Request for interest, that is.

There is an opportunity to hold a short, intense seminar on the applicability of Boyd’s ideas, particularly operating inside the OODA loop and grand strategy (sustaining our own morale and attracting the uncommitted), on the weekend of September 20 and 21 at the University of Prince Edward Island, Charlottetown, PEI. That’s Canada for all you geographically challenged wonks south of the border.

Purpose

The theme would be applying these ideas to conflict in the post-Iraq era, and more specifically to the types of diffused, networked, “open source” armed conflicts that some have called “fifth generation warfare.” We are also interested in exploring solutions, such as the role of “resilient communities” (RC), for countering them.

We envision this as a working seminar to help shape the policy agenda in the first year of the new administration. So we’re looking for a couple dozen attendees, all of whom would either make short presentations on their areas of interest or participate in panel discussions and working groups. We also hope that the participants will leave with their own agenda items — to improve resilience within their organizations or to prepare articles and opeds on these subjects in the months after the seminar.

Next step

If you think you might be interested, please send an email to info at d-n-i dot net. There will be a small fee to cover the cost of the facility (quite modest on the weekend) and coffee and doughnuts. There is no obligation, but because these things involve a lot of work to set up, we would like to gauge the level of interest before proceeding.

Chet Richards
Rob Paterson