“Bystander Effect,” “Bystander Apathy” or “Genovese Syndrome” are all social psychological terms used to describe the observed behavior that the greater the number of witnesses to an emergency the less likely it is that any one individual will intervene. Perhaps the most famous example of the behavior is the murder of Kitty Genovese in the Kew Gardens, Queens neighborhood of New York City. Early in the morning of March 13, 1964, Ms. Genovese was returning to...
“Disinformation vulnerability,” i.e., vulnerability to inaccurate, misleading or incomplete information is oftentimes a byproduct of asymmetric information. Such inaccurate, misleading or incomplete information may be disseminated innocently or by design. The “degree” of vulnerability is a function of: the perceived or real expertise of the information provider; the importance to the recipient of the subject matter to which the information relates; and ready access to alternative sources of reliable information. Information disseminated by a perceived...
The National Threat Assessment Center (NTAC) recently released: Protecting America’s Schools – A U.S. Secret Service Analysis of Targeted School Violence. The report builds on 20 years of NTAC research and guidance in the field of threat assessment by offering an in-depth analysis of the motives, behaviors and situational factors of the attackers, as well as the tactics, resolutions and other operationally-relevant details of the attacks. In compiling the report, the NTAC studied 41 incidents...
The Master replied, “What is necessary is to rectify names.” . . . “If names be not correct, language is not in accordance with the truth of things. If language be not in accordance with the truth of things, affairs cannot be carried on to success.” –The Analects of Confucius, Book 13 Chapter 3 Although the above quote applied to the ordering of political and social status, as well as the rights and responsibilities occasioned...
An earlier post introduced the Overseas Security Advisory Council (OSAC), a public-private partnership between the United States Department of State and the Private Sector. See http://www.excelsioradvisory.com/overseas-security-advisory-council/. While OSAC’s focus is on international security issues, there are a number of additional open source intelligence resources available to organizations contemplating doing business overseas. The World Fact Book. Published by the Central Intelligence Agency, the World Fact Book (WFB) provides information on the history, people, government, economy, geography,...
Traveling to unfamiliar locations abroad can present a myriad of challenges. Encountering security, legal, financial or medical issues while away from home can be daunting. Fortunately, the United States Department of State provides a number of resources to help mitigate such travel risks. One resource is: https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/traveladvisories/traveladvisories.html/. Here the Department’s Bureau of Consular Affairs posts Travel Advisories. Travel Advisories are issued for each country of the world, follow a consistent format and use plain...
Originally developed by Air Force Colonel John Boyd as a decision-making process for combat operations, the OODA loop is a structured process that can be easily applied beyond its intended military context. OODA stands for: Observe, Orient, Decide and Act. As proposed by Boyd it is represented as follows: A simplified version of the Boyd OODA Loop: Observations are the inputs. They are the facts and circumstances upon which decisions will be based. Orientation is...
Most of us are familiar with Benjamin Franklin’s famous adage “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” Unprecedented access to information in today’s digital world oftentimes results in information overload. Paralysis by analysis may be worse than no analysis at all. One concise resource that US companies have to keep abreast of international security issues and incidents is the Overseas Security Advisory Council (OSAC). Founded over thirty years ago, OSAC is a public...
