December 2009 Defense Horizons 1

Defense

A Starfish Organization

In The Starfish and the Spider, Ori Brafman and Rod Beckstrom 

explore two competing methods of organization. The spider represents 

a traditional, hierarchical organization with one leader having centralized responsibilities not replicated in the rest of the organization. 

Destroy the head and the spider dies. A starfish organization is distributed; members’ roles and responsibilities (including leadership selection and refinement) can adapt rapidly to changing circumstances.3

Sustainable Technologies, Accelerated Research–Transformative 

Innovation for Development and Emergency Support (STAR–TIDES) is 

a networked effort that combines centralized and decentralized types 

of organizations. Its greatest strength is an extended network of interested individuals, businesses, government offices (civil and military), 

universities, and other entities from Australia to Singapore to northern 

Europe.4 Within this extended network, a steering team of 7 to 10 people is being formed to set broad priorities for outreach, research, event 

coordination, and technology integration. The team is supported by a 

small core to execute guidance and oversee engagement with particular TIDES projects. Most importantly, the steering and core teams act 

together as a catalyst to engage the exceptional energies and talents 

that reside in the extended network. Some people are dedicated fulltime by their organizations to support the project, some are part-time, 

and most are volunteers.

The broad scope of available expertise has helped STAR–TIDES 

investigate such diverse areas as stability, security, transition, and 

reconstruction (SSTR) in Afghanistan, humanitarian assistance/

disaster relief (HADR) in tropical regions, building partner capacity 

(BPC), and defense support to civil authorities (DSCA) in the United 

States. The network has supported responses to real world events—

including wildfires in southern California, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) trailer replacement, shelter solutions for 

Overview

The Department of Defense increasingly is involved in 

postwar stabilization and reconstruction, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief missions, capacity-building of partner 

nations at home and abroad, and other such complex operations. 

To provide sustainable support to stressed populations in these 

environments, an international, networked, knowledge-sharing 

research project called Sustainable Technologies, Accelerated Research–Transformative Innovation for Development 

and Emergency Support (STAR–TIDES)1 encourages innovative 

approaches to public-private collaboration, whole-of-government solutions, and transnational engagement. It leverages a 

distributed network of people and organizations to conduct 

research, support real world contingencies, and bridge gaps 

among disparate communities.

The three main goals of STAR–TIDES are to enhance 

the ability of civilian coalitions (business, government, and 

civil society) to operate in stressed environments, extend the 

military’s ability to work with civilians in such situations, and 

economize by identifying cost-effective logistic solutions and 

rationalizing supply chains.

STAR–TIDES fosters unity of effort among diverse organizations when there is no unity of command. The project is 

building a repository of information about potential solutions 

to provide “knowledge on demand” to support decisionmakers 

and those working in the field, rather than act as an operating 

agency. Information collected is made available in the public 

domain via a Web site,2

 and feedback, opinions, and recommendations from users are encouraged.

STAR–TIDES and Starfish Networks: 

Supporting Stressed Populations 

with Distributed Talent

by Linton Wells II, Walker Hardy, Vinay Gupta, and Daniel Noon

A publication of the

Center for Technology and National Security Policy

National Defense University

D e c e m b e r 2 0 0 9

Number 70

Horizons
2 Defense Horizons December 2009

building and stability operations, solutions need implementation systematically in the near and long term. The average stay in a refugee 

camp is over 7 years, a situation that requires completely different solutions and resourcing approaches than immediate responses. Strategies 

in nearly all of these cases should be bottom-up, focusing on the needs 

of the stressed population rather than the interests of aid providers, 

and strategies should link, where possible, to top-down frameworks. 

Solutions must be sustainable by those who will have to live with them.

Consequently, STAR–TIDES approaches focus on the needs of 

a stressed population for shelter, water, power, and other essential 

infrastructures and services. Military logisticians have noted that the 

deployable equipment that the Department of Defense (DOD) can bring 

to support such situations often is expensive, committed to operations 

plans, and signed for on custody cards—so it cannot be left behind to 

help build the capacity of the partner nation. At the same time, the capital-intensive infrastructures of the developed world are not likely available, either because they have been disrupted or were not operating in 

the first place. The TIDES part of STAR–TIDES began by addressing 

“transportable infrastructures” to encourage cost-effective, nimble, and 

efficient approaches over a wide 

range of circumstances (development and emergency support) that 

do not depend on deployable, costly 

military systems or fixed terrestrial facilities. A key element is a 

“whole-systems” concept that looks 

at cross-cutting links among different infrastructures.

STAR–TIDES does not try to 

provide solutions to all problems 

of stressed populations. For example, security, food supplies, and medical care are considered “associated activities” at present. The STAR–TIDES distributed approach 

allows the network to reach out to people with various skills for 

assistance, and the integrated planning process (described below) 

can adapt these considerations for particular circumstances.

Infrastructure

The underlying model for STAR–TIDES and its whole-systems 

approach to infrastructure solutions is based on the Hexayurt Project’s 

“six ways people die” model.9 These are too hot, too cold, thirst, hunger, 

illness, and injury. Shelters can help mitigate the first two risks, supply chains can address thirst and hunger, public health and medicine 

can mitigate many illnesses, and safety and security can reduce the 

likelihood of injury.

An example of the whole-systems approach is integrated cooking. 

A combination of solar ovens and high-efficiency stoves, plus retained 

heat baskets containing stones or bricks, can significantly reduce fuel 

use compared to open-pit fires. If properly tied to other infrastructures, the heat used for cooking could sterilize water, and use of hot 

stones and bricks for heating could reduce public health risks from 

smoke inhalation from open fires, especially in shelters. Lowered fuel 

demand could mitigate deforestation, give people more time for non–

fuel-gathering activities, and reduce security risks to gatherers.

Effective information-sharing can help with early detection 

and treatment or isolation of some infectious diseases. Information 

and communications technology (ICT) can help outside particithe Canadian Arctic, Cyclone Nargis relief in Burma, and electionmonitoring in Afghanistan.

While the STAR–TIDES core facilitates interactions among 

people, processes, organizations, and technology, many of the most 

valuable ideas have come from the extended network. The Web site, 

email threads, blogs, Twitter streams, and other fora encourage collaboration among participants. The project is building a knowledge 

repository containing ideas for potential solutions and best practices 

in support of stressed populations, arranged to encourage use and 

feedback by as many people as possible. The long-term goal is to have 

the repository be updated remotely and continuously by credible, dispersed contributors and accessible by interested parties through natural language queries with minimum involvement from the core.

STAR–TIDES does not provide assistance directly to stressed 

populations. Its main products are information and reachback capabilities to support decisionmakers and those working in the field. 

Rapid updates are important as field experience provides new insights, 

which reinforce the distributed nature of the STAR–TIDES approach.

Policy Background

Since 2004, U.S. policy and 

national security organizations 

have changed significantly in ways 

that promote engagement with 

civil-military mission partners in 

complex operations.5 Collectively, 

these reflect major policy and doctrine changes for the U.S. military, 

increasing emphasis on preconflict 

peacekeeping, capacity-building 

in partner nations, postwar stabilization and reconstruction, and 

humanitarian assistance and disaster relief. The implications of these 

changes are still evolving, and the new guidance recognizes that the 

sorts of problems that generate complex operations6 cannot be solved 

by military means alone.

STAR–TIDES thus supports U.S. national strategy, policy, and 

military doctrine, and is consistent with recent statements by the Secretaries of Defense and State calling for increased use of smart power7

initiatives, greater interagency cooperation,8 and the “3D” approach of 

diplomacy, defense, and development.

Methodologies

Effective strategies for supporting stressed populations must 

consider short-term and long-term situations (from multiweek disaster relief to multiyear refugee camps), in domestic and foreign venues, 

with or without military involvement. In some cases, such as disasters, 

responses must be rapid and flexible. In other cases, such as capacityDr. Linton Wells II is Distinguished Research Professor and Transformation 

Chair in the Center for Technology and National Security Policy (CTNSP) at the 

National Defense University. Walker Hardy is a Research Associate in CTNSP. 

Vinay Gupta is a Partner at Buttered Side Down and directs the Hexayurt 

Project. Daniel Noon is a Staff Member in the Education and Training Center 

at the U.S. Institute of Peace. Comments and questions may be addressed to 

wellsl3@ndu.edu or hardyw2@ndu.edu.

STAR–TIDES approaches focus 

on the needs of a stressed 

population for shelter, water, 

power, and other essential 

infrastructures and services
December 2009 Defense Horizons 3

activities is that almost no solution is suitable for all environments 

(for example, shelters deployed for winter snows may not be useful in 

tropical floods). The single exception seems to be light-emitting diode 

(LED) lighting—although it may be too expensive for some users.

Scenario-based Planning and Policy Support

In addition to the infrastructure-based approaches described 

above, support to stressed populations involves social, policy, operational, legal, regulatory, and financial issues, plus a host of other 

questions. To address these in an integrated way, focus on problems 

of interest to stakeholders, and support a planning process that might 

help mitigate needs in advance of a crisis, STAR–TIDES often examines problems in the context of scenarios. Specific research depends 

on available resources, but based on inputs from combatant commanders, civilian government organizations, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), academics, and others, STAR–TIDES is looking at 

four scenarios:

■ SSTR in Afghanistan, particularly renewable energy in remote 

villages and ICT in the eastern province of Nangarhar around 

the city of Jalalabad

■ HADR in tropical regions, such as western Central America, 

the Caribbean, or the western Pacific

■ DSCA in and around Washington, DC. This would involve 

natural or manmade disasters, and would focus on improving coordination among Federal, state, and local authorities, 

businesses, and the populace

■ BPC in sub-Saharan Africa, especially focused on refugees.

Each scenario is examined through a 10-step process. For illustrative purposes, the examples given below are built around the Central 

American HADR scenario.

1. Postulate a desired endstate and success metrics, and build 

paths to them from the initial scenario condition. When should people be out of temporary shelters and back into permanent housing? 

Should people be relocated to less vulnerable areas? How will first 

responders reach the victims? What services need to be provided to 

meet critical needs?

pants and indigenous populations mitigate consequences through 

resource management, security, enhanced situational awareness, 

and advanced planning for future crises. ICT applications can be 

designed to provide useful services even when bandwidth is limited. Human interoperability research could help to establish trust 

within the social networks involved.

Based on the initial expertise of the project’s participants, the six 

ways to die model, and interest expressed by participants in related 

projects, STAR–TIDES initially focused on seven infrastructures: shelter, water, power, integrated cooking (solar, combustion, retained heat), 

heating/lighting/cooling, sanitation, and ICT (see table). STAR–TIDES 

evaluates potential solutions in these categories according to principles 

of whole-systems integration, plus three additional constraints:

■ The solution must be suitable (inexpensive, available, culturally appropriate) and owned, operated, and sustained by the 

local population, or provisioned from relatively limited budgets.

■ Depending on the situation, individual components might 

need to be small and light, so that a family can travel with its 

own infrastructure.

■ The components should be common, off-the-shelf items to 

help meet the demand spike in a crisis. Indigenous and/or 

environmentally friendly materials should be used wherever possible.

An early effort to build an integrated, transportable infrastructure system was the Hexayurt Project.10 The system is designed for a 

long-stay refugee camp scenario in dry climates. The system represents an existence proof of the project’s goals; on paper, this system 

could provide all basic services to a stressed population, other than 

food supplies and medical care.

The hexayurt infrastructure package met the first two conditions 

but fell short on the third because it required exotic items such as 

wood-gasification stoves and building materials that might be unavailable in some areas. However, it did demonstrate the feasibility of providing all basic services—drinking water, a safe toilet, cooking, even 

lighting and recharging of a cell phone—from simple items.

Improving the fit of infrastructures to prevent death and enhance 

welfare in specific scenarios is a core goal of the STAR–TIDES network. One of the lessons learned to date from research and field 

Table. Examples of STAR–TIDES Infrastructures

Type Example

Shelter Indigenously based systems wherever possible: hexayurts, ShelterBox (Rotary Club’s integrated support system), costefficient commercial shelters, etc. Some 75 types of relatively inexpensive shelters have been identified so far.

Water Solar water pasteurization, low-power filtration, reverse osmosis units. The Dutch nongovernmental organization Akvo 

(www.akvo.org) has developed integrated approaches to analyzing water issues that STAR–TIDES is leveraging.

Power Solar panels, wind turbines, and micro-hydro, with integrating power controllers where applicable. Indigenous 

manufacturing, or at least assembly, is preferred.

Integrated cooking Combinations of solar, combustion stoves, and retained heat

Heating/lighting/cooling LED lighting, low-wattage cooling fans, insulation, whole-systems approaches to reuse heat from integrated cooking

Sanitation Chemicals that neutralize harmful bacteria, but are environmentally safe. Innovative research in flooded area 

sanitation is being done in Singapore, and Akvo has comprehensive information on sanitation.

Information and 

communication technologies

Information transport mechanisms such as portable satellite dishes, microwave links, and mesh networks; bridging 

equipment to link to local communication systems; robust, low-power computers, such as One Laptop Per Child, 

geospatial information systems, and related products
4 Defense Horizons December 2009

2. Postulate solution sets appropriate to the scenario’s circumstances. Which combinations of shelter, water, power, cooking, sanitation, communications, and information services would likely work best 

in Central American environments in the rainy season and afterward?

3. Identify the coalition of business, government, and civil society needed to implement the solutions on the ground. What part of 

the local government provides FEMA-like functions? What local languages are involved? Will indigenous NGOs be engaged? Are there 

local businesses that can be leveraged? How do U.S. Southern Command (USSOUTHCOM), U.S. Agency for International Development 

(USAID)/Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA), the 

United Nations (UN), and others interact with them?

4. Refine the scenarios, desired endstates, metrics, and solution 

sets, in concert with the appropriate local coalition leaders, U.S. entities, and international players so the solutions and metrics meet local 

needs and are executable in the long run. For example, there may have 

been about 180,000 homeless after Hurricane Mitch in 1998, but a comparable hurricane today would leave possibly 250,000 homeless.

5. Identify sources of supply for the solutions, for which there are 

four main options:

■ government stockpiles or contracts (USAID/OFDA or DOD, 

plus FEMA/Department of Homeland Security in the United 

States, host governments, and so forth)

■ nongovernmental stockpiles or contracts (UN, NGOs, private 

volunteer organizations [PVOs])

■ commercial supply chain—indigenous and international

■ empowered citizens (imagine how different the situation 

might have been if everyone in New Orleans had stored 3 

days’ worth of food and water before Katrina). As an example 

of ways to empower civilians, STAR–TIDES is working with 

gamers to write scenarios (for cell phones and projects such 

as One Laptop Per Child) that could teach children how to 

prepare themselves and their families better for disasters and 

then how to respond after disaster strikes.

6. Address legal and regulatory issues (such as customs clearance 

and export controls).

7. Estimate resources needed for each of the above (this might 

save all parties funds through cost-effective logistics and supply chain 

alignment). The actual allocation of resources would be done through 

established budget and acquisition processes.

8. Work through the field operating procedures (including military tactics, techniques, and procedures) to ensure consistency with 

policies and allow people on the ground to work well together.

9. Develop the training and exercise programs among the various members of the civil-military coalition to sustain progress and 

capture lessons learned. In the longer term, adjust curricula at appropriate educational institutions. Explore broad training, exercise, and 

educational partnerships.

10. Assess progress and adjust as needed.

Ideally, these steps would be taken well in advance of a crisis, 

thus forming the basis for planning and consequence mitigation measures. Since information will be widely shared via the STAR–TIDES 

Integrated Research Areas 

Associated Areas (A): Medical/Public Health, Food Supply, Security, Other 

Inventory

Improve

Help 

Implement

• Knowledge-

 sharing 

• Collaboration

• Identity

 management 

• Unclassified

 imagery-sharing

• Develop

 scenarios with

 stakeholders 

• Match solution

 sets to scenarios 

• Determine

 delivery sources 

• Allocate 

 resources

Gather, Share, and 

Evaluate 

information on 

Capabilities (C)

• Research the 7

 infrastructures 

• Develop

 knowledge

 repository 

• Conduct human/

 organizational

 research

• Identify best

 practices

• Identify and

 build

 coalitions of

 business,

 government

 and civil

 stakeholders

• Work

 together with

 coalition

Social Network 

Development and 

Trust-building 

(S)

• Accelerate

 trust-building

• Existing policy/

 doctrine 

• Compare to

 operating

 procedures

• Identify new

 policy issues 

• Adjust as

 needed

• Draft pending

 policies

• Develop and

 promulgate

 policies

Policy, Doctrine, 

and Field 

Operating 

Procedures (P)

• Review legal

 and regulatory

 concerns

• Apply 

 scenario-

 specific issues

• Regulatory

 options 

• Legislative

 change

 proposals

Legal and 

regulatory 

(L)

• Acquisition

• Transport

• Warehouse

• Relate

 scenario-

 based logistics

• Find cost-

 avoidance

 opportunities

• Work across

 multiple

 stakeholders

Resource 

Requirements

(R)

• Demonstrate

 existing capabilities

• Real-world

 experiments 

• Refine

 solutions

• Train the trainers 

• Exercise the

 units

• Incorporate

 lessons learned

• Change

 curricula

Train, Exercise, 

and Educate 

(E)

Figure. Integrated Research Areas
December 2009 Defense Horizons 5

Web site, others can benefit from lessons learned from any scenario 

and apply them to their own situations.

Research Areas

The 10 steps for investigating scenarios leverage a range of 

activities conducted within a framework of 6 broad research areas 

with links to associated activities. Research in some areas may not 

be done to support a particular scenario (such as improved collaboration tools, or ways to accelerate trust-building). However, as the 

broad research agenda develops, it can contribute to building a wholeof-government, public-private, transnational process that can help 

align strategies, goals, objectives, and policies with capabilities and 

resource requirements. The overall approach is shown in the figure.

The research area categories and some of the related topics are 

amplified below.

1. Gather, Share, and Evaluate Information on Capabilities:

■ Leveraging the seven STAR–TIDES infrastructures, gather, 

share, and evaluate information about capabilities that are 

useful to, and sustainable by, people on the ground in the 

affected area. Provide opportunities for ongoing feedback 

from field experiences.

■ Acquisition of these capabilities and delivery to the field are 

accomplished through local coalitions of business, government 

(civil and military), and civil society (NGOs, academia, concerned citizens) in conjunction with international organizations. Such acquisition efforts and field operations are outside 

the STAR–TIDES scope, per se, but STAR–TIDES shares information with such efforts and draws information from them. 

The focus on local coalitions integrates with social network 

development and trust-building.

■ Enhance situational awareness by designing, sharing, and 

evaluating information services to support field operations. 

Much of recent STAR–TIDES research has focused on improving geospatial information system products and shared situational awareness

2. Social Network Development and Trust-building:

■ Learn how to develop social networks and build trust with nontraditional, civil-military partners before a crisis. Distinguish 

between approaches that could work anywhere and those specific to particular scenarios. A mix of skills will be needed—

the Bahasa Indonesian–speaking, scuba-diving neuroscientist 

who could be perfect for tsunami relief in Southeast Asia might 

be of little help in an Andean earthquake, so a diverse, standing network needs to be nurtured continuously.

■ Examine ways to accelerate trust-building, even in stressed 

environments.

■ Link to research on human interoperability and human, social, 

cultural, and behavioral efforts.

3. Policy, Doctrine, Operating Procedures:

■ Review high-level policies and doctrine for sufficiency and recommend changes as appropriate.

■ Examine how to convert policy and doctrine into field operating procedures and communicate those procedures in ways 

that let people on the ground work effectively.

■ Consider what alternatives to traditional command and control 

in complex contingencies11 need to be designed and implemented for disparate stakeholders to focus on a problem, put 

together a suitably agile structure to meet the needs of the 

situation, and converge the resources to get the job done.12 To 

enable diverse organizations to focus on problems and develop 

a shared situational awareness of what is going on, networkenabled capabilities that link as many participants as possible 

are essential. Achieving those capabilities requires an underlying data strategy that allows all information on the network 

to be discoverable, accessible, understandable, and trusted. 

(This relates to the “improve knowledge-sharing/collaboration/

identity management/unclassified imagery sharing” under the 

first column of the figure.)

4. Legal and Regulatory Issues:

■ Clarify the legal challenges associated with transferring goods 

and services bought with certain types of funds to other areas 

under different circumstances—for example, leaving military 

equipment behind for disaster victims to use.

■ Understand what regulatory and other issues must be 

addressed in particular scenarios (such as customs and border clearance or export controls).

5. Resource Requirements:

■ Different scenarios will require different resourcing 

approaches, from immediate crisis response to long-term 

capacity-building and sustainment.

■ Aligning the four different sources of supply described in step 

5 of the scenario can save everyone money.

6. Train, Exercise, and Educate:

■ The trainers must be trained first, and then those who will use 

the infrastructures in the field. Rotary Clubs do an excellent 

job supporting distribution of the ShelterBox disaster relief kit13

by deploying a team of trainers who speak the local language to 

teach Rotarians in the affected area how to set up the tents and 

use the ShelterBox equipment, so they in turn can train survivors.

■ Exercise programs must be established to practice, refine, and 

revisit issues and incorporate lessons learned. Some broadly 

inclusive exercises can be used as models, including Operation 

Golden Phoenix and the annual Fuerzas Aliadas Humanitarias disaster management event among more than 20 Central 

American and Caribbean nations, U.S. Army South, and transnational institutions.

■ Educational curricula need to be changed to capture lessons 

learned, and behaviors must be adjusted accordingly.

Associated Areas. When STAR–TIDES began, the members of 

the team had no experience with areas such as public health or agriculture. In addition, security was not included as a core area since 

it is handled by the military, law enforcement, and others. Hence, 

these issues are treated as being “associated areas,” relying on others’ expertise. This focus may evolve in the future.

Starfish Analogy

STAR–TIDES neither needs nor wants to control all the research 

done across these broad areas. If research funded by other projects is 
6 Defense Horizons December 2009

producing results in some of these areas, and funders are willing to 

share it, the results will gladly be incorporated. There is no desire to 

make this a large, centralized project. Such an approach would fail. 

For example, much work on information-sharing already is being done 

under the auspices of the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA). 

Research into social network development and trust-building is being 

sponsored by the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics and others. Policies are developed through many different channels. Exercise planning and execution are dispersed.

Eventually, the STAR–TIDES Web site will be populated with 

information from any source (which will be given full credit), and then 

used to share information and gather feedback. A goal is to migrate to 

genuine Web 2.0–type formats that promote interactions, as opposed 

to just having readable Web pages. In an ideal endstate, STAR–TIDES 

resources and processes would be distributed to many centers and 

serve as a catalyst to encourage the 

ongoing operation of a starfish network based on a distributed information and innovation platform.

A starfish network does not 

function without sharing information. STAR–TIDES embraces this 

idea and holds that to engage effectively with a wide variety of entities in these environments, DOD 

must find ways to share information properly with these players.14

Such entities include aid organizations, local populations and 

governments, indigenous security 

services, NGOs, international organizations, commercial firms, and even individuals. Without the ability 

to work effectively with these stakeholders, the United States cannot 

achieve the social, political, and economic goals for which military 

forces have been committed. Thus, these smart power capabilities 

must be core elements of national strategy from the beginning of the 

planning process.

Origins

STAR–TIDES developed through a series of events that highlighted some of the basic problems as well as the policy and procedural deficits that have become the focus of its research. STAR–

TIDES also addresses needs identified by previous work done by 

the Center for Technology and National Security Policy (CTNSP) at 

the National Defense University (NDU).15 It builds on the evolution 

of policy and doctrine since 2004 and draws on experiences from 

the tsunami and Katrina relief efforts, three STRONG ANGEL demonstrations (2000–2006),16 and reconstruction efforts in Iraq and 

Afghanistan. In each case, difficulties in communication, collaboration, and information-sharing with various partners have been identified as obstacles to mission success.

STRONG ANGEL Demonstrations

Beginning in 2000, the U.S. military sponsored a series of demonstrations known as STRONG ANGEL to improve civil-military 

interactions in areas such as medical care, language translation, 

and information-sharing. In 2006, STRONG ANGEL III (SA III) 

served as an “integrated disaster response demonstration” that 

included elements of both a global pandemic illness and cyberterrorism. The focus was on a domestic U.S. scenario in which “the 

citizens of a community are deprived of power, cell phones, and 

Internet access, and are beyond the immediate reach of Federal 

assistance.”17 One key objective was to tap the expertise and creativity within an affected community, including public-private partnerships. A second was to develop social tools and techniques to 

encourage collaborative cooperation between responders and the 

population they serve during postdisaster reconstruction.

SA III participants included a wide range of public and private organizations.18 Much progress was made, but the results 

showed how much work remains to be done. Despite having tremendous resources and knowledge at their disposal, the SA III 

participants were slow to achieve 

unity of effort as the situation 

unfolded. Wireless networks frequently interfered with each 

other while standing up. After 

continuing problems with ad hoc, 

poorly synchronized approaches, 

leaders stepped forward to help 

move the recovery process. These 

were important insights. Fairly 

straightforward lessons have 

been repeated from Indonesia to 

New Orleans, while corrections 

consistently have proved hard to 

implement. This experience reinforces the need to define clear 

operating procedures that are understandable to field personnel 

and train with them. Highlighting that more attention must be paid 

to these recurring problems was part of the experimental goals of 

the STRONG ANGEL series.

Charrette

In 2002, the Rocky Mountain Institute sponsored a charrette

(brainstorming session) to rethink refugee-and-displaced-persons 

settlements from scratch.19 The focus was on UN High Commissioner 

on Refugees concerns—energy, site, water and sanitation, communications, education, health, economic development, food and 

nutrition, and construction and shelter. Participants also considered 

security, light, and refrigeration. A key purpose was to create a settlement design methodology and template for helping displaced people 

quickly—in short, a primer for aid workers. The charrette also examined ways to improve the international Sphere Project standards for 

refugee populations.20 Innovative outcomes included the Hexayurt 

Project and the Life Box (where packing materials were impregnated 

with seeds).21 Equally importantly, the charrette brought together individuals with diverse skills whose interactions continue to make significant contributions to STAR–TIDES.

Tsunami Relief

As part of the intensive U.S. and international relief effort 

after a tsunami struck the Bay of Bengal on December 26, 2004, the 

without the ability to 

work effectively with these 

stakeholders, the United States 

cannot achieve the social, 

political, and economic goals 

for which military forces have 

been committed
December 2009 Defense Horizons 7

Office of the Secretary of Defense sent a small assessment team to 

the region to identify, address when possible, and document issues 

in civil-military relief efforts.22 This team included a Navy doctor, 

civilian doctor, and retired Navy flight officer. They spent several 

weeks traveling between UN posts in Jakarta and Banda Aceh in 

Indonesia and U.S. operating centers, the USS Abraham Lincoln, 

the USS Bonhomme Richard, and the airfield at Medan on Sumatra. 

The assessment produced a number of important observations and 

recommendations that can apply in other areas:

■ Social networks need to be developed to help bridge civil-military gaps. The fact that the doctors were known to the UN and 

aid communities opened many doors, while the former naval 

aviator facilitated contacts on board the carrier. Their combined networking allowed them to recommend adjustments in 

the field that led to improved civil-military interactions and to 

documented lessons learned that have been incorporated into 

other efforts, including STAR–TIDES.

■ Web-based civil-military collaboration can be an important 

tool, but it needs to be open and accessible to all, and to serve 

bandwidth-challenged and intermittently disconnected users. 

DOD should facilitate Internet access by civil-military mission 

partners, not restrict it. Policies are being developed to support 

such access.

■ In disaster situations, unclassified information and imagery 

should be made available as quickly as possible with minimal 

restrictive caveats.

■ Provisions should be made to allow sharing of available bandwidth, possibly by creating separate networks independent of 

any government or military networks.23

Expedient Infrastructure for Transient Populations Effort 

In April 2007, approximately 20 people, led by Jim Craft, former 

senior advisor to the Minister of Communications and Information 

Technology in Afghanistan, met to initiate a project called Expedient 

Infrastructure for Transient Populations (EITP). Attendees included 

public and private stakeholders, governmental and nongovernmental 

organizations, and others with a common interest in improving help to 

stressed populations. In late summer 2007, EITP was renamed STAR–

TIDES,24 largely to facilitate outreach. Since Mr. Craft by this time had 

become Deputy Chief Information Officer of the U.S. Marine Corps, 

coordination of the project moved to CTNSP at NDU.

Early Activities (2007–2008)

Demonstrations and Conferences

CTNSP sponsored a set of phase I demonstrations in fall 2007 

at Fort Lesley J. McNair in Washington, DC, and at the Pentagon that 

focused on the seven core infrastructures mentioned above. These 

represented a “proof of concept” for STAR–TIDES and concluded with 

exposure testing of several shelters on a mountaintop in western Virginia from December 2007 to July 2008.

The diverse visitors to the demonstrations taught the STAR–

TIDES team much and took away ideas for future collaboration. In the 

end, less than $20,000 in U.S. Government investment generated more 

than $800,000 in private sector engagement, even under the ground 

rules that participation in the demonstrations did not constitute government endorsement of any particular solution.

Phase II activities continued through fiscal year 2008, and 

focused on outreach, building the network, researching technologies, 

and refining analytical models. The environmental testing on the shelters showed that they could withstand severe weather, but also highlighted deficiencies—for example, in resistance to ultraviolet radiation.

Real World Events

A few real world examples illustrate the general STAR–TIDES 

approach. They reinforce that the objective is to link people who have 

problems with those who have answers in order to support decisionmakers and those working in the field.

Southern California Wildfires. In October 2007, multiple wildfires in southern California severely stressed the area around San 

Diego and stretched beyond the border into Mexico. The STAR–TIDES 

core group asked members of the extended network if anyone had 

any ideas that could help. One suggestion was to use the Predator 

unmanned aerial systems with multispectral imagers flown by the 

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). At this point, 

the fact that NASA had Predators with such sensors was not widely 

known in DOD. To make sure STAR–TIDES was supporting decisionmakers, General Victor Renuart, Jr., USAF, commander of U.S. Northern Command (USNORTHCOM), was asked how STAR–TIDES could 

best support his efforts. He provided a link to his operations directorate, where continued engagement was focused. Members of the directorate expressed appreciation for the STAR–TIDES support after the 

fires were out.

In addition, many of the groups involved in the emergency 

response efforts included members of the STAR–TIDES network. 

As the situation developed, linkages and paths were created among 

such diverse groups as San Diego State University, NASA, University 

of Maryland, Bell Canada, Google, the National Institute of Urban 

Search and Rescue,25 the Department of Homeland Security, and 

USNORTHCOM. In sum, as part of an extended team, STAR–TIDES 

was able to facilitate information-sharing to help decisionmakers 

and those in the field address problems of interest to them, and then 

stand aside as appropriate.

Bangladesh Floods. In November 2007, Cyclone Sidr struck 

Bangladesh. In response to a query, members of the network noted 

that Vibrio cholerae bacteria are carried by small creatures that 

live in salt water. The ability to map the salt water intrusion boundary after a flood can give medical personnel about a 10-day warning on where cholera outbreaks might occur. A check with the 

National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) revealed that there 

was no imagery available from U.S. national technical means, but 

some commercial imaging firms had photos. However, the contract 

required that these be released only to governments or similar entities, which greatly complicated their use by NGOs and others working on the relief effort. STAR–TIDES checked with Admiral Timothy 

Keating, USN, commander of U.S. Pacific Command, who concurred 

with further investigation. In short order, NGA was able to get the 

commercial imagery companies to agree to release pictures without 

caveats within 30 days of a disaster to those working on the mission, 

so long as copyright information was left on the geospatial products. 

They also honored this in Cyclone Nargis in Burma.
8 Defense Horizons December 2009

Canadian Arctic. A final example centers on Canadian interest in infrastructures for the Arctic. Their first question was, “What 

do you have that might work in −40° temperatures, 50-knot winds, 

and permafrost?” After a somewhat dumbfounded initial response, 

the network again was queried. Some members had contracts with 

the Aleuts for green energy solutions in Alaska. Others were working 

with the government of the Yukon. The contacts were put in touch 

with the Canadians who had asked the question, thus adhering to 

the model of linking people with questions with those who have 

answers, and then stepping aside.

Collectively, these examples show how STAR–TIDES has 

worked in its early stages. The experiences have stimulated relationships and social networks that have formed the groundwork for 

more effective information-sharing in a variety of situations. In one 

sense, the project can serve as a commons to encourage diverse 

players to come together.

Phase III Activities

The STAR–TIDES focus in phase III (October 1, 2008–September 30, 2009) was on expanding the online knowledge repository, 

enhancing information-sharing tools, working through scenarios 

from beginning to end, and building out the network. It placed more 

emphasis on open field demonstrations, exercises, and testing than 

on static displays.

The phase III activities began with the second annual demonstration in October 2008, again at Fort McNair and the Pentagon. The 

demonstration built on phase I and II results and included operational 

displays of infrastructures that could be used in each of the fiscal year 

2009 scenarios (Afghanistan SSTR, tropical disaster relief, African 

BPC, and DSCA in the Washington, DC, area). The results suggested 

considerable progress in a year:

■ Less than $5,000 of DOD investment at Fort McNair generated 

over $1.7 million in private sector engagement.

■ A day after starting from a “cold, dark, quiet” field with no 

access to power, water, or communications, the STAR–TIDES 

participants (business, military, civil government, NGOs, 

academia) had:

• seven satellite networks operating, independent of the 

power grid

• a third of the site powered by portable solar equipment with 

wind turbine backup

• filtered drinking water (appropriately tested) provided by 

portable units directly out of the Potomac River

• food being cooked in solar ovens as part of an integrated 

solar/combustion cooking and heating approach designed 

to save 75 to 90 percent of fuel use over open fires

• innovative shelter solutions available at a fraction of the 

costs of deployable military systems.

Experimentation

As plausible candidate infrastructures are assembled, credible 

testing will become even more important. The concept of field feedback (“e-pinions,” wikis, and so forth) has always been part of STAR–

TIDES, but until recently the project has not had access to structured 

a priori testing. However, some options are becoming available.

The Naval Postgraduate School at Monterey, California, has a 

sophisticated test range stretching over an extended area from Camp 

Roberts in central California to Monterey Bay and beyond. The range 

also is linked to test sites in other states, so experiments can be run in 

a range of climates. The first STAR–TIDES field experiment at Camp 

Roberts in early 2009 addressed renewable energy (solar and wind) to 

drive water purification, lighting, and some other experiments.

A second experiment in August 2009 focused on developing situational awareness (SA) rapidly in stressed environments, and sharing it 

under various conditions. Using Afghan and Central American–based 

scenarios, the team experimented with innovative ways of creating SA 

using short message system/text messages in limited bandwidth situations, and worked to link the updates to useful geospatial products 

that could be modified in the field. The products were based on a new 

archive of sub-one-meter imagery that NGA made available in July 

2009 for participants in U.S. and coalition operations in Afghanistan. 

Through collaboration among geographers, software developers, government employees, and NGO/PVO field staff members, using a mix of 

freely available open source and common commercial tools, effective 

products were developed, deployed to Afghanistan, and used in election monitoring less than 2 weeks after the experiment started.26

Future experiments will expand these lines of research and integrate unmanned air vehicles and human interoperability investigations, along with a wider range of participants.

In addition, USNORTHCOM set up infrastructures at the U.S. Air 

Force Academy for field testing by cadets in summer 2009.

Scenarios

Completion of the scenario analyses requires input from nearly 

all of the STAR–TIDES research areas (see figure). In early 2009, 

participants in the STAR–TIDES project traveled to Afghanistan to 

develop scenario-related insights, and began working on Caribbean 

and Central American issues in more depth. These have been supported by the Under Secretary of Defense (Policy), USSOUTHCOM, 

the State Department Office of the Coordinator for Reconstruction and 

Stabilization, USAID, and the U.S. Institute for Peace. Other organizations, such as MITRE and the Institute for State Effectiveness, allocated internal resources to support STAR–TIDES projects, and STAR–

TIDES is leveraging funding by DISA and Space and Naval Warfare 

Systems Command for work on ICT in Afghanistan, as well as human 

interoperability work funded from several sources. These pieces will 

be brought to bear as the scenario analyses mature.

Support to Policymakers

Besides the infrastructure and scenario research, STAR–TIDES 

members have proposed three policy refinements to improve information-sharing and provide needed services to the field faster. The first 

would allow civil-military mission participants27 to share DOD radio 

frequency bandwidth under appropriate circumstances, while preserving adequate security. A second promotes the sharing of unclassified imagery with such partners without restrictive caveats. A third 

makes information about SSTR/HADR/BPC contingencies more readily discoverable, accessible, and understandable across the participating networks through the use of metadata tagging.

Bandwidth Sharing. As noted earlier, during the 2004 tsunami 

relief efforts and other contingencies, DOD was limited in its ability 
December 2009 Defense Horizons 9

to support NGOs with radio frequency bandwidth, even when it might 

have been mutually beneficial. Accordingly, STAR–TIDES worked with 

the Office of the Secretary of Defense, military Services, and combatant commanders to improve this process, using demonstrations, real 

world activities, and related projects. In April 2009, the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Networks and Information Integration)/DOD Chief 

Information Officer issued a DOD Instruction that states:28

It is DOD policy . . . that:

a. [. . .] information-sharing activities that facilitate coordination and cooperation between DOD and non-DOD partners 

will be established to enable common understanding of the stabilization and reconstruction, disaster relief, and humanitarian 

and civic assistance environment; and to support an integrated 

Whole-of-Government response capability.

b. In response to . . . validated requirements, the Department 

of Defense or Military Department Headquarters may resource 

ICT capabilities to share spectrum or bandwidth, and to provide 

associated ICT infrastructure 

services.

Of course, caveats such as “to 

the extent authorized by law, and 

subject to applicable statutory and 

regulatory restrictions and limitations” have to be addressed as 

proposals are translated into field 

operating procedures. Nonetheless, 

this instruction represents a significant advance in DOD information-sharing policy. Converting it 

into effective field operating procedures is the next step.

Unclassified Imagery. The 

second policy deals with sharing of 

unclassified imagery. The ability to 

share imagery and other geospatial information systems with other military and civilian entities can make important contributions to success in 

SSTR, HADR, and BPC operations, as shown in the example of the Bangladesh floods. Ways exist to share such information,29 but recent real 

world experiences offer insights into ways to improve these mechanisms. 

Consider five categories of imagery:

1. products collected on a regular basis, but where additional 

coverage may be required for mission partners

2. existing products collected but not publicly released

3. publicly released materials, whose location may not be known

4. near real time imagery, which often is the most important 

for NGOs

5. new products that contain information such as soil pH and 

moisture information that would be useful to farmers.

NGA innovation in providing imagery in support of disaster relief 

has been discussed above. The agency also has been extraordinarily 

forward-leaning in supporting imagery sharing in Afghanistan. Future 

STAR–TIDES work will focus on integrating categories 4 and 5 with 

geospatial products and on building cooperative relationships.

Metadata Tagging. Development and emergency support 

environments require that relevant information be found quickly 

to address mission needs. A way to do this is to make better use of 

metadata, which is data about data. For example, when an article 

or photo is tagged with the key word Bangladesh, it allows that 

material to be found more easily by someone searching for that 

topic. Communities of interest in a particular field will typically 

reach agreement about the standards and terminology by which 

they will tag their information and make it discoverable. Early 

work by members of the STAR–TIDES network found extensive 

compatibility between the internationally used Dublin Core metadata standards and the DOD Discovery Metadata Specification. 

Similar definitions of terms within these standards would allow 

information to be discoverable across communities. This should 

be formalized by establishing a community of interest for SSTR, 

HADR, and BPC environments.

Data-sharing. A key objective of STAR–TIDES is to promote 

the sharing of not only processed information, but also of underlying data so that others can create 

value in ways that may not have 

occurred to the original data owners.30 After the August 2009 Camp 

Roberts experiments and experiences in Afghanistan, one of the 

participants outlined three principles for data-sharing:31

■ Create immediate value for 

anyone contributing data; 

when users contribute 

data, they should get an 

immediate return on that 

investment.

■ Make contributor data 

available with improvements; any data that goes 

in should be available to 

download back out again. 

Furthermore, data should 

come back better than 

when entered.

■ Share derivative works back with the data-sharing community; urge users who create derivative works from shared data 

to contribute their products back to the group.

These simple principles often are not followed, which blunts 

effective data-sharing. Too often data contributions—especially to 

government and corporations—are not returned or reciprocated, 

which has led to a pervasive wariness in the private sector and the 

NGO/PVO community. Researchers need to share their work to create positive feedback loops with the data-sharing community. Such 

iterations can offer huge benefits in improved accuracy and credibility. 

There always will be security concerns, often legitimate, but the benefits of a responsible sharing environment need to be weighted heavily over inclinations to protect products as proprietary or sensitive. 

STAR–TIDES experiments and field activities will continue to look for 

opportunities to implement these principles.

a key objective of STAR–

TIDES is to promote the 

sharing of not only processed 

information, but also of 

underlying data so that others 

can create value in ways that 

may not have occurred to the 

original data owners
10 Defense Horizons December 2009

The Way Ahead

STAR–TIDES has evolved from the infrastructure-focused 

EITP project to include integrated planning, enhanced situational 

awareness, and knowledge-sharing processes that offer significant opportunities to whole-of-government, public-private, and 

transnational stakeholders. As such, it is well suited to reducing 

stovepipes in smart power projects and to support approaches 

such as diplomacy, defense, and development and the Civilian 

Response Corps. This expanded scope is why the project’s title was 

changed to “Transformative Innovation” during phase IV. Since a 

key objective of STAR–TIDES is to provide information about solutions suited to people “on the ground” who will have to live with 

and sustain them, this knowledge often can best come from bottom-up, real world approaches that are addressing the problems 

of “relevant populations”—for example, the National Solidarity 

Program in Afghanistan. Over time, experience gained from working through diverse scenarios should provide insights that can 

be applied generally in emergent cases. The preference now is to 

do a few scenarios thoroughly and document them well, and then 

expand as resources allow.

Education

STAR–TIDES inherently is an 

educational vehicle. It seeks to generate and share knowledge and to 

change behavior based on lessons 

learned. It also is exciting for young 

people, and a number of secondary 

schools and colleges have shown 

an interest in incorporating it into 

their curricula. STAR–TIDES also 

could be the basis for student engineering competitions. More dedicated educational engagement is 

planned for phase IV.

Information-sharing

Improving the ability to share information responsibly, especially 

with civil-military mission partners, is not only a key part of STAR–

TIDES but also an essential skill for the U.S. Government. STAR–

TIDES efforts to date have focused mainly on building the knowledge 

repository and improving the Web presence and contact management 

capabilities. Once these reach an adequate level of sophistication, 

nearly limitless opportunities are available, such as leveraging the 

Social Software and National Security initiative,32 to find innovative 

yet responsible ways to let the government use emerging Web 2.0 capabilities. Links are being forged to the interagency Center for Complex 

Operations and others to maximize education and lessons learned.33

The State Department’s Humanitarian Information Unit and CTNSP 

recently cohosted a conference on civil-military knowledge management in complex emergencies, which drew on STAR–TIDES experiences.34 Other approaches could focus on virtual planning fora and the 

use of mobile devices for collaboration and public health in stressed 

environments.35 There also are chances to capture “human interoperability” processes for training and implementation.

“Shared Responsibility” Relationships 

The distributed nature of knowledge-based approaches raises a 

fundamental question that will have to be answered by governments 

and many other organizations in the next few years. The question 

concerns the oversight and execution of unconventional, relatively 

imprecise relationships—so-called shared responsibility or covenantial arrangements. For example, there are well-established procedures 

for managing oversight and accountability in command or contractual 

relationships, but there are few models for inspectors general and 

accountability offices to use when the arrangements are made by “covenant” (handshakes; distributed data storage outside a firewall, such 

as Google Docs; agreements among disparate cultures—“three cups 

of tea” versus “Texas handshake”; and so forth).36 Many activities in 

complex operations, Web 2.0 environments, and other situations where 

there is no unity of command will have to rely on shared responsibilities. This is an important issue that will have to be addressed from 

many standpoints—managerial, policy, legal, and accounting. Trying 

to understand such interactions and their operational implications are 

inherent parts of the STAR–TIDES objectives and approaches.

Operations in Distributed 

Environments 

STAR–TIDES has operated 

to date as a porous network with 

little structure.37 But as the effort 

grows and becomes involved in 

more diverse tasks, it will need 

more structured approaches, 

even while preserving the distributed starfish nature of the project. Much of the structure will be 

instantiated through the new Web 

site and, eventually, distributed 

interaction and innovation platforms. These will allow the creation 

of working groups and provide basic categories for information, but 

STAR–TIDES will remain a distributed network to facilitate access 

and the posting of questions or solutions and also allow users to 

choose their level of involvement.

This decentralized approach works since STAR–TIDES is primarily a knowledge provider to organizations that already work in 

HADR/SSTR/BPC/DSCA. STAR–TIDES processes and technologies 

may improve the effectiveness and transparency of these activities, 

and perhaps reduce their cost, but the project itself serves mainly as 

a catalyst.

Nonetheless, some structure will be needed to handle increasing activity levels and to engage more professionally as solutions 

move from small-scale prototypes into large-scale responses suitable for rapid reactions in highly stressed environments. The steering team, core team, extended network construct described earlier 

should maintain access to diverse ideas and approaches while providing more rigor in coordinating activities, evaluating new ideas, 

and executing budgets. As skills are developed and distributed 

across the extended network, the diversity of talent and the strength 

of the starfish structure are increased.

STAR–TIDES is a 

multidisciplinary, 

international research 

project that already is 

making contributions to 

real world situations
December 2009 Defense Horizons 11

Summary

STAR–TIDES is a multidisciplinary, international research project that already is making contributions to real world situations. Its 

distributed structure has much in common with starfish organizations. STAR–TIDES can facilitate public-private, whole-of-government, and transnational planning processes to improve performance 

in complex environments by reducing stovepiping and encouraging 

information flows regarding high-impact infrastructures, enhanced 

situational awareness, and essential services. Activities to date have 

shown the value of the approach, and the way ahead will expand 

STAR–TIDES’ ability to address more complex problems.

Notes

1

 Until October 2009, the TIDES acronym stood for “Transportable Infrastructures 

for Development and Emergency Support.” Transportable infrastructures still are a key 

part of TIDES, but the growing scope of the project as described in this paper necessitated expanding the construct to “Transformative Innovation.” TIDES is part of the 

broader STAR effort. As a rule, TIDES projects apply to specific scenarios, but they 

also draw on, and contribute to, the distributed knowledge and skill sets of the global 

STAR–TIDES network. 2

 The Web site <www.star-tides.net> includes an infrastructure directory, sections 

on news and events and working groups, and a reference library. 3

 Ori Brafman and Rod A. Beckstrom, The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations (New York: Portfolio, 2006). 4

 Participants include the American Red Cross; Center for Technology and 

National Security Policy at National Defense University; Engineers without Borders; Hexayurt Project in the Netherlands; Innovative Support to Emergencies, 

Diseases, and Disasters; Institute for State Effectiveness; The Johns Hopkins 

University; Nanyang Technological University—Lien Institute for the Environment 

in Singapore; MITRE; National Institute for Urban Search and Rescue, Readiness, 

Response, Resilience, Recovery (NIUSR5); San Diego State University; and the U.S. 

Marine Corps. 5

 See Hans Binnendijk and Patrick M. Cronin, Civilian Surge: Key to Complex 

Operations, A Preliminary Report, National Defense University, December 2008. The 

changes are discussed throughout the book and summarized on page 220, note 6. Many 

nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) object to being referred to as “mission partners,” preferring less aligned terms like “participants.” 6

 The Center for Complex Operations, an interagency effort among the State 

Department, Department of Defense, and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), includes stability operations, counterinsurgency, and irregular warfare 

under the umbrella of complex operations. See <www.ccoportal.org>. 7

 Richard L. Armitage and Joseph S. Nye, Jr., CSIS Commission on Smart Power: A 

Smarter, More Secure America (Washington, DC: Center for Strategic and International 

Studies, 2007). 8

 For example, Robert M. Gates, speech to Kansas State University, November 26, 

2007, available at <www.defenselink.mil/speeches/speech.aspx?speechid=1199>; and 

Hillary Clinton, testimony to Senate Foreign Relations Committee, January 13, 2009, 

available at <www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2009a/01/115196.htm>. 9

 A useful diagram of the “six ways people die in a crisis” model and additional 

infrastructure mapping tools from the Simple Critical Infrastructure Maps system 

is available at <http://butteredsidedown.co.uk/scim.html>. A TIDES variant of the 

diagram is available at <http://files.howtolivewiki.com/six_ways_to_die/The%20General%20Survival%20Systems%20Model.pdf>. A 1-hour briefing on the topic is available 

at <http://files.howtolivewiki.com/reykjavik_briefing/>. 10 The hexayurt is a refugee shelter system based on work done at the Rocky 

Mountain Institute. It uses an approach based on “autonomous building” to provide 

not just a shelter, but also a comprehensive family support unit that includes drinking 

water purification, composting toilets, fuel-efficient stoves, and solar electric lighting. 

Other systems can be added as modules. For a photograph of a hexayurt and additional 

information, see <www.appropedia.org/Hexayurt_Project>. The STAR–TIDES wholesystems design integrates tightly with the hexayurt refugee shelter. 11 Traditional military command and control typically will not work with civilmilitary mission partners in complex operations, since NGOs, civilian agencies, police 

forces, and others usually will not subordinate themselves to military command. This is 

one reason why it is important to focus on how to achieve unity of effort when there is 

no unity of command. 12 David S. Alberts, “Agility, Focus, and Convergence: The Future of Command and 

Control,” The International C2 Journal (November 2007). 13 See <www.shelterbox.org/home.htm>. The ShelterBox Trust is a registered 

United Kingdom charity that provides emergency aid for victims of natural and other 

Defense Horizons is published by the Center for Technology and National Security Policy. CTNSP 

publications are available online at http://www.ndu.edu/ctnsp/publications.html.

The opinions, conclusions, and recommendations expressed or implied within are those of the 

contributors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Department of Defense or any other 

department or agency of the Federal Government.

Center for Technology and National Security Policy

Hans Binnendijk

Director

disasters anywhere in the world. Since operations began in January 2001, it has helped 

over 800,000 people and worked in 52 countries, responding to earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, tsunamis, wars, volcanic eruptions, and other disasters. 14 Binnendijk and Cronin.

15 Larry Wentz, An ICT Primer: Information and Communications Technology 

for Civil-Military Coordination in Disaster Relief and Stabilization and Reconstruction, Defense and Technology Paper 31 (Washington, DC: Center for Technology and 

National Security Policy, July 2006), available at <www.ndu.edu/ctnsp/Defense_

Tech_Papers.htm>. 16 Information about STRONG ANGEL is available at <www.strongangel3.net>.

17 Ibid.

18 These included Mercy Corps, Naval Postgraduate School, Google, Microsoft, 

Highlands Forum, and many others. The Highlands Forum is a multidisciplinary knowledge-development and sharing effort that has been sponsored by the Assistant Secretary 

of Defense, Networks and Information Integration. 19 A summary of the charrette is available at <www.carebridge.info/carebridge/

community/charrette2.html>. 20 More information about Sphere standards is available at <www.sphereproject.

org>. 21 This idea has since been developed into the Life Box Company. See <www.

lifeboxcompany.com/>. 22 Eric Rasmussen, “Assessing Information Support at the Civil-Military Boundary: 

Operation Unified Assistance in Indonesia,” 2005, available at <www.strongangel3.net/

files/crisis/Indonesia_Trip_Report.pdf>. 23 Many of these points were incorporated into policy in 2007–2009.

24 TIDES at this point stood for “Transportable Infrastructures for Development 

and Emergency Support,” reflecting its lineage from Expedient Infrastructure for Transient Populations. 25 An important thread running through most of the activities in this section has 

been the emergency preparedness focus of NIUSR. Members of this organization and its 

remarkable leader, Lois Clark McCoy, have connected many of the ideas that underpin 

STRONG ANGEL, STAR–TIDES, the Synergy Strike Force, and related activities. 26 The USAID Global Development Commons Web site reported the new partnership to monitor Afghan elections on August 19, 2009. See <www.usaid.gov/about_usaid/

gdc/>.27 Civil-military mission partners include other U.S. Government agencies, 

international organizations, NGOs, state, local, territorial, and tribal governments, 

indigenous security services, and others (including commercial firms and individuals as 

appropriate) who are directly contributing to the ongoing mission. 28 Department of Defense Instruction 8220.02, “Information and Communications 

Technology (ICT) Capabilities for Support of Stabilization and Reconstruction, Disaster 

Relief, and Humanitarian and Civic Assistance Operations,” April 30, 2009, available at 

<www.dtic.mil/whs/directives/corres/pdf/822002p.pdf>. 29 NextView licenses provide one channel to share imagery in support of disaster 

relief. The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency recently has extended interpretations of these licensing provisions to support government objectives in Afghanistan. 30 These themes ran throughout the Gov2.0 Summit, held in Washington, DC, 

September 9–10, 2009; see <www.gov2.0summit.com>. 31 These principles are from Todd Huffman of the Synergy Strike Force.

32 Mark D. Drapeau and Linton Wells II, Social Software and National Security: 

An Initial Net Assessment, Defense and Technology Paper 61 (Washington, DC: Center 

for Technology and National Security Policy, May 2009). 33 A full description is at <ccoportal.org>.

34 “Civilian-Military Coordination in Complex Emergencies: Best Practices in 

Knowledge Management,” September 14–15, 2009, Washington, DC. 35 See the U.S. Institute for Peace “Smart Tools for Smart Power” initiative at 

<www.usip.org/search/google_appliance/smart+tools>. 36 The authors are indebted to Ken Hamilton of the KENTIA Management Group 

for this insight. 37 See, for example, Paul T. Bartone and Linton Wells II, Understanding and Leading Porous Network Organizations, Defense and Technology Paper 70 (Washington, DC: 

Center for Technology and National Security Policy, October 2009), available at <www.

ndu.edu/ctnsp/Defense_Tech_Papers.htm>.
12 Defense Horizons December 2009

Avoiding a Crisis of Confidence in the 

U.S. Nuclear Deterrent

John P. Caves, Jr.

(Strategic Forum No. 252, December 2009)

Navies versus Coast Guards: Defining 

the Roles of African Maritime Security 

Forces

Augustus Vogel

(African Center for Strategic Studies, Africa Security Brief 2, 

December 2009)

To Build Resilience: Leader Influence 

on Mental Hardiness

Paul T. Bartone, Charles L. Barry, and Robert E. 

Armstrong

(Center for Technology and National Security Policy, Defense Horizons 69, 

November 2009)

U.S.-Cambodia Defense Relations: 

Defining New Possibilities

Lewis M. Stern

(Strategic Forum No. 251, November 2009)

North Korea: Challenges, Interests, 

and Policy

James J. Przystup

(Strategic Forum No. 250, November 2009)

Burma in Strategic Perspective: 

Renewing Discussion of Options

Lewis M. Stern, George Thomas, and 

Julia A. Thompson

(Strategic Forum No. 249, September 2009)

Unity of Effort: Key to Success 

in Afghanistan

Christopher J. Lamb and Martin Cinnamond

(Strategic Forum No. 248, October 2009)

Radicalization by Choice: ISI and the 

Pakistani Army

Robert B. Oakley with Franz-Stefan Gady

(Strategic Forum No. 247, October 2009)

U.S.-Vietnam Defense Relations: 

Deepening Ties, Adding Relevance

Lewis M. Stern

(Strategic Forum No. 246, September 2009)

Cyberspace and the “First Battle” in 

21st-century War

Robert A. Miller and Daniel T. Kuehl

(Center for Technology and National Security Policy, Defense Horizons 68, 

September 2009)

Iraqi Security Forces after U.S. Troop 

Withdrawal: An Iraqi Perspective

Najim Abed Al-Jabouri

(Strategic Forum No. 245, August 2009)

Aligning Nuclear Disarmament to 

Nuclear Dangers: Off to a Hasty START?

David A. Cooper

(Strategic Forum No. 244, July 2009)

Other titles from 

NDU Press For on-line access to NDU Press publications,

go to: ndupress.ndu.edu