Major Josh Wineera, New Zealand Army, has served in Iraq, East Timor, Bougainville, and Bosnia. He is a guest lecturer at the New Zealand Defence College and Massey University, and is a part-time Master's student at the Centre for Defence Studies, Massey University.
Those interested in attending may view the meeting on-line at this link and participate via Adobe Connect as a guest. Remote attendees will be able to ask questions and view the slides through the software.
Comments
Of course, Major Wineera hasn't had an opportunity to make his presentation yet--and the Colloquium article linked above is only a short one--so these comments are probably a bit unfair. However, so far I'm at a bit of a loss to see how Inter-Bella contributes to understanding (and acting upon) complex operating environments.
The planetary visual arrangement that appears to be used provides a way of listing variables/issues of concern, but does very little to depict how these are thought to interact. It also might involve some risk that viewers will impute their own basic notion of Newtonian mechanics to the depicted elements, assuming (incorrectly in most cases) that the relationship between the symbolic "planets" and "moons" is in some way analogous to the gravitational relationship between heavenly bodies. Indeed, it seems to be odd to use something that implies such mathematical precision as orbital mechanics to graphically depict "enduring elements of uncertainty and friction."
To use the hypothetical Afghan example provided in the text:
<cite>"Earlier, the HTT member and the platoon leader took the squad leaders through the area of operations ecosystem, carefully explaining the relationships between the entities, such as the local village in the south, the tribal warlord in the north, the crops in the west and the flow of cash coming across the border from the east. </cite>
<cite>
Using the Inter-Bella technique, the platoon considered security in the AOE as the sun and each of the entities as a planet, orbiting and inter- dependent on security in the AOE. One of the moons of the village was described as 'financial stability.' Seeing a three-dimensional representation, each squad leader could comprehend more clearly that if there was a change in financial stability, especially a downward trend, then this could affect the macro-orbit of the village and start a change in the flow of cash from the east or even affect the incentive to grow almonds in the west. "</cite>
Some possible questions to consider during the forthcoming presentation: Is this really best explained with a glossy graphic interface that depicts the relationship as a series of planetary bodies--or by expressing in plain words, perhaps with a quick whiteboard diagram, and some analogies from the platoon's real-life experiences? How is this not just another form of presentation software, a 3D Powerpoint of sorts? How is it superior to software packages, such as <a href="http://www.palantirtech.com/">Palantir</a>, that can both depict relationships and undertake analysis of the underlying data?