Editorial Note: Edition 6 -  Winter/Spring 2008

My name is Ed Beakley, and I’m not running for anything.  I am the director of Project White Horse 084640 and I’m writing a book focused on time critical decision making in severe crisis, worst cases, if you will.  I’ve been to war, been heavily involved with development and testing of weapons and systems utilizing “information age” technology.  Since 1998 I have been completely immersed in testing, training, and experimentation event design, implementation, and analysis focused on terrorism and homeland security.  In the last eighteen months my professional (read day job) focus has been on examining and determining terrorism mitigation protocols for military installations.  I am not an author – maybe someday someone can consider me as such – but for now I’m working on learning, unlearning, relearning.

The project was initiated in order to create a dialogue on crisis decision making, provide a forum for the exchange of professional thought among specialist in relevant fields on the vast range of the involved topics, and in addition, to publish or re-publish the excellent thoughts of others found in my quest.  I most strongly believe that the world dynamics of this century require new education for all of us – government, military, public safety, and citizen alike – far beyond that necessary in the twentieth century.  The outline for the book has evolved into four sections: 1) Defining the 21st Century environment  (See Chapters Tab);  2) New Elements  of necessary knowledge and perspective (the articles provided in past editions (see Archives Tab) such as the most recent on Fourth Generation Warfare are provided in this context): 3) The need to develop and evolve resilient communities (the subject of this edition and focus for 2008, further explained below); and 4) Survival on our own terms in an uncertain century.

The last edition offered multiple discussions on Fourth Generation Warfare (4Gw) as a lens through which to view not only the war on terrorism, Iraq, and Afghanistan, but also urban crime and natural disasters.  Underlying this thread was the idea that our world is messy –chaotic and uncertain.  If we “view” it that way, if we think about the future that way, we will make better informed decisions. 

The intro page now expands that thought.  If our leadership does not have the education, experience, or maybe even the attitude to recognize the true nature of this century, can we expect acceptable results?

This edition and focus for 2008 is based on the premise that “we the people” need to come to resemble our frontier surviving, nation building forefathers – able to adapt and thrive in a hostile environment on our own initiative, assisting our first responders, not waiting to be saved, cursing the cavalry for not being on time.  (See Forum Tab, RC#1 for more on Project White Horse Resilient Community Initiative)

As always, the intent is to provide wide perspective including aspects not apparently connected.  It would be hard to find more separation than in the “From the Field” discussion of the example of highly reliant organizations manifest in aircraft carrier operations, and a focus on troubled youth “coming back” from high risk environments.
 
We begin with the continuing Project White Horse perspective in Part 4 of DaVinci’s Horse, followed by the investigation report on U.S. Navy aircraft carrier operations.  Next is a context setting article, originally published by the Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management, looking at crisis analysis from a process perspective as compared to evaluation of the discreet event.  The author concludes that the vulnerability of an organization does not so much reside in its actual weaknesses as in the ignorance of these weaknesses.  Next we look at bounce-back by troubled youth, with significant lessons for communities. We continue with a recommendations for school security derived from how military bases are assessed and protected, recommendations on enhancing combined civil and military operations, and discussion of how planning effects our approach to response. 

The focus on Resilient Communities will continue with the Summer Edition focus on strategic leadership requirements, the Fall Edition focus on regaining “relative superiority” after a disaster strikes, and Winter focus on building a Resilient Community.

A few operational notes: Throughout the year, the Forum will be used between editions to provide links to articles of interest and continuing comments on evolving aspects of the exploration of Resilient Community ideas. Several posts (RC# 1…) are already available. A new e-mail address for correspondence is (note Anti-Spam spelling): projectwhitehorse at roadrunner dot com

Reader thoughts via either blog comments or e-mails are greatly desired.

On to the current edition...

 

 

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