Washington, DC, January 18, 2010

LTC (Ret.) David E.A. Johnson, CADS Executive Director, praised the expanded media effort today at a gathering of Center Fellows and Staff. Colonel Johnson noted the importance of a robust media presence for a non-profit organization like the Center for Advanced Defense Studies (CADS), “The ability of our Fellows and researchers to support the dialogue concerning 21st Century security challenges enables the Center to accomplish its mission.”

Over the past year, the web-site has been revised to include social media and a popular blog, The Global Security Monitor, resulting in a 300% increase in traffic. Fellows and staff have made over 50 appearances on Fox News, MSNBC, BBC, Sky News, and Al Hurrah television networks. The AFRICOM Conference on Capitol Hill was carried on the Federal News Wire. Articles with Center bylines have appeared in print as varied as The Los Angeles Times and Military Review.

New York City, New York, January 10, 2010

Dr. Jerry Post, a CADS Board Member and Senior Fellow, was cited in The New York Times Week in Review section . The two page special, “The Terrorist Mind: An Update,” highlighted Dr. Post’s recent research into generational transmission of extremist beliefs and the impact of group dynamics on terrorist decision making. Professor of Political Psychology at George Washington University in Washington, DC, Dr. Post is the leading expert in terrorist psychology and has participated in Center projects to refine intent-oriented threat models. In the article, Dr. Post notes that the internet has created “virtual community of hatred”. The Center’s Radicalization Watch Program monitored extremist web-site group dynamics and evolution in 2006. This program resulted in a broad database and a recent Defense Concepts article by Dr. Mathieu Guidere.

Worcester Club, Worcester, Massachusetts, December 11th, 2009

Colonel Robert Cassidy, Ph.D., a senior fellow at the Center for Advanced Defense Studies (CADS), delivered a speech on “The Long War in Afghanistan: Past Problems and Future Prospects.” The Worcester Committee on Foreign Relations is a Massachusetts chartered non-profit corporation initially formed in 1958 under the auspices of the Council on Foreign Relations. Its purpose is to provide a forum for learning and discussion of current issues and events pertaining to international relations, and to foster dialogue between local civic leaders and invited experts in the field.

Colonel Cassidy discussed insights at the strategic and operational levels of the war in Afghanistan. He framed his address within the context of a long irregular war. Colonel Cassidy provided a short historical overview, an analysis of the insurgency, a review of lessons from the Soviet war there, and his observations on the much improved current effort.

Cambridge, MA, December 10, 2009

Dr. Newton Howard, Chairman of the Center for Advanced Defense Studies, is leading a project at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Artificial Intelligence. This work flows directly from work done at the Center in the field of Cognitive Informatics as part the Intention Awareness initiative since 2000. In conjunction with the Centre de Recherche en Informatique at the University of Paris 1- Sorbonne, Dr. Howard’s program at CADS resulted in better modeling of intentionality in complex systems, with applications in intent-oriented process design and adaptive rationality. This work continues to be an essential part of the Center’s approach to the global challenge of persistent conflict and clashes of perspective.

With an initial $5 million seed and a five-year timetable, the Mind Machine Project , or MMP, is a loosely bound collaboration of about two dozen professors, researchers, students and postdocs. Neil Gershenfeld, one of the leaders of MMP and director of MIT's Center for Bits and Atoms , notes that the project will revisit 30 years of fundamental assumptions that may have limited the ability of the field of Artificial Intelligence to achieve its early promise.

Washington, DC, November 19, 2009

Chris Mason, Senior Fellow at the Center for Advanced Defense Studies (CADS), was published in the November-December issue of Military Review. His article, “ Refighting the Last War: Afghanistan and the Vietnam Template ”, presents an analysis of the parallels between the two wars and suggests a revaluation of United States operations in Afghanistan. Mason describes the critical pitfalls of the United States military in the Vietnam War and points to the similarities between our tactics then and in Afghanistan now. Establishing “legitimacy of governance” as the fundamental catalyst to any measurable change, Mason shows that forcing a democratic system on a people with no tradition of western-style democracy is unlikely to yield productive results.

Drawing on historical precedents from the Soviet and British campaigns in Afghanistan as well as the United States experience in Vietnam, Mason discredits the possibility that Afghanistan can be won through a war of attrition. Instead, he advises a bottom up approach that replaces conventional United States troops with small, locally based district teams who could assist with immediate development needs and work within tribal power structures. This method would offset the need to deploy large contingents of soldiers, restore legitimacy to local leaders and prevent unnecessary loss of life- hallmark of a haphazard and outdated United States war model.