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National Security and Decision Making; Book 2

Vanessa Clemons (Editor),

Eliece Lindsey-Isome (Editor)

Start date: March 13, 2011

Finish date: April 13, 2011

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Mar 17, 2011 Dolly rated it liked it

Shelves: egypt-egyptian, india, iran-persia, pakistan, afghanistan, military, nonfiction, washington-dc, vietnam, ukraine

Required reading for Air War College. Book 2 of 2 - quite a bit of repetition from previous Professional Military Education courses and a focus on Security Strategy (wasn't the last block about strategy?), Strategic Communications, and the various international and non-governmental organizations. Quite an interesting mix of topics, but I suppose you could fit them all together under the veil of diplomacy. It took me a long time to read this book, but that was mostly because I was slacking off an Required reading for Air War College. Book 2 of 2 - quite a bit of repetition from previous Professional Military Education courses and a focus on Security Strategy (wasn't the last block about strategy?), Strategic Communications, and the various international and non-governmental organizations. Quite an interesting mix of topics, but I suppose you could fit them all together under the veil of diplomacy. It took me a long time to read this book, but that was mostly because I was slacking off and reading other books for fun. Some of the readings were really good, others were just okay and several were quite dated, but overall not bad. The last two readings, however, were quite dated and OBE (overcome by events), so it left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth. Still, I completed the reading and took the test on the material, so I can move on to the next topic.

Interesting bits:

5 Wars of Globalization: drugs, arms, intellectual property, people, and money

"...the rational actor model, is essentially the ideal decisionmaking process -- an unbiased, comprehensive examination of the relevant facts and all potential courses of action leading to an optimal choice designed to maximize value in terms of national interests." (p. 81)

"The human mind tends to 'satisfice,' that is, to seize upon the first solution that appears to solve the problem without looking past that solution to see if a better one can be found." (p. 82)

"To chart the shape of any future world, we need to be able to demarcate which leaders and leadership groups will become more caught up in the flow of events, and thus perceive external forces as limiting their parameters for action, and which will instead challenge the international constraints they see in their path." (p. 99)

"It has been suggested the Marine Corps 'gives priority to fielding stand-up, gravel crunching infantry who will charge straight ahead through a brick wall under intense fire.' Every commandant of the Marine Corps has been an infantry officer, and every Marine second lieutenant spends six months at The Basic School training to be an infantry officer before training for a specific military occupational specialty." (p. 114) [from [book:The Straw Giant|4756984] by Arthur Hadley]

"There are three manin drivers of cultural change -- budgetary feast, budgetary famine, and dramatic performance failure." (p. 118)

"Webster defines bureaucracy as 'government characterized by specialization of functions, adherence to fixed rules, and a hierarchical system of authority,' and the people that work inside this structure (including military officers!), can be categorized as bureaucrats." (p. 118-119)

"...Edgar H. Schein describes culture as 'a pattern of shared basic assumptions that the group learned as it solved its problems of external adaptation and internal integration, that has worked well enough to be considered valid and, therefore, to be taught to new members as the correct way to perceive, think, and feel in relation to those problems.' Schein goes on to surmise that leadership may be one of the most important factors in the creation of organizational culture and in the development of institutional identity..." (p. 121)

"Ultimately, the common bond between the gunship, Talon, and AFSOF helicopter communities was the fact that none of them integrated well within the conventional Air Force structure." (p. 122)

"The very vibrancy and success of contemporary groups contribute to a society that finds it increasingly difficult to formulate solutions to complex policy questions." (p. 296)

regarding Defense acquisitions:"Without effective controls that require decision makers to measure progress against specific criteria, it is difficult to hold decision makers or program managers accountable to cost and schedule targets. Moreover, the incentive structure of program managers -- based primarily on maintaining program funding -- contributes to the consistent underestimation of costs, optimistic schedules, and the suppression of bad news that could jeopardize funding." (p. 413-4)

"Our nation's personality -- loyal, freedom-loving, independent, innovative, determined and visionary -- is perfectly suited to exploit aerospace power." (p. 425)

new words: panoply, polemical, sclerotic, concomitant, autochthonous, lodestars, monopsonistic ...more

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