Soob

I really should read Wiggin's blog, OSD, more often. The analysis is excellent and not too niche or "strategically highbrow" so as to be unfathomable to the, shall we say, under initiated (read me.) At any rate the comment that followed this post (left by Fabius Maximus) on the up coming John Robb book about resilient communities led me to Project White Horse, a collective designed to address the changing nature of crisis decision making. The previous subject for discussion was 4GW and entertained it well beyond the WoT, into domestic crises such as crime and natural disasters. The latest focus directly addresses the concept of resilient communities. A snippet from the welcome page:

This edition and focus for 2008 is based on the premise that “we the people” need to come to resemble our frontier surviving, nation building forefathers – able to adapt and thrive in a hostile environment on our own initiative, assisting our first responders, not waiting to be saved, cursing the cavalry for not being on time. (See Forum Tab, RC#1 for more on Project White Horse Resilient Community Initiative)As always, the intent is to provide wide perspective including aspects not apparently connected. It would be hard to find more separation than in the “From the Field” discussion of the example of highly reliant organizations manifest in aircraft carrier operations, and a focus on troubled youth “coming back” from high risk environments.

Aircraft carrier operations and socially re-assimilating troubled youth. Now that's definitively horizontal thinking. Looks fascinating so far but I've only yet scratched the surface.