IntelliBriefs

Strategy Bridge January 16, 2020 Arnel P. David and John DeRosa BUY ON AMAZON In his latest book, 21 Lessons for the 21st Century, Yuval Harari warns of a world where old stories have collapsed and new ones have yet to take their place. He describes an Age of Bewilderment and argues persuasively that societies are in the throes of an increasingly connected, crowded, and confused world where people no longer know what to believe. While this might be true in many places, Harari should make a trip to the Baltics. It is here we recently discovered that, in fact, old stories are still alive and well.In a first of its kind, American military strategists hosted a Contested Narratives Wargame with Baltic allies and Nordic partners at the National Defense Academy in Riga, Latvia. The wargame explored the formation, projection, and reception of strategic narratives aimed at building resilience against malign influence.The Contested Narratives Wargame builds on the assertions from Peter Perla and E…

21 Lessons for the 21st Century

Product Description#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER •  In Sapiens, he explored our past. In Homo Deus, he looked to our future. Now, one of the most innovative thinkers on the planet turns to the present to make sense of today’s most pressing issues.

“Fascinating . . . a crucial global conversation about how to take on the problems of the twenty-first century.”—Bill Gates, The New York Times Book Review

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY FINANCIAL TIMES AND PAMELA PAUL, KQED 

How do computers and robots change the meaning of being human? How do we deal with the epidemic of fake news? Are nations and religions still relevant? What should we teach our children?

Yuval Noah Harari’s 21 Lessons for the 21st Century is a probing and visionary investigation into today’s most urgent issues as we move into the uncharted territory of the future. As technology advances faster than our understanding of it, hacking becomes a tactic of war, and the world feels more po…

The U.S. Naval War College Review highlights John Curry’s study of the utility of matrix wargames to “include wider aspects of confrontations beyond war fighting, such as national will, social media, economics, and the laws of war. While traditional wargame models have struggled to represent these factors adequately, the matrix game narrative method offers utility for gaming current political crises.”
Download The Utility of Narrative Matrix Games—A Baltic Example John Curry
Abstract The focus of professional gaming has shifted over time from the kinetic so as to include wider aspects of confrontations beyond war fighting, such as national will, social media, economics, and the laws of war. While traditional wargame models have struggled to represent these factors adequately, the matrix game narrative method offers utility for gaming current political crises

Ryan Davey
When I was young, I learned about traditional Irish storytellers called seanchaí, men who would travel from town to town telling stories in exchange for a place to stay and a hot meal. Often times, they would use a hand drum or another small instrument to help tell their tales, and their purpose was to preserve the past. As a teacher of Digital Media and Production, I think of myself as a modern-day seanachaí, my instruments being my cameras.With our new Digital Media and Production class at Avon Old Farms, I have the privilege of showing students how to convey their own stories in a multimedia-driven world. I spend a lot of time talking to students about finding their voice. And just like with writing or speaking, finding your voice is critical to conveying a story. So, if you are looking to improve your skills as a storyteller and are interested in taking on the challenge of Digital Media and Production, here are some things that will get you started.1. Now, It's Perso…

Digital storytelling at its most basic core is the practice of using computer-based tools to tell stories. There are a wealth of other terms used to describe this practice, such as digital documentaries, computer-based narratives, digital essays, electronic memoirs, interactive storytelling, etc.; but in general, they all revolve around the idea of combining the art of telling stories with a variety of multimedia, including graphics, audio, video, and Web publishing.As with traditional storytelling, most digital stories focus on a specific topic and contain a particular point of view. However, as the name implies, digital stories usually contain some mixture of computer-based images, text, recorded audio narration, video clips, and/or music. Digital stories can vary in length, but most of the stories used in education typically last between 2 and 10 minutes. The topics used in digital storytelling range from personal tales to the recounting of historical events, from exploring life in…

Aug 13, 2020 The latest issue of CPD Perspectives on Public Diplomacyis an article about Evaluation practices in Public Diplomacy by CPD Research Fellow Alexander Buhmann & co-author Erich J. Sommerfeldt.In "Pathways for the Future of Evaluation in Public Diplomacy," Buhmann and Sommerfeldt present their findings after interviewing 25 individuals with professional experience in the public diplomacy sector, seeking to shed light on the various challenges public diplomats face regarding evaluation. The authors identify main themes that had commonly arisen throughout their conversations and target various approaches that may serve to be effective in improving PD evaluation practice. ."[O]verlapping and competing approaches to program enactment across the various bureaus and operating locations of the U.S. State Department further complicate the already muddied responsibility of public diplomacy practitioners to prove the value of their work," write Buhmann and Somm…