The GEO Blog

I was recently pointed to an article about Google's continued experimentation in the mobile segment, in this case by pre-allocating mobile bandwidth for its employees. To briefly summarize, as a virtual network operator, Google issued SIM cards to staff supported by third-party network infrastructure -- purchased in bulk rather than on a per-use basis. While not always a viable business model, the approach in this case underscores the centrality of the Web as a communications platform.

It's hardly remarkable to note that competition among mobile operators will continue to be fought out in bandwidth pricing and squeezing margins out of flat-rate services. (The previously "lucrative" SMS space of inflated margins is barely worth a consideration, in the long term.) Increased bandwidth demands and price cuts are already coming up against the physical and technical limitations of existing networks...in fact, they have been for some time and will continue to do so.

U.S. Africa Command hosted a talk yesterday on "Africa's Evolving Infosystems", based on the speaker's research paper of the same name (which should be available here soon, and is attached below).  Steven Livingston, of George Washington University's School of Media and Public Affairs and Elliott School of International Affairs, addressed some of the tensions that exist between legacy media establishments and the potentials of new media markets in Africa, the shortcomings of traditional Western media, and the nature of emerging capabilities across the continent.  Of particular interest were discussions of new organizational forms that have emerged alongside technological advances and the challenges these present to established (and often over-centralized) institutions of governance.  These are topics toward which our team has directed considerable attention (here, here, here), so it is encouraging to encounter similar observations.

On the 17th of November, the Global Challenges Forum (GCF) was officially established in Geneva Switzerland. Hosted by the Naval Postgraduate School, the Talal Abu-Ghazaleh Graduate School of Business, and the University of Geneva, the forum comprises think tanks, research centers, and academic institutions. Its goal is to address the complex problems of the 21st century through partnership oriented solutions. The 2010 GCF gathered over 80 attendees from government, military academic, and private institutions at the U.S. Mission in Geneava, Switzerland for 2 days of spirited discussion focused on shaping the future of the forum. Highlights of the conference included an opening address from U.S. Ambassador to the U.N., Betty King, keynote speeches from Dr. Bates Gill (Director of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute) and Ambassador HE Yafei (Permanent Mission of the People's Republic of China to the UN Office at Geneva and other International Organizations in Switzerland), as well as numerous presentations and discussion sessions. While attending the conference in support of the Naval Postgraduate School, I was able to spend a considerable amount of time in each of the sessions and I think the biggest take-away for all in attendance was a more defined picture of the sorts of challenges the GCF will address. While the intent of the agenda was to have a series of targeted discussions, laying out first the problem space and then the structure of the forum, the direction of dialogue ended up being considerably more free-form.

Building on the Civil Society 2.0 Initiative first introduced by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the recent Tech@State Civil Society 2.0

As part of the support team to the Civil-Military Emergency Preparedness (CMEP) program, we recently got our first chance to participate in an emergency planning workshop in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan. While we have supported the CMEP program elsewhere for years, the closed nature of the country has not permitted us to have full scale international workshops or table-top exercises with technical support like this in Turkmenistan before.

Turkmenistan got its independence from the Soviet Union 19 years ago and was promptly closed down by its leader at the time, Saparmurat Niyazov (later given the title of President for Life and also referred to as Türkmenbaşy – leader of all Turkmens). The time of Niyazov's rule until his death in 2006 was mostly characterized by aggressive promotion of Muslim and Turkmen nationalist culture, personality cult and complete one-party dictatorial rule.

Ashgabat has been under heavy reconstruction recently. Photo by Rahim Alizadeh, August 2010

The country has been showing signs of opening up to the world since the new president, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow, has been in charge, even though his own election to the position has been contested as rigged by international observers. Having large reserves of natural gas an oil and a large part of the Caspian coast, Turkmenistan has the potential to be a major regional influence.

Increasingly, we see the need for social and technological capabilities to enhance the ability of civilian and military organizations to enter into effective relationships and facilitate broader cooperation on strategic interests, particularly in the fields of humanitarian assistance, disaster relief, and crisis response.  An example of this need, though focused mainly - and perhaps prematurely - on details of implementation, can be found in a US military requirement for:

Multi-modal collaboration tools using non-proprietary software that adheres to internationally recognized open standards and is free of ITAR restrictions.

Interpreting this statement in the context of a broader strategic or policy intent that should drive the framing, development, and fielding of specific capabilities, we can re-state the need as follows:

Enable processes spanning the range of human communication through jointly developed capabilities, shared rules, and shared protocols in order to develop sustainable, continuous capacity to act effectively toward shared goals.

Creative Services regularly tackles projects that highlight our team's unique chemistry, and our new promotional video is an example of just that. We have grown a lot since our start in 2008 and we wanted to take a fresh, new approach to explaining who we are and what we do. Here’s how we put together our promotional video:

As we continue to expand, The GEO team always looking for dynamic, motivated people to join our team.  Our work covers a wide range of areas, presenting new challenges and opportunities to our team members.  At present we are particularly interested in people who meet the following criteria:

On May 17th, a "Group of Experts" chaired by former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright released its analysis and recommendations on NATO's new Strategic Concept.  The title of the report, "NATO 2020: Assured Security; Dynamic Engagement", already hints at the centrality of "partnership" language in the document, and at the increasing significance that partnership arrangements will hold in the final Strategic Concept to be released later this year.  It seems worthwhile to examine how partnership is being addressed at the upper levels of the Alliance and consider some possible implications.

NATO appears to recognize that cooperative arrangements across states, government agencies, militaries, etc., are not the result of formulaic "recipes for success".  Thus, the report opens with the acknowledgement that:

NATO must strive to clarify and deepen relations with key partners, to establish new relationships where appropriate, to expand the range of partnership activities, and to understand that each partner and partnership must be dealt with on its own terms.

Further:

On April 15th, I attended an open panel discussion of the first annual Maghreb Academic Symposium, hosted by U.S. Africa Command and the Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies (NESA).  The symposium brought together specialists from academia and Washington think tanks, with the aim of better understanding Africa Command’s Area of Responsibility (AOR).  The Maghreb, which in Arabic means “place of sunset”, refers to five North African countries: Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, and Mauritania.  The region faces many of the problems commonly associated with Africa as a whole -- problems often stemming from low per capita GDP, such as famine, war, and disease.  Some of these North African countries are oil rich but continue to have stagnant economies due to poor wealth distribution.  They also deal with fears for the future security of their wealth, which stem from aging leadership and uncertainties of succession.