ISIS: Crisis or Crucible?

Last week’s shift in White House policy regarding ISIS in Afghanistan occasioned me to interview Dr. Austin G. Long, a specialist in counterinsurgency and irregular warfare.  We met up at the Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies.  Dr. Long was an analyst and adviser to the U.S. military in Iraq from 2007 to 2008 and to the Combined Forces Special Operations Component Command in Kabul, Afghanistan in 2011 and to NATO Special Operations Component Command/Special Operations Joint Task Force in 2013.   I had four questions for him.

BERNARD:  Austin, American and British news agencies report that thanks to international air strikes ISIS has lost as much as forty per cent of the territory it held in Iraq and twenty per cent of the ground it commandeered in Syria.  How meaningful are these numbers and how do they translate into actual degradation of ISIS?

 

BERNARD:  As I mentioned in my set-up, just this week The White House gave the Pentagon a green light to target ISIS in Afghanistan, suggesting – based on the President’s State of the Union message—that there is a threat coming from ISIS in Afghanistan – a threat to us here in the homeland.  What kind of threat does “ISIL–K” pose to the United States? 

 

BERNARD:  Syria, Libya, Afghanistan … failed states where ISIS has exploited the situation.  Where next do you see a “failed state” ISIS might seize? 

 

BERNARD:  There’s a spectrum of thinking here in the U.S. – all sincere, it seems to me – on how to rid the world of ISIS:  destroy it militarily, counter it ideologically, starve it financially.  Given what you know about how ISIS’s motivation and nature, what’s your sense of what would get the job done?

 

BERNARD:  Austin, I thank you for your time and sharing of your insights in such a concise manner.  I’ve been in the audience when you’ve made full-length presentations and moderated panels and this format, I see, is yet another forum in which we can learn so much from you.  It is a pleasure to represent you at Lisa Bernard’s SecuritySpeak and I note that those who wish to host you for talks and briefings can contact me directly by calling (203) 293-4741 or emailing  LisaBernard@SecuritySpeak.net and view your full profile at www.SecuritySpeak.net.

 



The Games People Play

We are a cyberspatial culture.  We work on mobile devices.   We shop online.  We navigate by GPS and kids today view Cyberchase on PBS before Sesame Street.  Along with this way of life comes challenges to it.  Threats to our cyberspatial existence are real and varied.  Some are a nuisance like a hacked email account and others are detrimental like the downing of a power grid.  Fortunately, an entire industry is developing to protect our devices, systems and data and one entrepreneur in particular has a particularly clever and culture-friendly approach.  Marc Groz is CEO of CyberXplore and I was delighted to interview him to learn more about the sources of some breaches and his firm’s remedy.

 

 To host Marc Groz, call Lisa Bernard at (203) 293-4741 or email LisaBernard@SecuritySpeak.net.

Security Matters in President Obama's 2016 State of the Union Address

In response to President Obama's State of the Union address on 12 January 2016, thought leaders and private citizens who make up the brain trust at Lisa Bernard's SecuritySpeak, LLC, offer their comments.

In response to President Obama's second question, "... how do we make technology work for us, and not against us ...?"   Marc Groz, CEO of CyberXplore: The unsolved problem of cyber-security remains how to deal with the human factor. Technology alone will never be sufficient. But how can we educate and incentivize people to be "eternally vigilant"?

 

 

Ami Soifer, CEO of The TNS Group, one of our nation’s premier and-full service IT consulting firms: President Obama aptly points out that technology is changing the country, asserting that “[t]oday, technology doesn’t just replace jobs on the assembly line but any job where work can be automated.” But loss of some jobs is only half the story.   Technology is simultaneously “destructive and creative.”   On the one hand it is destroying industries but on the other hand it is creating brand new ones.   Look at brick and mortar video stores like Blockbuster giving way modern day streaming options.  Technology is ACTIVELY redefining industries and both creating as well as eliminating jobs and as a society we are better off for it.  My clear sense is that the number of jobs created for the development and management of these innovations and the protection of our electronic inventories may dwarf the number of jobs lost to automation.