Frontiers of Engineering Reports on Leading-Edge Engineering from the 2008 Symposium (2009) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
Combating Weapons of Mass Destruction: Translating Strategic Guidance into Actionable Solutions--Charles L. Beames
Combating Weapons of Mass Destruction: Translating Strategic Guidance into Actionable Solutions--Charles L. Beames
Pages 133-140
The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.
From page 133... ...
Soon after the attacks of September 11, 2001, which shattered the sense of domestic security of Americans living in the United States, individual and national security attention was drawn to the question of what else might happen. Quickly, people began to realize that a significant vulnerability of the free and open society we enjoy is the risk from "weapons of mass destruction," or WMDs, in the hands of vengeful terrorists like those who attacked us on 9/11.
|
From page 134... ...
Unclassified briefings at the highest levels of our national intelligence community indicate that their gravest concern is the combination of technology acceleration (Moore's law in computing power, custom-designed DNA bacteria for the cost of a new car, etc.) and technological leveling through the instantaneous diffusion of information over the Internet and material via overnight shipping.
|
From page 135... ...
–Annual Threat Assessment of the Director of National Intelligence for the Senate Armed Services Committee, 27 February 2007 According to the director of national intelligence, the biggest threat is technology invention and diffusion and the ability of our adversaries to "live on the exponential technology curve," unlike the U.S. military, which is encumbered by the weight and drag of its bureaucracy and infrastructure.
|
From page 136... ...
INNOVATION IN THE COMMERCIAL MARKETPLACE As part of a thesis for the National War College, this author conducted comparative case studies in innovation in three industry leaders, Google, Apple, and IBM, to determine their common cultural characteristics that could be applied to the defense world to improve the nation's ability to innovate solutions to counter the asymmetric technologies being used to significantly degrade U.S. military power.
|
From page 137... ...
The cultural attributes that characterize innovative organizations also apply to terrorist organizations trying to obtain WMDs. Thus, we must call into question some general assumptions of the culture on which our highly bureaucratic national security establishment is based.
|
From page 138... ...
As Napoleon said, "Given the same amount of intelligence, timidity will do a thousand times more damage in war than audacity." Philip Howard says in his book, The Death of Common Sense, that very little gets done in mature bureaucracies because processes put in place over the years have stripped responsibility from bureaucrats leaving them unaccountable and not apt to display the three attributes most necessary to solving problems and getting things done: effort, courage, and leadership. Without rethinking the reward structure of our military and beginning to move away from a highly bureaucratized, static organization toward a flattened, empowered, versatile, and highly innovative culture, there is significant risk that we will be caught by surprise by grave threats to our national survival, much as our army was caught by surprise by the evolution of improvised explosive devices in Iraq.
|
From page 139... ...
Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana University Press. Government Publications Joint Chiefs of Staff.
|
Key Terms
This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More
information on Chapter Skim is available.