
while supporting indigenous initiatives • Five world maps have strong coincidence:
• Secretary of Defense Robert Gates on o Unstable and poorly governed regions
record: military alone cannot win the peace o Regions suffering from endemic
• Preventive action prior to crisis is necessary persistent disease, mortality, etcetera
• Active, Stand-By, and Reserve Forces o Most violent flash-points and hotspots
envisioned for Stabilization & o Surging populations in mega-cities
Reconstruction missions—nine months out o Distribution of natural resources
of the year in the field in non-permissive • Security must be re-defined
environments o Shrunken world, problems travel
o Heightened sensibilities
PANEL I: The Historical Background9 o Poor governance compounds ethnic and
other schisms and competitions

3

o Super-empowered individuals can cause • 1942 we knew we needed to understand
catastrophic (mostly civilian) damage social dynamics everywhere
• We must intervene decisively but lack the • 1965 we tried to do intensive study of
inter-agency culture of collaborative publics [some may recall Project Camelot]
planning and execution to be effective • DoD Directive 3000.05 mandated inclusion
• Individuals, organizations in constant churn, of tribal and other neighborhood-level
very little stability in our own government granularity. Human terrain program strives
• Great lesson of life is that no one is in to do that within funding constraints [zilch]
charge—we have to adapt to influencing • Military personnel want to know:
others in that kind of environment o Who’s who (social structure)
• Must do the D’s simultaneously—aid is no o What makes them tick (cultural beliefs,
longer about helping in permissive values, customs, behavior)
environments—complex and dangerous o What’s with all the tea drinking (cultural
• AfricaCom can influence foundations, non- forms including myths, narratives, and
governmental organizations, private sector symbols)
parties—this is a whole new area for o Assessments of risk generally high
developing concepts and doctrine. • Less than 1% of DoD budget spent on social
• Need flexible, sustainable, responsive sciences [this is similar to the secret
funding vehicles intelligence world’s refusal to spend more
• Need oversight committee for the inter- than a fraction of 1% on open sources of
agency process information in all languages]
• We are way behind the power curve and • New money pays for tools, not data—this is
not getting it done the sucking chest wound in Public
Diplomacy and Strategic Communication
PANEL II: Contemporary Strategic • There is no coordination of research across
Environment11 agencies, Need a proponent within NSC,
e.g. a Cultural Advisor to the President
• Information domain is the key terrain of the • Reach-back capability, 24/7 is valued
21st Century • Official testimonials are saying that the
• Our enemy is lies and half-truths, Human Terrain System (HTS) has reduced
misinformation, disinformation, any threat kinetic operations by 60-70%--better
to operational security and privacy, and our understanding, fewer bullets and dead
own complacency and ignorance • Having difficulty migrating this
• Enemy follows no conventional rules understanding to the top of the policy and
• Virtual Caliphate of 6,500 active extremist political chain of command
web sites we are not really understanding • Bureaucratic turf wars continue to set us
• Every soldier is a communicator, must all be back—even in the field, inter-agency
able to do timely public truth-telling elements are more about co-location than
• Our biggest battle is for the hearts and actual integration into a single team
minds of our own public and their • The innovators are too low in the chain
perception of how and why we do battle • Need budget and incentives for rotationals,
• We have a huge Cultural Knowledge Gap need flexible responsive contingency
• We have a huge Historical Knowledge Gap funding, and need to manage instability
• Tribes, groups, non-territorial publics are rather than seek to resolve outright
the center of gravity
PANEL III: The Military Instruments12

4

schools—there is no better investment than
• Four factors will impact on military future: to field a future president or military leader
o International environment who’s been trained in one of our schools
o Economic realities • Secretary Gates on record regarding
o Domestic political pressures unconventional warfare being relegated to
o Strategic realizations going mainstream the margins
• DoD is going to have to give up major • Army purged counter-insurgency
systems in order to fund peace operations capabilities after Viet-Nam
• Only other Nation-States can actually • Army must become highly adaptive and be
threaten USA with destruction, but most continuously assessing challenges
conflict will be on the low end • Stability operations are supposed to receive
• We are being destroyed on the Information comparable priority with combat
Operations (IO)13 end—it is easier to get operations
approval to drop a bomb than to do a press • Command & Staff College does not offer
release specialized blocks in counter-insurgency
• Need the multinational corps for small wars • Entire US Army, not just Special Operations
–we must anticipate need for proxies in Forces, must be able to train foreign armies
areas where US presence will incite anger • Need an Advisor Corps with transition
• Air power claims persistence and precision teams in permanent being, equivalent to
• Navy will push back, but for first time, 18th Airborne [Civil Affairs Brigade?]15
asking public what they want from Navy • Consensus is key to organizational learning
o Win wars and willingness to change—politics and
o Prevent major conflict existing cultures are pushing back hard
o Contain smaller conflicts • Services must discipline their appetites,
o Provide sea control when things go bad, move big war stuff into reserve, do
maritime security as a constant wholesale examination of naval aviation
o Sustain and foster relationships with
forward presence, humanitarian EVENING BANQUET16
assistance
• Need a professional and brutally honest • Inter-agency integration is not a solution for
roles and missions debate every challenge, but we have to get it right
• We must plan for advisor wars, hybrid wars • Democratic process can be messy, not
• Irregular warfare has many many categories essential to integrate prior planning, but
• We should plan to help others “do” once in the field, inter-agency integration is
counterinsurgency not do it ourselves essential to our success at a reasonable cost
• Greatest success is those wars we can [as noted in Panel II, today inter-agency
prevent from starting at all. Must do more operations are characterized by collocation,
to intervene in time—great deal of not by integration of inputs or outcomes].
incoherence in this dialogue. • At the tactical level there is no time for
• Role of Ambassador and country team not Constitutional, legal, policy, political review
well-defined or understood14 • Transnational threats require great
• Resident military advisors and short-term flexibility as well as inter-agency operations
training teams are hugely different offerings • Simplest things are now virtually
• Need to get back in business of sending out impossible, such as building a road quickly
many more advisors, while also attracting to help nurture the local economy
many more multinational students to our

5

• Cannot have reconstruction without • Commerce has no funding for inter-agency
security—need to plan for it planning and implementation
• Ultimate flexibility is in real money that can • Same process [and program dollars] used
be spent locally [ideally not on imported for Continuity of Government (COG) and
Private Military Contractors (PMC) but contingency responses overseas could be
rather within the local economy.] used to refine our inter-agency endeavors
• Somebody has to be in charge in the field • We could learn a great deal from other
• UN is actually a good model with the countries, every bit of it unclassified
Secretary General’s Special Representative • Agencies and Departments continue to play
(SGSR) and the Force Commander games with one another, the President, and
• Need to seek feedback at all times Congress:
o Zero-Sum game fight over resources
PANEL IV: Civilian Agency Capabilities 17 o Mandate game over who’s in charge
o Positive sum game blocked by lanes in
• DoD recognizes it cannot do it all, and in the road and lack of “whole of
2006 called for revitalization of civilian government” funding and oversight
agencies and of integrated statecraft. o Analysis game can earn respect and
• Country Reconstruction and Stabilization collaboration without coercion
Group (CRSG) oversees two elements: o Future is now game being demanded by
o Integration Planning Cell over-stressed commanders who need
o Advance Civilian Team daily help, not just long-term studies
• Key problem is staffing of expertise across • Lessons learned by economic advisor at
all fronts from justice and policing, public Pacific Command and then Central
administration, business recovery, essential Command:
services, diplomacy, diplomatic security o Win the analysis game
• Commerce is trying to support this and has o Master the informal partnership game
added the fourth D, Domestic Capacity— o Live every day as if the future is now
private sector can be influenced into o Develop horizontal leadership network
investing in and supporting some situations o Trust is the coin of the realm
• “Whole of government” means upfront
involvement in planning, not just in final PANEL V: Civilian Non-Agency Capabilities18
stages before implementation
• Commerce does not want to be a body shop • Recreating state institutions is not enough
or have a tether back to Washington, but —must rebuild locally owned and operated
rather to orchestrate technical assistance capabilities and create an enabling
by others environment at the local level19
• Value-added is reach-back to a broad range • Working group on working in non-
of experts across all technical support areas permissive environments is a good news
• Commerce examples include commercial story, US Institute for Peace (USIP) now has
law development, international trade a direct liaison to US Army’s Peacekeeping
administration, census operations, early and Stability Operations Institute
warning networks on disease detection, • We live in a 24/7 media coverage
telecommunications mentoring, patent environment.
mentoring • Attacks on UN and NGO people and
• In all areas, seek long-term relationships buildings have changed their attitudes
rather than short-term in and out missions

6

about collaboration for the better, but pyramidal organizations that rely on top
within strict rules of engagement down command and control, and the need
• After 9/11 all environments are non- to adopt circle organizations that allow for
permissive—NGOs recognize this, have very rapid adaptation and resilience at all
security officers and security training levels]
• Our goal is to leverage all actors • Complexity has sky-rocketed. Newt
• United Nations (UN) has amazing Gingrich says we have met the enemy and it
capabilities that we need to understand and is our bureaucracy
integrate into our plans • We can learn a great deal from the business
• 38,000 NGOs should be of immediate community about just enough, just in time
interest to us; some of them such as horizontal collaboration and partnerships
Children Care and Mercy Corps have • Project for National Security Reform (PNSR)
substantial budgets and capabilities. is doing the homework to support three
• NGOs are very concerned about the sets of reform documents for the next
militarization of foreign assistance. President to consider immediately after
• Check out the Guidelines for Relations Election Day:
between US Armed Forces and Non- o Presidential Directives
Governmental Organizations in Hostile or o National Security Act of 2009
Potentially Hostile Environments—covers o Amendments to Senate and House rules,
many vital issues from clothing to protocol with a special focus on need for each to
• Contractors are available for hire in logistics have a Select Committee on Inter-
as well as security, in virtually any skill area, Agency Affairs comprised of chair and
government needs to evaluate the pros and ranking minority member from each of
cons of PMC in hostile environments the seven major national security
committees that will remain in effect
LUNCHEON DAY 220 • Our system is competitive rather than
cooperative. There is no national security
• Excessive dependence on military mission that can be accomplished by a
instrument has negative consequences single department.
• Must transform entire structure of national • We see the reforms as needing to begin
security including domestic security immediately and be refined and sustained
• Our institutions are out-moded and not over the next ten years.
capable of supporting modern needs—this • Over 300 individuals are working on the
must be a “first 100 days” priority for the reforms, across various working groups,
next President almost all of them pro bono
• Set-backs from 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, • Key Cabinet officials, key Senators and
Afghanistan and Iraq are all representative Representatives, are supportive
of a systemic failure, not a lack of talent, • Interim report will be published on 1 July
money, or willpower. 2008, final report on 1 September 2008, the
• The system is dysfunctional in Congress, in first emphasizing problem definition, the
our civilian agencies, and in obstacles to second offering a range of alternative
integration of capabilities and knowledge solutions
• We have horizontal challenges and a • All three Presidential campaigns are
vertical form of government [in the following this effort—we are hoping to
Collective Intelligence citizen wisdom make this a campaign issue
environment, they speak of the need to end

7

• We cannot preserve our national security My Own Observations
without having 21st Century capabilities
• The time for action is now [meaning 2009— As a very active reader who focuses almost
with attack orders against Iran now known entirely on non-fiction,22 I have identified the
to be extant, now must mean 2008]. following emerging themes that will dominate
the first half of the 21 st Century and determine
who wins and who loses at the global, regional,
PANEL VI: Rebalancing Strategy & Execution21 national, state, and local levels.

• Our national system for planning, • Complex societies are collapsing as top-
programming, budgeting, and allocating down chain of command elites prove
simply does not work. In the absence of a unable to sense, decide, and adapt to rapid
strategy all can understand, stabilization & non-sequential changes. Disasters routinely
reconstruction is not going to get the become catastrophes for lack of planning,
authority, budget, staff, or attention. rapid response, or localized resilience. This
• Most endeavors will not include the has spawned 27 secessionist movements in
military, but those that should be executing the USA, many others elsewhere, and also
civil missions do not have the resources, given rise to new and more forceful
training, and so on to get to the field demands for localized “home rule” at the
• We cannot answer the question: what is county level all across America and for
being spent by each element of the US indigenous groups around the world.
Government in any given country? Artificial political boundaries and
• It takes too long to obtain budgets and field authorities from the Treaty of Westphalia
capabilities—we need to be able to act are breaking down.23
much more quickly • The capitalism of Adam Smith and his
• Each country is different—one size team “invisible hand” succeeded brilliantly at
does not suit all countries or conditions creating the Industrial Age,” but its flaws
• Today we are right where the US was on 6 are now known: success came at the cost
December 1941, the day before Pearl of the Earth, and information asymmetries
Harbor. Even with 9/11, which should have have created a permanent schism between
been a wake-up call, we’ve hit the snooze a global underclass and a very small elite
button and are waiting for the next big hit controlling virtually all of the wealth.
• We have to understand the linkages Predatory immoral capitalism has joined
between all the sectors. We have no virtual colonialism (the US supplanting the
integrators in government or in the private UK as the “evil empire” in the eyes of
sector, no one whose job it is to connect billions) and unilateral militarism.
the dots, craft a message and a strategy,
and implement with a carrot-stick campaign • The really important good news is that
plan moral natural capitalism—a capitalism that
• Where in the USG do we go for indications recognizes the “true costs” of every product
and warning? We have to focus on and service—a capitalism that is committed
prevention, we have to achieve a whole of to sustainable design and profit, “cradle to
government harmonization, and we have to cradle”24 products, and addressing the
create equally solid relationships with a vast needs represented by the five billion poor
range of NGOs, private sector elements, whose total disposable income is four times
even key individuals around the world. that of the top billion—all bode well for our
socio-economic future.

8

• At the same time, the wealth of networks, Earth that used to take 10,000 years now
the ability of smart mobs, an Army of take three. At the same time, our bio-
Davids, wikinomics, open money, all of this chemical and nuclear industrial practices
offers a prospect for creating infinite are so retarded as to threaten multiple
revolutionary wealth, for creating a Chernobyl’s of our own making. We must
prosperous world at peace. wage total peace in real-time, not as some
utopian fairy tale.
• A spiritual awakening is taking place, one
that pushes back against the equally • Information technology has matured to
destructive fundamentalism of the left where it can provide reliable modeling of
(virulent Wahabbism sponsored by Saudi complex social and organic systems, while
Arabia) and of the right (American fascism also enabling an EarthGame™28 in which
and intolerant exclusive quasi-cults). Faith- every person can play themselves, with full
based dialog and respect for faith as a basis access to both content and budget
for inter-communal trust is emergent. At a planning. By integrating both Real-Time
secular level, a World Brain is forming, and Science and mass social entries keyed to
beginning to operate across boundaries. geospatial locations and time, with real
budgets at every level from local to global,
• There is a growing realization within the US we are now ready to create what
population that national morality and Buckminster Fuller told us was the linch-pin
national behavior matter25—that no for the future: an Operating Manual for
amount of Public Diplomacy or Strategic Spaceship Earth. This is vital because
Communication can surmount the reality nothing else the US or Europe do will
that the USA is best pals with 42 of the 44 matter—we must show Brazil, China, India,
dictators on the planet, and one of the Indonesia, Iran, Russia, Venezuela, and Wild
latter two controls enough sugar cane sap Cards like the Congo how to achieve infinite
to power 35 million cars a year, and enough wealth without consuming the Earth.
health care assets to substantially reduce
our future Medicare burden. • Finally, I find on the basis of my broad
reading that we are now ready to create a
• People power, from online deliberation to Global Range of Gifts Table at the zip code
localized Wisdom Councils to Blessed and single item level such that $2 trillion in
Unrest is sharply emergent. This is leading aggregate spending can finally be managed
to more frequent demands for “Enough, as a self-governing, constantly updated “opt
Already,” along with demands for an end to in” means of connecting individual donors
corruption via transparency, and a (80% of the giving) and organizations with
restoration of community, family, nation, specific needs at the “base of the
peace, and the “triple-bottom-line.”26 pyramid.”29
• IO and Public Intelligence—information and Conclusion
intelligence based on all information in all
languages all the time—is creating Well-intentioned individuals have known of the
collective, peace, commercial, gift, cultural, Limits to Growth and Peak Oil as well as Peak
and Earth decision support that is Water since at least the 1970’s. What has
compelling to the public and cannot be changed is that now the public realizes that all
ignored by political leaders, precisely of our institutions, all of our checks and
because it is not secret.27 This becomes balances, are broken;30 and—on a very positive
very important because changes to the

9

note—that We the People must get back into o Inter-State Conflict
the business of self-governance. o Civil War
o Genocide
In my view, regardless of who is elected o Other Atrocities
President, a National Security Act of 2009 o Proliferation
affords our Nation an opportunity to become a o Terrorism
“smart nation” and restore both America the o Transnational Crime
Beautiful, and the new America as a sustainable My Own Recommendations
model for Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Iran,
Russia, and Wild Cards such as the Congo. It First, my summary. We are still lacking in
must however, implement a National substantive appreciation, at the policy level and
Information Strategy, and not just move the within Congress, for how little we know, how
deck chairs in Congress and the Executive. 31 badly we are organized, and how dangerous our
circumstances are now and into the future.
In the ideal, this Act can and should be made an When I devised the term “information
issue in 2008, and passed by Congress prior to peacekeeping,” I wrote about the growing gap
the planned attacks on Iran in late 2008. between policymakers with power and experts
with knowledge. That gap has become so great
Critical Points for Command & Staff as to warrant a complete remake of how we
decide anything.33
Here are my take-away points from the Army
Strategy Conference of 2008: I have since 1994 been an advocate of a
National Information Strategy, and the creation
• “Whole of Government” is the new meme of a “Smart Nation” that lives by Thomas
o Strategic understanding Jefferson’s own adage, to wit, “A Nation’s best
o Global to local planning defense is an educated citizenry.”
o Local to global execution
• “Reachback” is the new method In recent years, however, I have seen a
• Must do all five D’s simultaneously: convergence of multiple factors that now give
o Diplomacy me the confidence to state with absolute
o Defense certainty that we must, as soon as possible,
o Development execute the following initiatives with or without
o Domestic Capacity legislation:
o Decision-Support
• Four sucking chest wounds in Intelligence 1. Convert the National Security Council into a
o Historical ignorance National Policy Council with three deputies:
o Cultural ignorance o National Security, with assistant deputies
o Inability to do neighborhood granularity for high intensity, low intensity,
as well as social network analysis environmental, and electronic warfare;
o Refusal to acquire, process, and make o National Competitiveness, with assistant
sense of open sources in 183 languages deputies for education, sustainable growth,
• Must redefine security to encompass all ten natural resources, and infrastructure; and
o National Treasury, with assistant deputies
high-level threats to Humanity:32
o Poverty for entitlements, global assistance, internal
revenue, and electronic systems.34
o Infectious Disease
o Environmental Degradation

10

2. Create, as General Tony Zinni, USMC (Ret) o Multinational Decision Support Center in
has suggested, a National Monitoring and Tampa, Florida, occupying the new fully-
Planning Center (NMPC) as well as a Joint Inter- furnished building being vacated by the
Agency Coordination Center at each Combatant Coalition Coordination Center, replacing the
Command where inter-agency planning and multinational logisticians with a mix of
campaign oversight can take place. 35 I would multinational intelligence analysts and
add to that the need I articulated in 2000, for a multinational civil affairs specialists who will
Director General for Global Strategy with two provide unclassified decision support to all
deputies: one for devising global strategy and parties carrying out stabilization &
managing leadership retreats, a global reserve, reconstruction, humanitarian assistance,
and special projects; and a second for inter- and disaster relief operations world-wide
agency response management, managing a o Elevation of the US Army Civil Affairs
response center, outreach to non-state actors, a Brigade to a three-star Peace Force in which
civilian reserve, and public liaison in all its the US provides the command & staff
forms. structure, communications, for regional
multinational Peace Divisions, while Africa
3. Ask Congress to create a Select Joint Command becomes the Peace Command.
Committee for National Strategy, to consist of o Creation of a Multinational Foreign Area
the Chair and Ranking Minority Member of each Officers (FAO) Program centered in Tampa,
of the Committees without exception. Florida, open to civil affairs, commercial
attaches, diplomats, intelligence managers,
4. Direct the Director of the Office of and logisticians, such that regional cadres
Management and Budget (OMB) to reinstitute from many nations train together as FAOs.
the management function and be responsible o Creation of the Defense Open Source
for identifying all trade-offs needed to achieve a Agency (DOSA) called for by the 9-11
balanced budget that eliminates the national Commission on page 413, but outside the
debt within four years. This should be a non- secret world to avoid alienation of the non-
negotiable public demand for anyone seeking secret sources, absorbing the Defense
re-election in 2012. Technical Information Center, and the
varied DoD “Centers of Excellence,” so that
5. Create an Undersecretary of State for the US Government, on behalf of the US
Democracy, with two Assistant Secretaries: one public, might finally have a means for non-
for the dictators that accept a golden parachute controversial universal access to all
exit strategy, and one for those that do not. information in all languages all the time. 36
DOSA, in turn, would nurture the following:
6. Create an Undersecretary of Defense for o Defense Strategy & Acquisition Center
Irregular Warfare, who shall provide non- as the DoD interface to the NMPC,
reimbursable funding for the following: o Call centers in Brazil, China, India, and
Russia that provide free education “one
o Office of Information Sharing Treaties and cell call at a time” while monetizing the
Agreements co-located with the US Mission transactions and capturing early
to the United Nations, led by a US warning on all matters;
Ambassador o Community intelligence centers in each
o Assistant Secretary General for Decision of the 50 states, manned by National
Support of the United Nations, with the Guard analysts with law enforcement
same US Ambassador as Principal Deputy commissions as well as clearances

11

o 114 and 119 numbers world-wide to for global offensive counterintelligence against a
capture the 50% of the dots that are denied area target; and the senior civilian
bottom-up in nature and need to be responsible for standing up the Marine Corps
locally plotted and globally “seen” Intelligence Center from 1988-1992. He is a
o Global Virtual Translation Network distinguished graduate of the Naval War College,
providing 183 language capability to and holds two graduate degrees, one in public
anyone anywhere. administration and one in international relations.
He is the author, editor, and publisher of books on
intelligence, and the #1 Amazon reviewer for non-
7. Introduce and pass the National Security
fiction (#32 over-all)
Reform Act of 2008, not 2009. Time is the one
Endnotes
strategic variable that cannot be purchased nor
replaced.37 As part of that, legislatively-
mandate a 450-ship small-boat littoral Navy
with a Peace from the Sea fleet, and a two long-
haul airlift Air Force, one organic and one on
call from Federal Express and the United Parcel
Service. Include the Smart Nation Act within
this larger Act.38

Epilogue

We can do better. The common ingredient in
rebalancing the instruments of national power
is information as an input, a strategic “whole of
government” process, and intelligence—public
intelligence—multinational public intelligence
that can be shared with anyone anywhere—as
an output. It is that simple. Now let’s do it.

A popular government without popular
information, or the means of acquiring it, is
but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy, or
perhaps both. Knowledge will forever govern
ignorance, and a people who mean to be their
own governors must arm themselves with the
power which knowledge gives.

James Madison

About the Author

The author is CEO of Earth Intelligence Network, a
501c3 Public Charity, and of OSS.Net, Inc., a
commercial intelligence company. He has been a
Marine Corps infantry and intelligence officer; a
clandestine case officer with three back-to-back
tours overseas; a technical intelligence program
analyst and a desk officer including responsibility

12

1
Throughout this book references will be made that are actually titles of books. Rather than create numerous
footnotes, the reader is encouraged to visit Amazon and search for books using whatever phrase catches their
interest.
2
A complete listing of online information and analysis on this can be found by searching for [Iran Cheney 2003 Swiss];
current information on plans to attack Iran can be found by searching for [Iran Cheney attack 2008].
3
A Republic is distinguished from a democracy in its placement of the Constitution and the body politic that includes
all citizens regardless of social standing, above the branches of government. The right to bear arms is a manifestation
of citizen standing.
4
The conference web page, offering complete biographies and copies of presentations, is easily found with <US Army
Strategy Conference 2008>. The event was organized by Professor Robert (Robin) Dorff, Research Professor. The
author’s 29 pages of notes and an author’s draft of this article can be easily viewed at www.oss.net/Peace.
5
General Al Gray, USMC, Commandant of the Marine Corps, “Intelligence Challenges in the 1990’s,” American
Intelligence Journal (Winter 1988-1989) easily found online.
6
I take no pleasure in emphasizing the naked amorality of the Vice President and the well-intentioned but utterly
ignorant disposition of the President. The non-fiction literature documents 25 impeachable offenses by the former,
and 935 unique lies by the Administration’s senior officials, with respect to the need to attack Iraq. Similar lies are
now in the making with respect to attacking Iran.
7
“Present at the Re-Creation: New Tools for a New Era,” by Ambassador John Herbst, Coordinator for the Office of
Reconstruction and Stabilization, U.S. Department of State.
8
Brackets [ ] denote author’s insertion.
9
Chair: Dr. Conrad Crane. Panelists: Dr. Douglas Stuart, Dr. Jennifer Sims, LTC Nathan Fryer.
10
Dr. John Hillen, President, Global Strategies Group (USA), former Assistant Secretary of State for Political Military
Affairs, U.S. Department of State and also former U.S. Army officer.
11
Chair: Professor John Troxell. Panel: MG Anthony Cucolo, Dr. Montgomery McFate, Dr. Nora Bensahel.
12
Chair: Dr. Alan Stolberg. Panel: Dr. Joseph Collins, Maj Gen Charles Dunlap Jr. USAF, Capt Thomas Culora, Col Robert
Killebrew, LTC John Nagl.
13
Secret intelligence is 10% of all-source intelligence, and intelligence is 10% of all information operations. As taught
to the author by colleagues who created “the pit” at the US Special Operations Command (USSOCOM). General Zinni
is on record as stating that only 4% of his Command knowledge game from secret sources and methods—everything
else was from open sources. The question needs to be asked, in the context of this article: why are we spending $60
billion a year on the 4% we can steal, and next to nothing on the 96% that is legally and ethically available in 183
languages we do not speak? For the Zinni quote, see “Open Source Intelligence,” Chapter 6 in Strategic Intelligence
Volume 2: The Intelligence Cycle (Praeger, 2007), pp.95-122. Online at www.oss.net/OSINT-S.
14
The author’s second graduate thesis, on strategic and tactical information management for national security (1987)
found the following characteristic of the three Embassies where he served:
 Ambassador a messenger not a thinker
 Diplomats in the minority within their own Embassy, with a chaotic multiplicity of agencies in place but not
integrated
 Only the spies had money with which to buy information, but they required the source to commit treason
before listening/paying
 80% of the information that is collected goes back in hard-copy to a single point where it is lost forever to
anyone else in USG
 USG is making decisions on 2% of the relevant information available from all sources
15
It is my personal view that the US Army should close down PSYOP and convert all billets, facilities, dollars, and
capabilities to Civil Affairs. It is also my view that the Strategic Command should organized to command and staff Big
War, and give up the business of IO, at which it is totally incompetent.
16
Admiral Dennis Blair, USN (Ret.)
17
Chair: Professor Frank Jones. Panel: Mr. John Winant, Ms. Merriam Mashatt, Ms. Donna Hopkins, Dr. Leif
Rosenberger.
18
Chair: Ambassador Cynthia Grissom Efird. Panel: Mr. Richard McCall, Ms. Beth Cole, Mr. Doug Brooks.
19
Bottom-up neighborhood level clean water, power, medical, and civil order is right smack where the new
Multinational Peace Army, cadred by the new US Army Civil Affairs Brigade, can begin its development of new
concepts and doctrine for what General Al Gray called “peaceful preventive measures” in his seminal “Intelligence
Challenges in the 1990’s,” supra note 5..
20
Honorable James R. Locher III, Executive Director, Project on National Security Reform, former Assistant Secretary of
Defense for Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict.
21
Chair: COL John Agoglia. Panel: Mr. James “Spike” Stephenson, Ms. Kathleen Hicks, Ms. Michelle S. Parker.

22
The author is the #1 Amazon reviewer for non-fiction, and—unusually as reviewers of fiction usually dominate the
top 200 spots, also #32 over-all, as America turns to non-fiction for answers. Over 1200 reviews and over 70 lists
relevant to this article’s topic can be found at the author’s profile on Amazon.
23
I have reviewed many books along these lines, but one stands out as so original and insightful in nature that I must
mention it here: Philip Allott, The Health of Nations: Society and Law beyond the State (Cambridge, 2002). His basic
premise is that the artificial political boundaries imposed by force of arms overcame centuries of cultural boundaries
and conventions that now return to call into question all that we have “achieved” in global domination. See also two
other books: Derek Leebaert, The Fifty-Year Wound: How America's Cold War Victory Has Shaped Our World (Back
Bay, 2003), and Jonathan Schell, The Unconquerable World: Power, Nonviolence, and the Will of the People (Holt,
2004). My reviews at Amazon succinctly summarize each book.
24
“Cradle to Cradle” is the business term of art for what the Boy Scouts call “zero footprint” and the ecologists mean
when they ask that everything be fully bio-degradable with no permanent waste.
25
This point is emphasized by Will and Ariel Durant in their Lessons of History (Simon & Schuster, 1968), itself a
capstone synthesis of their Story of Civilization (Simon & Schuster, 1968), the latter in ten hard-copy volumes.
Morality has a strategic value of incalculable and irreplaceable value.
26
I hesitate to begin naming books by title, there are so many that could be included, but here two merit mention:
Jonathan Schell’s The Unconquerable World: Power, Nonviolence, and the Will of the People (Holt, 2004) and Howard
Zinn’s A Power Governments Cannot Suppress (City Lights, 2006). In combination with the Chinese ability to bring
down Dick Cheney’s aircraft over Singapore, and being able to pop a submarine up behind a carrier without being
detected by an entire carrier battle group, we must recognize that the era of waging war for the sake of peace is over,
and we must now begin waging peace as the only means of avoiding war. My memorandum on this matter is easily
found by seeking <Chinese Irregular Warfare oss.net>.
27
The three seminal works in this area are THE NEW CRAFT OF INTELLIGENCE: Personal, Public, & Political;
INFORMATION OPERATIONS: All Information, All Languages, All the Time; and COLLECTIVE INTELLIGENCE: Creating a
Prosperous World at Peace. All are available free online at www.oss.net, and also offered in hard-copy at Amazon.
28
Medard Gabel, who assisted Buckminster Fuller in the creation of the analog World Game, is now ready to create
the EarthGame™, trademarked in his name. Visit him at www.BigPictureSmallWorld.com.
29
Medard Gabel, E. O. Wilson, and Lester Brown have all established that the cost of saving the Earth and eradicating
the ten high-level threats to humanity is no more than $250 billion a year. The charitable foundations of all nations
spend at least $500 billion a year, and varied governments, corporations, and international organizations spend a like
amount. What has been missing—which the US Army and the varied “white hat” elements of the Department of
Defense can provide—is a Multinational Decision Support Center (MDSC) replacing the Coalition Coordination Center
(CCC) in Tampa, Florida, so as to both provide unclassified decision support to all parties engaged in stabilization and
reconstruction, humanitarian assistance, and disaster relief operations; and serve as the creator and maintainer—with
Civil Affairs proponency—of a Global Range of Gifts Table that can be validated by the United Nations and presented
to all charitable foundations and interested parties for voluntary participation.
30
Not meaning to pick a fight, the literature is indisputable on this point with respect to political parties, Congress,
the federal government, the media, and other purportedly social safety nets.
31
I first articulated the need for a National Information Strategy in my article, “Creating a Smart Nation,” Government
Information Quarterly Volume 13, Number 2, pp 151-173 (Summer 1996). It also appears in The Smart Nation Act:
Public Intelligence in the Public Interest (OSS, 2006). Such a strategy must provide for Connectivity, Content,
Coordination, and C4 Security.
32
The release of the report of the High Level Panel on Threats, Challenges, and Change, A More Secure World: Our
Shared Responsibility (United Nations, 2004) was a major strategic intellectual event. The ten priorities threats, none
but one conventional in nature, provide the necessary first step in completely redefining national security. LtGen Dr.
Brent Scowcroft, USAF (Ret.) was the US member of the United Nations panel. The report, and the detailed list of
threats, were not mentioned during the conference but references were made to the need to address non-military
threats, not just military threats.
33
Cf. VIRTUAL INTELLIGENCE: Conflict Avoidance and Resolution Through Information Peacekeeping (US Institute of
Peace, 1997) and” INFORMATION PEACKEEPING: The Purest Form of War,” in Doug Dearth and Al Campen,
CYBERWAR 2.0: Myths, Mysteries, and Realities (AFCEA International Press, 1998). Both are easily found online.
34
This and my second suggestion were articulated in Chapter 13, “Presidential Leadership,” of INTELLIGENCE: Spies
and Secrecy in an Open World (AFCEA, 2000), and in more focused form in Chapter 12, “Presidential Leadership and
National Security Policymaking,” in Douglas T. Stuart, Organizing for National Security Making (Strategic Studies
Institute, 2000), pp. 245-282.
35
General Tony Zinni, USMC (Ret.), The Battle for Peace: A Frontline Vision of America's Power and Purpose (Palgrave
McMillan, 2007).
36
As promised to the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) in my one-page memorandum of 22 July 2007, all such
information would be immediately ported to the “high side” via electronic loading docks pioneered by the U.S. Special

Operations Command J-2 Dissemination Branch. The key is that by giving the spies a copy, we keep the original under
diplomatic auspices (and within DoD, under Civil Affairs proponency) so that the MDSC can make sense of the
information, and both the raw information and the sense-making can be shared with any organization or any
individual anywhere.
37
This is the most important point in Colin Gray’s MODERN STRATEGY (Oxford, 1999)
38
The 450-ship Navy can be found in “Muddy Waters, Rusting Buckets, a Skeptical Assessment of U.S. Naval
Effectiveness in the 21st Century,” easily found online.

2009 rebalancing instruments of national power

More Related Content

What's hot (20)

Viewers also liked (18)

Similar to 2009 rebalancing instruments of national power (20)

More from Robert David Steele Vivas (20)

Recently uploaded (20)

2009 rebalancing instruments of national power