by Jules Evans | Sep 7, 2009 | Conflict and security
Just watched a rather depressing Dispatches programme about post-traumatic stress disorder in UK troops – guys coming home and expecting to be attacked at any moment. One guy slept with a machete next to his bed and could still only get to sleep after drinking a bottle of vodka. Apparently the UK military will only give PTSD counselling if the soldiers ask for it. And none of them ask for it.
Meanwhile, the US military has just launched something called the Comprehensive Soldier Fitness programme, which has been developed by Penn University’s psychology department. Every two years, each US soldier will take some questionnaire to test their aptitudes in five areas: physical, emotional, social, family and spiritual. If they are not doing well in a particular area, they’re encouraged to take courses to up their score in that area (I don’t know what this involves…’your homework today: go out and find God’).
Anyway, supposedly it teaches the soldiers resilience, making them less likely to develop PTSD in the first place. As Brigadier General Rhonda Cornum (one tough old soldier, who was captured and abused during the first Iraq War, and said her abuse was “discomforting, nothing more”) puts it:
“It was developed because we recognized that we really did not have a good preventive and strengthening model for psychological health. It’s just a recognition that we spend an enormous amount of energy and resources on people after they’ve had some negative outcome, but we’re not doing anything deliberately as a preventive measure.”
This means more kudos for Martin Seligman of Penn Uni, who invented the resilience training programme and has already persuaded the UK government to try it in our state schools (hey if it can work there, it can work in Afghanistan). He was the pioneer of the idea of ‘learned optimism’, having previously pioneered the idea of ‘learned helplessness’, when he showed that if you electrocute a dog for long enough, they will be unhappy.
The US military liked that idea too – they used it to develop interrogation techniques at Guantanamo Bay, much to Seligman’s annoyance.
Anyway, I’m all for this Comprehesive Soldier Fitness course, but I bet you one thing – nowhere in the course do they mention Stoicism. And that’s what it is – it’s teaching you to change your perspective on things, to get a ‘philosophical angle’ on traumatic events. Seligman took his ideas from another Penn psychologist, Aaron Beck, who took them directly from Stoicism – as he’s said to me in an interview.
But then, I guess if you admitted your ideas were directly lifted from a 2,000-year-old philosophy, you wouldn’t get such a fat cheque from the Pentagon…
by Alex Evans | Aug 26, 2009 | Articles and Publications, Speeches
Presentation by Alex Evans to a seminar organised for the UN Department of Political Affairs by the Geneva Centre for Security Policy (August 2009)
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by David Steven | Jul 9, 2009 | Articles, Articles and Publications
Article by Alex Evans and David Steven on risk and resilience – part of a special in World Politics Review on risk and resilience in a globalized age (July 2009)
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by David Steven | Jul 7, 2009 | Global system, Influence and networks
Alex and I have a new article published today by World Politics Review, as part of their special on risk and resilience in a globalized age. The other piece is by John Robb of Global Guerrilla’s fame.
In The Resilience Doctrine (also available in our library here), we argue that globalization is both unstable and inevitable, and that governments have little choice but to build collaborative platforms to manage risk. We conclude with a dozen guidelines for building an international system fit for the 21st century.
- Develop a doctrine with resilience at its heart, using it to create a unified narrative about how to manage the risks the world will face between now and 2030.
- Start with the ultimate objective of building and protecting global systems, cultivating a new constitution for the society of states.
- Create incentives for connecting to the international system and increase penalties for exclusion. Avoid disrupting the global order for short-term gain.
- Focus on function (what systems need to deliver in order to manage risk) over form (the organogram that devotees of international politics obsess over).
- Build the global institutions (rules, norms, markets, organizations, etc.) needed to deliver these functions. Aim for a shared operating system capable of managing each key risk.
- Invest in mechanisms that create, analyze and debate solutions, delivering the shared awareness that underpins successful reform.
- Build shared platforms on which state and non-state actors can work together to re-engineer systems. Sustain them over the long periods needed to battle for systemic change.
- Use open standards to foster interoperability, allowing networks of organizations to work together and achieve elevated rates of innovation and learning.
- Develop a theory of influence tailored to the modern age and use it to bind together all the instruments of international relations (diplomacy, development, military).
- Apply a rigorous principle of subsidiarity, devolving responsibilities to regional, national and local levels where possible, thus maximizing resilience throughout the system.
- Use the opportunity to reform national governments, increasing their openness, while reducing the scope of their mission so that they do less, better.
- Be accountable for outcomes, using shared metrics and external assessors to report publicly on whether resilience is increasing for those risks that will mean most to the future of our civilization.
by Alex Evans | Apr 28, 2009 | Cooperation and coherence, Influence and networks
Over on the public health section of the always-excellent Change.org, Alanna Shaikh has helpfully written The Definitive Swine Flu Post. Here’s her advice:
1. Swine flu will spread globally. The only question is whether it will be a mild flu or a severe one. It could still go either way. My best guess would be that it will be bad, but not mass-death-1918 pandemic bad.
2. If you want to routinely protect yourself from swine flu, wash your hands every single time you enter a building with facilities to wash. This means when you go into your house, your office, a restaurant, a bar, whatever. Carry hand sanitizer, and disinfect your hands before eating if you are away from home and can’t wash your hands right before. Do not kiss your friends hello. Don’t share food, or eat the unwrapped mints from that bowl in the foyer of the Italian restaurant down the street. Now would be a very good time to quit biting your nails.
3. If your city sees an outbreak of swine flu, avoid crowds. Don’t take public transport, or attend public events like concerts or sports games. Limit your social contact by reducing your shopping trips to once a week. Wearing a mask is overkill unless your local health department recommends it.
4. If you have flu symptoms, stay home. Call your doctor, and describe your symptoms. She will decide if you need to go to a hospital. (Do NOT go straight to an emergency room.) Don’t go to school or work. If you do have to go out (like you live alone and need food), wear a mask and choose a time that minimizes human contact. Avoid contact with the people in your house. Cover your mouth when coughing or sneezing, and use paper tissues and flush them once they are used. Clean surfaces like doorknobs with a regular cleaner, like Lysol.
5. If you are genuinely terrified of bodies-in-the-streets mass public health hysteria, then prepare. It will make you feel better, and in the unlikely event your worst fears come true, it will help. If you can afford them, emergency supplies are always good to have. Any number of websites can help you make a plan. The CDC is a good place to start.
To which I’d add: if you do live alone, then you’re more vulnerable and you need to be thinking ahead. The vulnerability here is less to infection per se than just the lack of backup: someone to go and get your Tamiflu from the chemist, or to get some food in for you.
So as Charlie recounts in his excellent new pamphlet Resilient Nation, the kind of preparation you really need to be thinking about is less a cupboard full of Tamiflu or a cellar full of canned food than a social network you can rely on. So if / when you get to the point when infection rates are rising in your area, then agree to buddy up with friends and check on each other regularly. Swap phone numbers with your neighbours, so that if one of you falls ill then you can keep in touch without sneezing all over each other. Think about who else might need help in your circle or on your street.
