The last few months have produced much turbulence for American intelligence. What's new? In our symposia, on the website, and in Joe Mazzafro's blog, among other opportunities, we'll address at least some of that. For now, however, I want to draw attention to two very important intelligence community programs: the IC Centers of Academic Excellence (IC CAE) and the National Defense Intelligence College (NDIC).

Whether your firm is a services provider or a product company, you must clearly differentiate your offering or personnel. Perhaps this is true in any market during any economic cycle, but since our focus is on the IC, here are some of my thoughts on how to accomplish this mission towards the intell agencies.

Advances in cyberspace and missile technology are extending China’s military reach.

The U.S. Army received a prototype that will eventually integrate current and future air and missile defense capabilities into one overall command and control (C2) system.

Whether by the casual hackers in a coffee shop or the state-sponsored experts in a cutting-edge cyber war room, our network and information defenses will always be engaged. Into this fray the new cyber command leads a combined force of expertise, experience, technology and vision drawn from the various Army groups that have held the line so far.

This summer I attended a series of thought-provoking conferences, ranging from business technology to clean energy to cybersecurity and network integration. Collectively, they suggest that we’re living in a “golden age” of technological innovation, but they also highlighted a growing gap between increasingly interactive capabilities and the ability to provide security at several levels, ranging from individual privacy to critical infrastructure protection. The bottom line is that nothing I heard makes me sleep better at night.

While the world’s attention largely has been focused on areas of conflict, one NATO nation has quietly developed an indigenous defense industry that is poised to be a significant player in international military procurement. By focusing on developing technologies and capabilities within reach, Turkey has developed a domestic defense technology base that spans all military activities on land, at sea and in the air.

Buttressed by modern warfighting realities and battered by fiscal realities, the United Kingdom is laying the groundwork for a major overhaul of its military force structure. Significant studies currently underway aim at building a new defense architecture that both provides for any anticipated contingency and enables flexibility to act in new ways against unforeseen threats.