Disruptive Thinkers: The PME Debate Needs More Informed Thinkers

by Mike Mazarr LT Benjamin Kohlmann’s piece in SWJ (“The Military Needs More Disruptive Thinkers”) is a fascinating and provocative essay. It’s partly about the need for radical thinkers to disrupt military and defense bureaucracies—but much of the commentary targets professional military education (PME), and these parts of the essay share many of the characteristics …

Disruptive Thinkers: The Disruptive Poets Society by Grant Martin

How The Dead Poets Society Advocated Disruptive Thinkers, Why DoD Shouldn't Encourage More Disruptive Thinkers, and 10 Principles for Those That do Think Disruptively Dead Poets Society In the movie Dead Poets Society, Robin Williams plays a private school English teacher who attempts to encourage his students to think for themselves. He encourages them with …

Disruptive Thinkers and Opportunistic Leadership by Brett A. Friedman

The concept of disruptive thinkers is a good description of the concept of individuals that are innovative, passionate, and seek to change their organization . However, a disruptive thinker is only half of the equation. It is very difficult for a vast organization to sift through thousands of members to identify those with good ideas. …

NATO Sees Flaws In Air Campaign Against Qaddafi

New York Times April 15, 2012 Pg. 1 By Eric Schmitt WASHINGTON — Despite widespread praise in Western capitals for NATO's leadership of the air campaign in Libya, a confidential NATO assessment paints a sobering portrait of the alliance's ability to carry out such campaigns without significant support from the United States. The report concluded …

Peak Intel: How So-Called Strategic Intelligence Actually Makes Us Dumber

by Eric Garland An industry that once told hard truths to corporate and government clients now mostly just tells them what they want to hear, making it harder for us all to adapt to a changing world -- and that's why I'm leaving it.   I recently quit my job as a "futurist" and "strategic intelligence …

The Maddow Doctrine: We Need to Make War Hard Again

(Bloggers note:  Not a Rachel Maddow fan by any stretch, usually try to avoid the politically charged banter on either side of the spectrum...but the book came to my attention through work and the argument seems very sound... might need to consider picking it up) By Kevin Drum I finished reading Rachel Maddow's Drift a couple of …