Author: Tim J. Clark

Next Internet: IPv4 to IPv6

FEATURES: The Next Internet, By Carolyn Duffy Marsan Government Executive May 1, 2008

“If you believe that you will want your cell phone to be reachable along with your [personal digital assistant], your home network and your car . . . you will need all of the address capacity of IPv6,” says Diana Gowen, senior vice president and general manager of Qwest Government Services in Fairfax, Va. “Every North American business and government needs to make the conversion.”

With IPv6, “everything can be addressable, from a soldier to a sensor to an aircraft to a tank,” he says. “With IPv6, we have unlimited address space. . . . We could have a sensor network of hundreds of thousands of nodes. When you scale that, address space becomes important.”

Defense also needs the end-to-end security that IPv6 offers as well as the ability to prioritize packets of data sent over the Internet and to create ad hoc networks in the field. “In Iraq, when we initially went in, it took weeks or sometimes months to get networks up and running,” Strance says. “With IPv6, it would take hours or at most days to do the same task. We need to be able to move from theater to theater, region to region, and to build seamless networks without network administration issues.”

Next internet includes migration from IPv4 to IPv6. Value added? Unlimited addresses and greater connectivity which leads to increased need to be able to separate signals from noises and an increased demand for smarter software that is self-generating … 

China: Cyber Warfare

China’s Cyber-Militia, BY SHANE HARRIS, NATIONAL JOURNAL

Computer hackers in China, including those working on behalf of the Chinese government and military, have penetrated deeply into the information systems of U.S. companies and government agencies, stolen proprietary information from American executives in advance of their business meetings in China, and, in a few cases, gained access to electric power plants in the United States, possibly triggering two recent and widespread blackouts in Florida and the Northeast, according to U.S. government officials and computer-security experts.

Air Force Gen. Kevin Chilton, the chief of U.S. Strategic Command, said that the Pentagon has its own cyberwar plans. “Our challenge is to define, shape, develop, deliver, and sustain a cyber-force second to none,” Chilton told the Senate Armed Services Committee.

The Air Force is in the process of setting up a Cyberspace Command, headed by a two-star general and comprising about 160 individuals assigned to a handful of bases. As Wired noted in a recent profile, Cyberspace Command “is dedicated to the proposition that the next war will be fought in the electromagnetic spectrum and that computers are military weapons.”

“You used to need an army to wage a war,”  …  “Now all you need is an Internet connection.”  

Al Qaeda: Setbacks, Strategic Defeats

Al Qaeda On The Run (Wall Street Journal)…Editorial, May 31, 2008
Pg. 10

…It is far too soon to declare victory over al Qaeda. Still, Mr. Hayden’s upbeat assessment is encouraging, and it suggests that President Bush’s strategy of taking the battle to the terrorists is making America safer.

CIA Director Michael Hayden painted a far more optimistic picture in an interview yesterday in the Washington Post. “On balance, we are doing pretty well,” he said. “Near strategic defeat of al Qaeda in Iraq. Near strategic defeat for al Qaeda in Saudi Arabia. Significant setbacks for al Qaeda globally – and here I’m going to use the word ‘ideologically’ – as a lot of the Islamic world pushes back on their form of Islam.”

Leadership Challenges

Push For New Direction Leads To Sudden Dead End For A 40-Year Naval Career.  (New York Times)…Elaine Sciolino,  May 31, 2008  Pg. 7

HIS friends call him Fox, and for years William J. Fallon was considered one of America’s most successful four-star admirals, serving most recently as the commander of military operations in the territory stretching from the Horn of Africa across Central Asia.

A little more background on the story: In a nutshell.

Building a 300 room hotel in 20 weeks

WEBLOG: Remember when Sears and Roebuck sold you a house-in-a-box?  by Thomas P.M. Barnett on June 2, 2008.

Posting is in reference to the  article: “Arriving in London: Hotels Made in China,” by Fred A. Bernstein, New York Times, 11 May 2008, p. BU19.

Verbus Systems, a London-based company that builds rooms in metal containers in factories near Shenzhen, China, and delivers them ready to be stacked into buildings up to 16 stories tall.

Verbus Systems’ commercial director, Paul Rollett, said his company “can build a 300-room hotel anywhere on the planet in 20 weeks.”

Innovative adaptation of an “old” technology.

Political Parties, A House Divided, Quality Leadership

Self-segregated America—at least along political lines.  Posted by Thomas P.M. Barnett on June 2, 2008 6:24 AM

So if you accept the Brownstein argument, and I do, then this one by Galston and Nivola indicates that the Boomer age has resulted in a sort of political segregation: we naturally move to counties where we feel politically comfortable.

Interesting posting in reference to the Article: “Vote Like Thy Neighbor: Why the American electorate is more politically polarized than ever,” by William A. Galston and Pietro S. Nivola, New York Times Magazine, 11 May 2008, p. 12.

Political parties, interest groups, et.al., have value in helping identify the polarity in respective issues.  The forgotten element is the principle that people will unite and work together to achieve ideal outcomes and will become “segregated” when they work to achieve non-ideal outcomes.

I wrote an article a few years ago titled: A Transformation to Quality Government  that provides an approach for re-framing the political debate with a focus on working towards ideal as opposed to non-ideal outcomes.   Wish I could claim credit for the theory behind the idea but it really belongs to the Founding Fathers — just been forgotten over time.

An example of applying the concepts in Resolving Controversial Issues Such as Abortion, may also help illustrate the approach.   Also illustrated the concept as it applied to the Motor Voter Law.

Prevention: WMD Proliferation

WMD Commission Begins Work On ‘Broad Mandate’ (Washington Times)…Shaun Waterman, United Press International, May 31, 2008  Pg. 5

A new blue-ribbon commission set up by Congress has begun developing recommendations for the next administration on how to prevent nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction from falling into the hands of rogue states and terrorists.

The congressionally mandated Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism, known as the WMD commission, held its first meeting Thursday. It is chaired by former Sen. Robert Graham, Florida Democrat.

Leading from the Middle

OPINION. In Asia-Pacific, U.S. ‘Leads From The Middle’(Honolulu Advertiser)…Richard Halloran, June 1, 2008

It’s called “leading from the middle” and is a concept that’s catching on as the United States repositions America’s military forces in the Pacific and Asia to meet the threats of the 21st century.

Today, the U.S. is seeking more often to lead from the middle, relinquishing the role of leader to an ally or partner and easing U.S. forces into supporting positions. Under this concept, American military leaders look for opportunities to get allies and friends to step up and take charge while the U.S. assumes a backup and reinforcing role.

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates referred to that idea when he told Army cadets at West Point in April: “Just about every threat to our security in the years ahead will require working with or through other nations. Success in the war on terror will depend less on the fighting we do ourselves and more on how well we support our allies and partners in the moderate Muslim world and elsewhere.”

Declaring War on Poor Education Health, Fitness

U.S. Lacks Qualified Recruits. (Charlotte Observer)…Gen. William S. Wallace, May 31, 2008. Pg. 11

The U.S. Army today faces an imminent and menacing threat to our national security. Failure to resolve this problem could leave us vulnerable and our enemies victorious.As the commander responsible for recruiting, training and educating U.S. Army soldiers, I believe the choice is obvious: we must declare war on poor education, lack of fitness and poor health and help foster future generations of educated and healthy young Americans.

Gen. William S. Wallace is commanding general of the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command at Fort Monroe, Va.