This book examines the role of risk management in the recent financial crisis and applies lessons from there to the national security realm. It rethinks the way risk contributes to strategy, with insights relevant to practitioners and scholars in national security as well as business. Over the past few years, the concept of risk has become one of the most commonly discussed issues in national security planning. And yet the experiences of the 2007-2008 financial crisis demonstrated critical limitations in institutional efforts to control risk. The most elaborate and complex risk procedures could not cure skewed incentives, cognitive biases, groupthink, and a dozen other human factors that led companies to take excessive risk. By embracing risk management, the national security enterprise may be turning to a discipline just as it has been discredited.

How can the United States craft a sustainable national security strategy in a world of shifting threats, sharp resource constraints, and a changing balance of power? This volume brings together research on this question from political science, history, and political economy, aiming to inform both future scholarship and strategic decision-making.

On June 24, 2009, The Bush School of Government and Public Service and The Scowcroft Institute of International Affairs at Texas A & M University, and the U.S. Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute (SSI), conducted a conference on 'Leadership and Government Reform' in Washington, DC. Two panels discussed Leader Development in Schools of Public Affairs and Leadership, National Security, and 'Whole of Government' Reforms ... The panelists and authors reflected on the nature of external, internal, and transnational threats to U.S. security, and the need for changes in developing people, organizations, and institutions to more effectively, efficiently, and ethically improve the U.S. Government's capacity to address the need for change. The authors in this book share the belief of many in the international and public affairs community that the world is changing in fundamental ways, and our traditional models for understanding America's role do not appear to be working very well. A new era of reform is needed for this new age. In response, panelists in their detailed remarks and subsequent papers, offer suggestions to reform the United States' national security system to meet 21st century threats, while simultaneously developing the leaders who can implement a serious and broad-scale reform agenda.--

The attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001 changed the way the world thinks about security. Everyday citizens learned how national security, international politics, and the economy are inextricably linked to business continuity and corporate security. Corporate leaders were reminded that the security of business, intellectual, and human assets has a tremendous impact on an organization's long-term viability. In Rethinking Corporate Security, Fortune 500 consultant Dennis Dalton helps security directors, CEOs, and business managers understand the fundamental role of security in today's business environment and outlines the steps to protect against corporate loss. He draws on the insights of such leaders as Jack Welch, Bill Gates, Charles Schwab, and Tom Peters in this unique review of security's evolving role and the development of a new management paradigm. * If you truly wish to improve your own skills, and the effectiveness of your Corporation's security focus, you need to read this book * Presents connections of theory to real-world case examples in historical and contemporary assessment of security management principles * Applies classic business and management strategies to the corporate security management function

This edited volume helps bridge the elusive gap between theory and practice in dealing with the issue of "security" broadly conceived. A quarter of a century has passed since the crumbling of the Berlin Wall. Yet our notions of security remain mired in Cold War thinking whose realist ethos is predicated on holding the nation state's power, interests, and survival as the guiding unit of analysis in international relations. Security is ever changing. Confronting new dangers to the individual, the state, and the international order calls for new categories that speak to the new influence of globalization, international institutions, and transnational threats. Composed of original essays by a cosmopolitan mix of leading figures inside and outside the academy, this book proves relevant to any number of classes and courses, and its controversial character makes it all the more necessary and appealing.