The “Enlightened Rebel’s” Guide to Empire: DeMarco Banter

Or…what would Sir John Glubb Pasha say…Part 1 History has much to teach and offer in terms of empire’s rise and decline.  Great empires of the past such as Britain, Spain, Islam, Rome, Persia, and Babylon rose and fell over a period of centuries. Even Niccolo Machiavelli’s 1532 signature work, The Prince was a study …

Podcast and Interview with Bright Insights: Bill DeMarco and Paul Bright on “K” is for Knowledge

Very cool to be on Paul Bright’s “Bright Insights” Podcast—thank you for the invite Paul—wonderful to talk with you. Click here: https://link.chtbl.com/Demarcopart1 iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/k-is-for-knowledge-part-1-with-bill-demarco/id1468714783?i=1000488364213 From Paul’s Show notes: I'm very excited to bring you part one of this discussion with retired Air Force Colonel Bill DeMarco, Chair of Air University's Leadership Department and forerunner of …

Have You Ever Seen The Rain? Or The Decline of Empire Part II: DeMarco Banter

Driving home the other day, Creedence Clearwater Revival’s epic tune “Have You Ever Seen the Rain” was on the radio and it got me thinking.  What is the song about?  Clearly it is the end of a happy time—but to what end?  A quick Google search reveals it is actually about John Fogerty’s brother Tom …

Leadership: Machiavelli The Misunderstood: Neo-DeMarcoian Thought

Personality has a lot to do with how we understand Niccolo Machiavelli.  We have talked about how misunderstood the man may have been here on the blog many times.  Recently I picked up a somewhat newer translation of The Prince with an introduction by Tom Butler-Bowdon and reading through Butler-Bowdon's intro it only confirms my …

Thucydides, The Plague of Athens, COVID-19 and Leadership–DeMarco Banter

With Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) we find ourselves in interesting times—one might even say unprecedented; but I work with academics, and this was mentioned on a text the other day to which the response was, "These are actually precedented times."   What does that even mean? Unprecedented: never done or known before. Precedented: Provided with or having …

Leadership and Social Innovation—neoDeMarcoian Thought

Social innovation is basically the process of securing support for and implementing novel solutions to social needs and problems.   The question is do we see a place for social innovation given the world’s new challenges – such as new markets in emerging nations and increasingly urban, interconnected and dangerous societies? Further, the US has …

Wondering Where The Lions Are/Putting Leadership Back into Strategy: Chapter 1

By J. William DeMarco DeM Banter:  For those tracking with the last 4 weeks--we've resisted a strategy and leadership paper I worked on in 2008.  In typical DeMarco fashion--we are posting the first chapter last.   Chapter 1 “Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” –Sun …

Wondering Where The Lions Are: Quantum Look, A National Strategy?

DeM Banter:  As mentioned in the ABSTRACT POST, Chapter 1, 2, 3 and now in Chapter 4 in 2007-08 I was fortunate enough to be selected a a National Security Affairs Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.  An outstanding year spent with some of the foremost personalities in National Security on both the Right and the …