A Curator of Strategy, Leadership, Spirituality, and Rock and Roll…. "Changing the world…one "contact" at a time…."
I, along with so many of my peers, have been professionally involved in, adjacent to, or forced to reckon with American regime-change efforts since Panama. I was a young officer when Noriega was removed quickly, decisively, and—by historical standards—cleanly, an experience that would later prove to be the exception rather than the rule. From Panama …
Continue reading "Regime Change Is an Event. Instability Is a Process: DeMarco Banter"
I just finished reading Dancing with Myself Billy Idol’s raw and intense autobiography. Around the same time, I watched the Ozzy Osbourne biography—No Escape From Now, an oddly moving portrait of the Prince of Darkness. Then there was A Complete Unknown, the 2024 biopic starring Timothée Chalamet as a young Bob Dylan and loosely based on Elijah …
Understanding the current geopolitical landscape begins with examining the strategic chessboard defined by Washington and Beijing. Their rivalry now shapes the structure of global economics, the tempo of military modernization, the direction of technological innovation, and the alignment of diplomatic blocs. Few bilateral relationships in modern history have exerted such sweeping influence. The international system …
When Man Out of Time appeared on Elvis Costello’s 1982 album Imperial Bedroom, it emerged from a period of artistic intensity and personal volatility. Costello had spent the previous years burning through the British punk and new-wave scenes with a kind of furious intelligence—brilliant, prolific, and combustible. His early reputation for biting cynicism and lyrical sharpness had already …
John Boyd’s Destruction and Creation is one of those slim essays that, once read, refuses to leave the bloodstream. Written in 1976, in the shadow of Vietnam and the twilight of American confidence, it is at once a meditation on cognition and a blueprint for strategy. Boyd insists that orientation—our ability to interpret and act in a …
The opening snare roll of Tom Sawyer is a call to consciousness. It’s more than a song—it’s a declaration of mental independence, a drumbeat against conformity. When Rush released it in 1981, Neil Peart’s lyrics described a “modern-day warrior” whose “mind is not for rent to any god or government.” It was a line of defiance in …
We often hear Darwin’s phrase “survival of the fittest” invoked as if it were a hymn to brute strength. In boardrooms and briefing rooms alike, people nod gravely as if the secret to endurance lies in the sharpest claws, the biggest armies, or the loudest voices. Yet Darwin himself meant nothing of the sort. “Fitness” …
The Obsolescence of Overmatch A tectonic shift is underway in the character of war....and maybe I am just spitballing here...but, the traditional Clausewitzian conception—war as the destruction of an enemy’s military forces to compel political will—is collapsing under the weight of modern complexity. In its place emerges a new model of victory: one achieved not …
Continue reading "Paralysis as Victory: The Architecture of 21st Century Conflict: DeMarco Banter"
“We’re playing 2-D chess while Beijing is playing 4-D chess.” — Former National Security Council China Director I’ve been thinking about strategy for most of my life — as a student of history, a practitioner of leadership, and a citizen watching the world shift around us. What makes strategy truly strategic? What separates deliberate, long-range action …
Continue reading "Chessboards and Sandcastles: The Quiet Power of Long-Term Strategy–DeMarco Banter"
The Comfort of “Good Enough” There’s a peculiar danger that stalks successful organizations, leaders, and even artists: the trap of “good enough.” When the metrics look solid, when the crowd is clapping, when the machine is humming along smoothly, the temptation is to keep things as they are. Why rock the boat? Why introduce turbulence …
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