The Background This fictitious plan was created by junior military officers undergoing training related to the Department of Defense’s Joint Operational Planning and Execution System (JOPES), the formalized process by which the Department conducts all contingency planning and execution. In an effort to learn the JOPES process, and to do so in a more interesting way, the students were assigned this completely fictitious scenario and directed to use JOPES to develop a written contingency plan. Using this fictitious scenario avoided concerns over the use of classified information, it resolved sensitivity to using real-world nations or scenarios, and it better engaged…
Author: John Greenewald
Background This document was discovered as a reference in another government records. I then filed a FOIA request for the report, and it took more than 5 years to track down the office that had it. It has now been reviewed and released to The Black Vault. You can download it below. Excerpt The objective of this analysis is to define and assess the vulnerabilities that might exist in prospective Soviet Charged Particle Beam Weapon (CPBW) systems. This analysts will then establish the technological base required before countermeasure efforts can be pursued to negate such new weapon systems. Of primary concern in this effort is…
Background The following document is an interesting find, written in 1981. It was about ethics and values of being a professional soldier, and in one of the examples about a sample conversation, is on the belief in UFOs. Abstract A rule of thumb governing polite conversation is to avoid topics, such as religion and politics, that deal with personal values since the resulting arguments are usually inconclusive and sometimes volatile. But that such discussions frequently bog down is not evidence that rational inquiry in this field is impossible. Reasoned analysis about personal and professional values can help us to be…
Wikipedia defines “artificial intelligence” as: Artificial intelligence (AI) is the intelligence exhibited by machines or software. It is also the name of the academic field of study which studies how to create computers and computer software that are capable of intelligent behavior. Major AI researchers and textbooks define this field as “the study and design of intelligent agents”, in which an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its chances of success. John McCarthy, who coined the term in 1955, defines it as “the science and engineering of making intelligent machines”. The following…
This National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) analyzes the nature of the threat that terrorist groups across the world willpose to US lives or property worldwide (herein referred to as US interests), including in the Homeland, during the next five years. This Estimate does not analyze the many ways in which terrorist groups might directly or indirectly affect broader US interests, including regional stability, access to energy resources, or the longevity of friendly regimes. Based upon all-source reporting over the last several years, it provides a broad, strategic framework for understanding the trends that will define the primary international terrorist threats to the United States. It focuses…