A Sense of History The long and bloody history of the Balkans is like any other hotly-contested region of the world, where various groups or states have ‘interests’ which unfortunately (for the general population) overlap… The original hotchpotch of petty feudal states evolved after the fragmentation of the old Roman Empire, and continued a precarious existence on the edge of … Read More

In Most Secret War, Dr. R. V. Jones discusses the human tendency to “conjure up fear under conditions of stress,” a tendency the modern Westerner—stalked by fears of terrorism, crime, and economic catastrophe, international mergers—will no doubt appreciate. The example Jones cites, though seemingly trivial in hindsight, is both entertaining and revealing. Bear with me on this one as it … Read More

The more successful his efforts proved, the more pressure Dr. Jones and his team felt. He grew increasingly concerned that they would miss something vital. The most direct solution would be to hire more staff, which he considered, somewhat skeptically. Unfortunately, at that point all the ablest people had been fitted into posts, and it was now difficult to pries … Read More

This item challenges us to truly examine our motives in giving advice to clients (or colleagues). We may be working in high-tech IT, but we are still not all that far from our hunter-gatherer ancestors… As always, I am indebted to my colleagues both here and in the US professional gaming community for the inspiration and basis of this article.While … Read More

This item involves an illustration of some of the exaggerated and warped ‘group-think’ which was engendered by the famous V2 missile, the first man-made object into space. Whilst much of Jones’s comments in the article concern the missile, try to think of it in our terms as the next, fab solution/fad… As always, I am indebted to my colleagues both … Read More

Or Figures Never Lie – We Do In Reflections on Intelligence, R. V. Jones briefly reviews the British decision to adopt a convoy system during World War I. The case brings to light two useful insights: Know your data’s heritage and; Value the opinions of junior analysts. It also emphasizes how easy it is to work at cross purposes within … Read More

This is the first in what may be an occasional series which seeks to make historical lessons more widely available to 21stC business. All of these are taken from the work of Dr R.V. Jones, a home-grown genius from WW2. I am indebted to some American colleagues involved with what is known as ‘red team’ training, the awkward squad developing … Read More

It is well known that computers are superb at handling numbers (and before anyone raises it, even spelling and other nifty Word-processing tools are reduced to numeric rules and ‘weightings’; sorry…). However, for arcane reasons dating back well over two hundred years, some contractual statements of financial amounts must also be expressed in written English, presumably because potential 18thC fraudsters … Read More