DeM Banter: Great piece from a bi-partisan group of leaders... remember bi-partisanship? Very fortunate to have met and worked with these stellar gentlemen at Hoover...also where much of the concepts behind the "Quantum Look" strategy in Wondering Where the Lions Are came from. The gotcha line...."It will take leadership, creative approaches and thoughtful understanding of …
Come Home, America By Elizabeth Cobbs Hoffman
New York Times March 5, 2013 SAN DIEGO -- EVERYONE talks about getting out of Iraq and Afghanistan. But what about Germany and Japan? The sequester — $85 billion this year in across-the-board budget cuts, about half of which will come from the Pentagon — gives Americans an opportunity to discuss a question we’ve put …
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No Room for Mavericks: DeMarco Banter
I was glancing through a book this AM... The Top 10 Mistakes Leaders Make by Hans Finzel, and came across a chapter titled "No Room For Mavericks," and of course if got me to thinking...Many of today’s most inspiring businesses were created by maverick leaders who colored outside of lines and thought outside of the …
How Much Should We Be Spending On The Military? By Jeannette Steele
DeM Banter: A good conversation to have...too bad we can't do that as a nation. Many poor assumptions below, but that would all come out in a deeper convo... was it wise to cut 30+% after WWII, Vietnam, and the Cold War? We recovered, but it seems in hindsight it might not have been wise. …
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Why The Powerful Seem So Powerless By Moises Naim
DeM Banter: Important piece here...need to ponder for a couple of days... great question at the end..."And if the future of power lies in disruption and interference, not management and consolidation, can we expect to ever know stability again..." Time to think different... things have shifted...we are just now beginning to comprehend and maybe understand. …
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In A Crisis, Who Should Take Charge? By David Ignatius
DeM Banter: so it would appear...not much has changed since leaving "The Building" in 2010 (been out of this game for a good while, so I really don't know). This was our "portfolio" in the J5...and trying to get the interagency to work, and it seems it definitely can...but it needs a system that will …
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How Iran Went Nuclear By David Feith
DeM Banter: Options? Sequester Iran? Not sure the world is getting any safer... Wall Street Journal March 2, 2013 Pg. 13 The Weekend Interview Veteran weapons inspector Olli Heinonen on how the U.N.'s 'Stockholm Syndrome' has aided Tehran's drive for the bomb--and why an unsettling secret may be lurking in the Iranian desert. Cambridge, Mass.--It …
US Defence Cuts: Financial Times
DeM Banter: always good to check international news sources (although their spelling is a tad off). Interesting times call for interesting solutions...status quo stopped working several years ago... Financial Times March 1, 2013 Pg. 8 Chuck Hagel's biggest problem will be Congress It is hardly the ideal moment to become US defence secretary. At midnight …
Intentionality: DeMarco Banter
“The bad news is, time flies, the good news is, you’re the pilot.” Orrin Woodward Intentionality is a philosophical concept defined by the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy as "the power of minds to be about, to represent, or to stand for, things, properties and states of affairs." The terminology of 'intentionality' can also be confusing, …
A Sequestration Solution For The Pentagon By Benjamin Friedman
DeM Banter: Another side of an eight sided story? Truth or more spin? Interesting points...more research required on my part. Reuters.com February 28, 2013 The sequestration drama in Washington is less severe and intractable than you have heard. A partial solution: Block the across-the-board cut of $42.5 billion in military funds this year — the …
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