The Cognitive Crucible
The Cognitive Crucible is a forum that presents different perspectives and emerging thought leadership related to the information environment. The opinions expressed by guests are their own, and do not necessarily reflect the views of or endorsement by the Information Professionals Association. During this episode, US Army Major Michael Zequeira discusses his Army Command and General Staff research entitled: the Effects of Social Media on Military Recruiting. More and more Americans receive information from social media. This work looks at the effects of social media’s rise on U.S. Army...
info_outlineThe Cognitive Crucible
The Cognitive Crucible is a forum that presents different perspectives and emerging thought leadership related to the information environment. The opinions expressed by guests are their own, and do not necessarily reflect the views of or endorsement by the Information Professionals Association. During this episode, Dr. Wayne “Mike” Hall discusses his latest capstone book: the Moral Imperative of Our Time-Purposeful Intellectual Growth. According to Mike, America’s intellect is sharply declining; he implores national security leaders to address this problem immediately by: 1) improving...
info_outlineThe Cognitive Crucible
The Cognitive Crucible is a forum that presents different perspectives and emerging thought leadership related to the information environment. The opinions expressed by guests are their own, and do not necessarily reflect the views of or endorsement by the Information Professionals Association. During this episode, Hatteras Hoops discusses business and national security considerations related to Human Domain Security. Current concepts around insider threat, insider risk, insider trust, insider fraud, critical people protection, personnel security and counterintelligence are broadly considered...
info_outlineThe Cognitive Crucible
The Cognitive Crucible is a forum that presents different perspectives and emerging thought leadership related to the information environment. The opinions expressed by guests are their own, and do not necessarily reflect the views of or endorsement by the Information Professionals Association. During this episode, Dr. Josh “Bugsy” Segal discusses his ongoing concerns about the “American Maginot Line.” He is concerned that the United States is insufficiently and inappropriately funding the cognitive war that is bearing down on us. Moreover, the United States domestic political system...
info_outlineThe Cognitive Crucible
The Cognitive Crucible is a forum that presents different perspectives and emerging thought leadership related to the information environment. The opinions expressed by guests are their own, and do not necessarily reflect the views of or endorsement by the Information Professionals Association. During this episode, US Air Force Captain Jose Davis discusses his paper, which is entitled: "Leveraging AI for Operations in the Information Environment: 3 Demonstrations in Disinformation, Social Media, and Entropy." The paper focuses on the application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the realm of...
info_outlineThe Cognitive Crucible
The Cognitive Crucible is a forum that presents different perspectives and emerging thought leadership related to the information environment. The opinions expressed by guests are their own, and do not necessarily reflect the views of or endorsement by the Information Professionals Association. During this episode, we learn about the US Army’s Command and General Staff College Information Advantage Scholar Program. Two officers from the 2024 IA Scholar cohort–Army MAJs Vincent Michel and Josh Keller–present their research and also discuss their overall experience. Additionally, Cognitive...
info_outlineThe Cognitive Crucible
The Cognitive Crucible is a forum that presents different perspectives and emerging thought leadership related to the information environment. The opinions expressed by guests are their own, and do not necessarily reflect the views of or endorsement by the Information Professionals Association. During this episode, Todd Wilcox discusses national security considerations related to publicly available information (PAI), open source intelligence (OSINT), and related regulations. Research Question: Todd Wilcox suggests a valuable topic for academic research would be the application of regulatory...
info_outlineThe Cognitive Crucible
The Cognitive Crucible is a forum that presents different perspectives and emerging thought leadership related to the information environment. The opinions expressed by guests are their own, and do not necessarily reflect the views of or endorsement by the Information Professionals Association. During this episode, Dr. Joanna Siekiera discusses how China is integrating itself into global affairs from a lawfare perspective. Research Question: Joanna Siekiera suggests an interested student ask: “Why”? Students should always start research from this question as it will help you...
info_outlineThe Cognitive Crucible
The Cognitive Crucible is a forum that presents different perspectives and emerging thought leadership related to the information environment. The opinions expressed by guests are their own, and do not necessarily reflect the views of or endorsement by the Information Professionals Association. During this episode, Dr. Randy Rosin returns to the Cognitive Crucible to discuss the “trippy” topic of reflexive control. Soviet influence practitioners favor an indirect approach. Reflexive control is the process of conveying the basis of decision-making from one person to another. Research...
info_outlineThe Cognitive Crucible
The Cognitive Crucible is a forum that presents different perspectives and emerging thought leadership related to the information environment. The opinions expressed by guests are their own, and do not necessarily reflect the views of or endorsement by the Information Professionals Association. During this episode, Vygotsky was a seminal figure in Soviet Psychology. His multi-staged—social learning theory of cognitive development—has influenced generations of cognitive psychologists. Our discussion today focuses on Vygotsky’s frequently overlooked and generally under-estimated concept of...
info_outlineThe Cognitive Crucible is a forum that presents different perspectives and emerging thought leadership related to the information environment. The opinions expressed by guests are their own, and do not necessarily reflect the views of or endorsement by the Information Professionals Association.
During this episode, USAF Col Pat Williams discusses the weather, information operations, and how the 557th Wing predicts and influences behavior. After describing the mission and capabilities of the Air Force’s only weather wing, Pat also discusses the 557th Wing’s recent realignment as a subordinate unit of the 16th Air Force. He reviews several historical examples where weather played a critical role in military operations–including the very first tornado forecast. Then, he discusses how weather analyses are playing an increasing role in influence and decision-making at the tactical, operational, and strategic levels.
Resources:
- How weather is playing a role in information warfare
- USAF 557th Weather Wing
- Col Pat Williams Bio
- The First Operational Tornado Forecast Twenty Million to One
- "You are about to set a precedent." - Gen. Fred S. Borum
- The Little Ice Age: How Climate Made History 1300-1850 by Brian M. Fagan
- Agent of Influence: How to Use Spy Skills to Persuade Anyone, Sell Anything, and Build a Successful Business by Jason Hansen
- Disinformation: Former Spy Chief Reveals Secret Strategies for Undermining Freedom, Attacking Religion, and Promoting Terrorism by Lt. Gen. Ion Mihai Pacepa, Ronald Rychlak
- Gen. Ian Pacepa
Link to full show notes and resources
https://information-professionals.org/episode/cognitive-crucible-episode-90
Guest Bio:
Colonel Patrick C. Williams is the Commander, 557th Weather Wing, Offutt Air Force Base, Omaha Nebraska. He leads more than 1,450 active duty and civil service personnel at 19 locations around the world providing centralized weather insights, products and services, including climatological and electromagnetic spectrum degradation forecasts, to Air Force, Space Force, Army, Joint Force, and other Department of Defense activities. The 557th Weather Wing executes worldwide weather operations to enable air and space superiority, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance, rapid mobility, global strike, and command and control in support of all geographic and functional combatant commands.
Colonel Williams received his commission from the United States Air Force Academy in May 1998. He became well versed in aviation, cyber, space, intelligence, and Army operations and held a wide variety of positions to include 2d Weather Group Commander, 19th Expeditionary Weather Squadron Commander, command weather briefer, flight commander, staff officer for Air, Army, and Joint Staffs, program element monitor, executive officer and aide-de-camp. Colonel Williams served two combat tours in Iraq (as flight commander) and Afghanistan (as 19th Expeditionary Weather Squadron Commander) respectively.
About: The Information Professionals Association (IPA) is a non-profit organization dedicated to exploring the role of information activities, such as influence and cognitive security, within the national security sector and helping to bridge the divide between operations and research. Its goal is to increase interdisciplinary collaboration between scholars and practitioners and policymakers with an interest in this domain.
For more information, please contact us at [email protected].
Or, connect directly with The Cognitive Crucible podcast host, John Bicknell, on LinkedIn.
Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate, 1) IPA earns from qualifying purchases, 2) IPA gets commissions for purchases made through links in this post.