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Global ECCO Presents: CTX Conversations with Mr. Thomas Friedman - Strategic Implications of the Gaza War


Date: March 15, 2024
Time: 12:00 PST
Location: Zoom

The Combating Threats Exchange Journal (CTX) announces the launch of CTX Conversations, a series of virtual discussions between recognized area experts from around the world, covering a spectrum of critical topics, including irregular warfare, counterterrorism, East Asian security, and much more.

We are honored to kick off this series with Dr. John Arquilla, Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the Naval Postgraduate School, in conversation with Pulitzer Prize winning author and journalist, Thomas Friedman. Together, they will delve into the strategic implications of the ongoing conflict in Gaza, offering their own insights and analysis on this difficult topic.

Mark your calendars for March 15, 2024, at 12 PM PST to join us for this thought-provoking session. Following the discussion, there will be an opportunity for audience members to ask questions and share their own thoughts with Mr. Friedman, Dr. Arquilla, and the rest of the online audience. Don't miss out on this rare opportunity.

If you are interested in attending this virtual discussion, please contact Amina Kator-Mubarez at akatormu@nps.edu

JSOU - SOCbT Course


Date: February 26, 2024
Location: JSOU, Tampa, Florida

The Global ECCO team will be facilitating Balance of Terror, a two-player strategy game focused on terrorism and counterterrorism, at JSOU. 

JSOU - CVE Course


Date: February 16, 2024
Location: JSOU, Tampa, Florida

The Global ECCO team will be facilitating Contagion, a two-player strategy game focused how terrorists spread their ideologies and how states counter that with their own ideologies. 

Strategic Gaming Facilitation: Dark Networks — CORE - SNA


Date: September 24, 2023 to September 30, 2023
Location: Peru

Strategic Gaming Facilitation: Dark Networks — DIA


Date: March 9, 2023
Location: Waikkiki, Hawaii

The International Intelligence Fellows Program (IIFP) is a two-week executive level program for senior international military and civilian Intelligence professionals. Senior, international intelligence officials from every COCOM are scheduled to attend this summer's course.

Strategic Gaming Facilitation: SOCbT — JSOU


Date: February 27, 2023
Location: Florida, CA

Strategic Gaming Facilitation: Dark Networks — JSOU


Date: February 17, 2023
Location: Florida, CA

Strategic Gaming Facilitation: Dark Networks — JSOU


Date: August 31, 2022
Location: Florida, CA

As funded by the Regional Defense Fellowship Program, the Advanced Special Operations Combating Terrorism course focuses on advancing those international partnership networks established during the Special Operations Combating Terrorism Course. Designed for senior military officers and other governmental officials, this course focuses on developing strategies for countering potential terrorist threats, and the importance of ongoing education concerning current and emerging global threats.

Strategic Gaming Facilitation: Dark Networks — DIA


Date: July 27, 2022
Location: Washington, DC

The International Intelligence Fellows Program (IIFP) is a two-week executive level program for senior international military and civilian Intelligence professionals. Senior, international intelligence officials from every COCOM are scheduled to attend this summer's course. The Agency has decided to use July's program to address how Intelligence support can assist in combating terrorism.

Strategic Gaming Facilitation: Dark Networks — Peruvian War College and CORE Lab (NPS)


Date: April 25, 2022 to April 29, 2022
Location: Online

Members of the CORE lab from the Naval Postgraduate School will be facilitating the game, Dark Networks, for the course titled, "Trust, Intelligence, and Networks"  at the Peruvian War College. 

This course examines the basic principles of trust and influence, especially as they relate to social networks. Students will acquire a theoretical foundation for these concepts and how they apply to a broad spectrum of areas. The course also introduces the basic concepts discussed in the class—trust, influence, and social networks—and how they are interrelated as well as explores various ways that trust, influence, and networks play themselves out in different aspects of life and irregular warfare, such as small groups, military teams, social movements, dark networks, and so on.

The Dark Networks game focuses on the organizational structure of terrorist groups and how these structures can be altered to make the terrorist group more or less effective. It reinforces many of the concepts and ideas from the field of social network analysis (SNA). It is a two-player, strategic game between the state and the terrorist. Each player may have a strategy to defeat the other, but they must adapt their strategies over time to maximize their advantages. The core tradeoff in this game is between security and effectiveness for the terrorist group. Measures taken to increase effectiveness (growing, centralizing) will diminish the terrorist group's security, and vice versa. This forces players to think about which attribute (security or effectiveness) they wish to maximize. This will change depending on the timing in the game and players' strategies.

Strategic Gaming Facilitation: Dark Networks — JSOU


Date: February 15, 2022
Location: Florida, CA

The SOCbT course is an introduction to the regional defense CTIWFP and presents a comprehensive perspective on how governments can combat terrorist threats. Based upon a mix of traditional and new principles of special operations and irregular warfare, the Special Operations Combating Terrorism Course is designed to build both country and regional combating terrorism strategic capabilities. In MET format, this course may be tailored as either a three-day executive discussion on a narrow set of topics, a one-week custom theme seminar, or two-week seminar. Past themes for mobile seminars have included the nexus of crime and terrorism, developing high-value targets, countering threat finance, and counter-piracy Course Objectives: The objective of this course is enhance capabilities of participating countries by presenting subjects that will enhance their comprehension of the elements of a population which leads individuals to engage in violent extremism, understand the ‘whole of society’ approach towards countering violent extremism and identify response options to counter violent extremism.

Strategic Gaming Facilitation: Contagion — JSOU


Date: February 1, 2022 to February 11, 2022
Location: Florida, CA

Description: This course provides an awareness of the dynamics associated with violent extremism as it explores issues of motivations, prevention, organizational dynamics, sociocultural context, legitimacy, and messaging. The curriculum is delivered by subject matter experts and includes case studies to advance comprehension and improve sovereign and regional programs to counter violent extremism. Course Objectives: The objective of this course is enhance capabilities of participating countries by presenting subjects that will enhance their comprehension of the elements of a population which leads individuals to engage in violent extremism, understand the ‘whole of society’ approach towards countering violent extremism and identify response options to counter violent extremism.

Strategic Gaming Facilitation: Contagion — FBI ILEA


Date: January 24, 2022 to January 28, 2022
Location: Mali

The Global ECCO team will facilitate the game, Contagion, for the FBI International Law Enforcement Academy. Contagion introduces players to how terrorists spread their ideologies and how states counter that with their own ideology. Both sides try to gain as much popular support as possible, all while also denying their opponent support. With limited resources, players must choose whether to defend their gains against attacks or grow their support in new areas. They must also weigh the value of promoting their own message versus undermining their opponent's message. While the game is won by gaining sufficient popular support, players can also choose to take actions to undermine their rivals. For every agent placed or boost enacted, players can choose between a positive message, a mixed message (half the power of both positive and negative), or a negative message. Players must pay attention to their opponent's actions and make strategic choices between expanding their own control or undermining their opponent's loyalty, or a little bit of both.

Strategic Gaming Facilitation: FBI - IEP - Panama


Date: December 6, 2021 to December 10, 2021
Location: Panama

CORE lab will be running a modified executive level course on Network Analysis. This course is new in that it will focus on the development of Law Enforcement networks and how to utilize them to combat transnational Organized crime. The ECCO title “Criminal Networks” will be the cornerstone of this exercise as our entire intent is to field test the game in a new format with a uniquely germane audience. Ideally our findings will enable us to provide a new and unique offering to our traditional RDFP network of schoolhouses and alumni.Course Objectives: The objective of this course is enhance capabilities of participating countries by presenting subjects that will enhance their comprehension of the elements of a population which leads individuals to engage in violent extremism, understand the ‘whole of society’ approach towards countering violent extremism and identify response options to counter violent extremism.

Strategic Gaming Facilitation: Dark Networks — FBI ILEA


Date: December 9, 2021 to December 10, 2021
Location: Online

The Global ECCO team will facilitate the game, Dark Networks, for the FBI International Law Enforcement Academy.

Strategic Gaming Facilitation: Dark Networks — FBI ILEA


Date: December 9, 2021 to December 10, 2021
Location: Online

The Global ECCO team will facilitate the game, Dark Networks, for the FBI International Law Enforcement Academy.

Panel Session - Afghanistan: Reactions and Reflections


Date: September 16, 2021
Time: 8 AM PST | 11 EST
Location: Online

Global ECCO has gathered a diverse panel from the RDFP community, educators, and practitioners to discuss various aspects related to Afghanistan and the short and long-term security implications of the Taliban takeover in the region and abroad. Register Here: https://nps.edu/ecco-register

Strategic Gaming Facilitation: CyberStrike — Naval Postgraduate School


Date: February 9, 2021
Location: Online

The ECCO team will help Professor Deborah Gibbons facilitate the Global ECCO strategic game, CyberStrike, for her class, "Management of Teams."

The MoT course examines the differences between groups and teams, between leader-managed and self-managed teams, between virtual and face-to-face teams, and between effective and ineffective teams. Analysis of effective teams include such issues as team dynamics, decision making, rewards, commitment, and the management of conflict (inter-personal, intra-team, and inter-team) in which power, influence and negotiation play central parts.

CyberStrike is a six-player game that simulates the complex strategic environment of cyber conflict. Players can play as criminals, terrorists, hackers, or states, with each role having different capabilities and goals. Players have to consider how their offensive capabilities match up with their adversaries’ defensive capabilities, and vice versa; whether to attack opponents or defend against them; to retaliate against attacks, particularly if the perpetrator is unknown; to invest in offense, defense, or detection capabilities; to ally with others; to share information or not; and how they can deter future attacks. 

The game is intentionally designed for thinking about the macro, strategic decisions in the cyber world. It does not require or teach any technical aspects of cyber conflict.