® National Security Policy Survey of the Literature BLOWBACK, DISSENT, & INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS Robert David Steele OSS CEO Updated 19 August 2002

® 2 Plan of the Brief You have 150 books in the lecture handout. Will only cover 50 or so of them now. Complete text reviews for over 350 books are at OSS.Net, at Amazon, and in the red and green books Information Intelligence Emerging Threats Strategy & Structure Blowback, Dissent & International Relations US Politics, Leadership & the Future of Life

® 3 Relevant Readings on Blowback, Dissent, & International Relations

® 4 Perrow on Normal Accidents Simple systems easy to diagnose & fix Complex systems have multiple failures, interact in unpredictable ways Society is a constellation of complex systems

® 5 Death of Kinship & Ethics Industrialization removed kinship & ethics from the equation Absent alternative incentive system for ethics, industry not heldaccountable to the community Ethics is a community value

® 6 Pathology of Power Power drives intelligence underground Power becomes theology, treats dissent as treason Power distorts & damages institutions it dominates National security depends on more than military power--values & freedom

® 7 Vidal on Perpetual War Suggests that both McVeigh and bin Laden had provocation Believes that a police state attack on civil liberties is much greater threat to US than any terrorist actions

® 8 Chomsky on US Aggression US refusal to abide by international convention will cost us dearly US is a major bio-chemical aggressor US embargoes impose very high human costs on populations, few costs on regimes

® 9 50-Year Wound Price of victory includes time, talent, secrecy, confidence, trade, growth Incompetent intelligence and White House deceit joined special interests to mis-serve the Nation

® 10 Johnson on Blowback Administrative secrecy conceals US political crimes against others Military-industrial complex incites foreign military toward represssion Blowback is what happens when it catches up with us

® 11 War as a Racket General Smedley Butler, USMC (Ret.), most decorated Marine of time Disgusted with his role as an enforcer for oppression of locals by US corporations Only arms merchants profit--all others lose lives

® 12 McNamara-Blight on Chaos Elites representing billions of people regard the USA as the greatest threat to their future security & prosperity Collection security comes with collective decision-making

® 13 McRae-Hubert on Human Security Human security in all its forms is vital to national security Multi-cultural approaches and large investments in peacekeeping and stabilization pay off handsomely

® 14 Baer on Sleeping with Devil US ignored all open source information from Middle East for last two decades US not capable in Arabic US chose to accept repression & debauchery as price of cheap oil

® 15 Queen Noor on Her Reality USG & US public do not have a good grip on Middle East realities Jewish political power in US distorts policies Ghandi quoted as saying Palestine belongs to the Palestinians

® 16 American Encounters Abroad Best of the best from Foreign Affairs US has responsibilities it cannot ignore US is vulnerable to global instability and economic depression Culture and community matter--US must network

® 17 Kissinger Congress and Public are apathetic on foreign policy Old politics outpaced by, cannot properly manage global economies and global technologies Africa is the ultimate test for US foreign policy

® 18 Boren et all on Foreign Policy Diplomacy is about knowledge of the world Politicians losing ability to be objective and think Domestic uncertainty & insecurity reduce foreign policy influence Military should not dominate foreign policy

® 19 Nye on Soft Power Too much information, too little attention Lacking time, credibility outweighs substance Failing to migrate democracy to rest of world Spend too much on heavy metal, not enough on soft power