Outside of a Dog

Neal Rauhauser reviewed Information Operations Recognition: From Nonlinear Analysis to Decision-Making by Aleksandr G. Dodonov

Information Operations Recognition: From Nonlinear Analysis to Decision-Making (Paperback, Lambert)

No rating

The book is dedicated to the issues of information operations recognition based on analysis of …

Information Operations Recognition - a good read for analysts

No rating

I found this book extremely helpful - it pulled together a lot of things I already knew how to do, and it's got me looking for how to apply spectral analysis to the sort of data I handle.

The table of contents would be more useful for any would-be reader than my opinions.

Information operations.

1.1. Information influence.

1.2. Information operation phases.

1.3. Information operations modeling.

1.4. Information operation recognition problem

1.5. Information operation counteraction problem

1.6. Document analysis

OSINT - open source intelligence.

2.1. OSINT as intelligence domain.

2.1.1. OSINT application spheres.

2.1.2. International experience.

2.2. Information space monitoring.

2.3. Information sources.

2.3.1. The web-space.

2.3.2. Deep web

2.3.3. Social media..

2.3.4. Databases of open sources.

2.4. OSINT technologies

2.5. Legal aspects.

Elements of non-linear dynamics for information

operations recognition

3.1. Time series

3.2. Correlation analysis

3.3. Fourier analysis

3.4. Wavelet analysis

3.5. Correlation with a pattern

3.6. Fractal …

I found this book extremely helpful - it pulled together a lot of things I already knew how to do, and it's got me looking for how to apply spectral analysis to the sort of data I handle.

The table of contents would be more useful for any would-be reader than my opinions.

Information operations.

1.1. Information influence.

1.2. Information operation phases.

1.3. Information operations modeling.

1.4. Information operation recognition problem

1.5. Information operation counteraction problem

1.6. Document analysis

OSINT - open source intelligence.

2.1. OSINT as intelligence domain.

2.1.1. OSINT application spheres.

2.1.2. International experience.

2.2. Information space monitoring.

2.3. Information sources.

2.3.1. The web-space.

2.3.2. Deep web

2.3.3. Social media..

2.3.4. Databases of open sources.

2.4. OSINT technologies

2.5. Legal aspects.

Elements of non-linear dynamics for information

operations recognition

3.1. Time series

3.2. Correlation analysis

3.3. Fourier analysis

3.4. Wavelet analysis

3.5. Correlation with a pattern

3.6. Fractal analysis.

3.7. Multifractal analysis.

Analysis of network structures during information

operation recognition

4.1. Network parameters

4.2. Network-specific features of information

operations

Decision-making support during information

operation detection

5.1. Hierarchic decomposition and complex target

oriented dynamic evaluation of alternatives.

5.2. Peculiarities of working with experts

5.3. A methodology of DSS application during

information operation detection

5.4. A methodology of DSS knowledge base building

during detection of information operations

5.5. Considering Importance of Information Sources

during Aggregation of Alternative Rankings.

5.6. Developing of information operation

counteraction strategy.

5.7. A concept of an information and analytical

system for information operation detection.

Neal Rauhauser reviewed The Caryatids by Bruce Sterling

No cover — The Caryatids (2009, Random House Publishing Group)

Alongside William Gibson and Neal Stephenson, Bruce Sterling stands at the forefront of a select …

A dispatch from a not to distant future

5 stars

I first read this book not long after it came out, but I revisited it here in 2023, because I had a consulting gig with a client who's on an island somewhere, trying to change the world. I felt that maybe the post collapse Croatian island at the beginning of the book might speak to him.

I don't think he actually read it, but I did, and my sense of what it means as climate change finally arrives in force is ...

The four Caryatids that survive to adulthood are archetypes, larger than life women everyone has encountered, if they're traveling in the realm that is aware of what's happening to our planet. I had not had those experiences when I first read it, but now I'm older ... wiser ... and profoundly weary.

I've dated Vera, I've dated Radmila, and I currently work with Sonja, who dispatched Biserka for …

I first read this book not long after it came out, but I revisited it here in 2023, because I had a consulting gig with a client who's on an island somewhere, trying to change the world. I felt that maybe the post collapse Croatian island at the beginning of the book might speak to him.

I don't think he actually read it, but I did, and my sense of what it means as climate change finally arrives in force is ...

The four Caryatids that survive to adulthood are archetypes, larger than life women everyone has encountered, if they're traveling in the realm that is aware of what's happening to our planet. I had not had those experiences when I first read it, but now I'm older ... wiser ... and profoundly weary.

I've dated Vera, I've dated Radmila, and I currently work with Sonja, who dispatched Biserka for me. I'm forbidden from dating anyone that doesn't pass her review, which I guess I needed.

It's an excellent read, although I'm not sure I believe the hope found in the afterword.

Neal Rauhauser reviewed How Civil Wars Start by Barbara F. Walter

How Civil Wars Start (Hardcover, 2022, Crown)

The influence of modern life on the civil wars, with an emphasis on grievance, faction …

MUST READ: The U.S. Is In Danger

5 stars

Societies plunge into chaos when two preconditions are met. The first is anocracy - the transition zone between democracy and dictatorship. Doesn't matter which way they're moving, it's the change, like a hermit crab getting a new shell, that creates the hazard.

The second is factionalization. We've got well past political parties and into a world where changing is as momentous as converting to a new religion. We mix a little bit less each day and it feels like violence is never very far away.

America has multiple aggrieved ethnic and sectarian groups. The only way to climb down from this is to focus on democratic participation, as South Africa did in the 1990s. The GOP are dragging us precisely in the wrong direction, making violent conflict inevitable.

Neal Rauhauser reviewed Reinventing Collapse by Dmitry Orlov

Reinventing Collapse (Paperback, 2008, New Society Publishers)

In the waning days of the American empire, we find ourselves mired in political crisis, …

The Soviet Union Then, the U.S. Today.

5 stars

Orlov's experience of the Soviet collapse and his observations on where American society is in less resilient condition got my attention when I read it clear back in 2008. Some of the things about the Trump years that puzzled and infuriated people around me were what I expected, having read this book well in advance.

Orlov is a sharp observer and despite its age this is still a good read, given the troubles we face today.

Neal Rauhauser reviewed Afghanistan: The Bear Trap: The Defeat of a Superpower by Mohammed Yousaf

Afghanistan: The Bear Trap: The Defeat of a Superpower (2001)

Required Reading For Conflict Advisors

5 stars

This book covers the work Pakistan's ISI did supporting the Afghan mujahideen in their battle to expel Russia from their country. I have heard that when this came out CIA personnel bought every copy they could find in order to limit its distribution. I've read a lot of war history over the years, this is one of the absolute best in that genre.

Neal Rauhauser reviewed The Balkans by Misha Glenny

Why the Balkans are so crazy

5 stars

This was one of the first books I picked up during my western history reading phase twenty years ago, and it's the one in my memory that stands out as being a really good read for background on what's happening there today. There are echoes of the Ottoman collapse to be seen in Russia's current convulsions, so it's good for more than just the Kosovo/Serbia conflict.

Neal Rauhauser reviewed Distraction by Bruce Sterling

Near future Earth and a new cold war is in full swing - the Dutch …

A Prophecy That Is Coming True

5 stars

This late 1990s political thriller has always seemed fairly prophetic to me. The social constructs and the problems a post collapse America faces in this book are eerily similar to what a quick spin around the news channels on YouTube will show you of 2022.

I have owned three or four copies of this book; it's so good it keeps walking off. I have a fresh copy I acquired in later 2022 that I intend to reread in the first quiet moment ... if 2023 manages to provide such a luxury.

Neal Rauhauser reviewed Zero Fail by Carol Leonnig

Zero Fail (Hardcover, 2021, Random House)

Truly Shocking Revelations

5 stars

From the bitter loss of JFK to saving Reagan, the Secret Service is the president's shield. But the troubles that began during the Clinton years spiraled up to the agency leadership participating in Trump's coup attempt. The Rise and Fall of the Secret Service is the perfect summation of what this book chronicles.

Neal Rauhauser reviewed Disrupt, Discredit, and Divide by Mike German

An Excellent Read On FBI Corruption

5 stars

During the fall of 2001 Mike German was before a Senate panel, talking about various problems with the FBI's policing methods. Then 911 happened and instead of reform, things got SO much worse.

If you want to know all the grim details, this is a fine place to start.

Neal Rauhauser reviewed Information Warfare by James Scott

Avoid this clown

1 star

This is a book I bought just so I could offer an honest review on Amazon. There are a number of articles out there about James Scott and ICIT. Here's a snippet from Buzzfeed:

Earlier this year, leaders from the Marine Corps, the Department of Homeland Security, NASA, the NSA, the White House, and the FBI gathered at a Ritz-Carlton in Virginia to discuss the latest in cybersecurity and information warfare.

The event was organized by the Institute for Critical Infrastructure Technology, a nonprofit think tank founded just a few years ago that quickly established itself as a convener of well-attended cybersecurity events, a facilitator of Capitol Hill briefings, and the beneficiary of hundreds of thousands of dollars in sponsorships from top private sector security vendors.

The day’s closing session featured James Scott, ICIT’s senior fellow and cofounder, discussing Russian cyberinfluence operations and his new book about information warfare. What …

This is a book I bought just so I could offer an honest review on Amazon. There are a number of articles out there about James Scott and ICIT. Here's a snippet from Buzzfeed:

Earlier this year, leaders from the Marine Corps, the Department of Homeland Security, NASA, the NSA, the White House, and the FBI gathered at a Ritz-Carlton in Virginia to discuss the latest in cybersecurity and information warfare.

The event was organized by the Institute for Critical Infrastructure Technology, a nonprofit think tank founded just a few years ago that quickly established itself as a convener of well-attended cybersecurity events, a facilitator of Capitol Hill briefings, and the beneficiary of hundreds of thousands of dollars in sponsorships from top private sector security vendors.

The day’s closing session featured James Scott, ICIT’s senior fellow and cofounder, discussing Russian cyberinfluence operations and his new book about information warfare. What audience members from intelligence and law enforcement agencies didn’t know is that Scott and ICIT have been running their own deceptive information operation.

Neal Rauhauser reviewed American Kompromat by Craig Unger

American Kompromat (Hardcover, 2021, Dutton)

No rating

Incomplete & Inaccurate

No rating

I know a LOT about MAGA world. I was really excited when this book came out and it's OK as a spy novel, but as a review of history there are way too many instances where Unger does some hand waving to connect things that, if true, would be truly explosive. There are a dozen books on my shelf related to the Trump years, taking the time to read this one left me filled with regret.