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Christine Lederhouse | 219 East 25th Street, Studio 5E | NY, NY 10010 | clederhous@aol.com
2-of-5
Unfortunately, time is exactly what DoD doesn’t have. Between Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan,
there are over 49.9 million young people in the 15-24 cohort; 19.6 million 25-29 year-olds; and
91.8 million under-15. The reports and meetings on post-conflict reconstruction strategies refer
repeatedly to this abundant source of chronic instability. However, none offer comprehensive,
executable plans to address the resentment and rage generated by foreign occupiers openly doing
the work these unemployed/unemployable youth so desperately need to give meaning and purpose
to their lives. (See Appendix)
Adding complexity to the youth glut is the myth vacuum that has globalized since first predicted by
Dr. Joseph Campbell over two decades ago. During his interview with Bill Moyers in 1986,
Dr. Campbell warned that we had entered a period of history in which the millennium-old myths/
religions no longer functioned:
Myth has to give life models and the models have to be appropriate to the possibilities of the
time in which you are living. And our time has changed and changed and changed – and
continues to change so fast that what was proper 50 years ago is not proper today. The virtues
of the past are the vices of today and many of what were thought to be the vices of the past are
the necessities of today. The moral order has to catch up with the moral necessities of
actual life in time – here and now – and that’s what it is not doing. … And that’s why it’s
ridiculous to go back to the old-time religion. … [W]hen you go back to the old-time religion it
belongs to another age, another people, another set of human values, another universe. The
world changes – then the religion has to be transformed.
When asked by Bill Moyers: “So what happens when a society no longer embraces powerful
mythology?” Dr. Campbell replied:
What we’ve got on our hands … if you want to find what it means to have a society without any
rituals read the New York Times … [where you’ll find] the news of the day – young people who
don't know how to behave in a civilized society. … I imagine 50% of the crime is by young
people in their 20's and early 30's that just behave like barbarians.
The analogy Dr. Campbell drew between myths and computer software provides a way forward:
I’ve had a revelation from my computer about mythology. You buy a certain software with a
whole set of signals that lead to the achievement of your aim. Once you’ve set it – if you begin
fooling around with signals that belong to another system they just won't work. You have a
system there – a code – a determined code that requires you to use certain terms.
Now, similarly in mythology – each religion is a kind of software that has its own set of signals
and will work. If a person is really involved in a religion and really building his life on it, he had
better stay with the software that he's got.
The [future] myth has to incorporate the machine just as the old myths incorporated the tools
that people used – the forms of the tools are associated with power systems that are involved in
the culture. We have not a mythology that incorporates these – the new powers are being
surprisingly announced to us by what the machines can do. We can't have a mythology for a
long, long time to come, because things are changing too fast. The environment in which
we are living is changing too fast for it to become mythologized. The individual has to find
the aspect of myth that has to do with the conduct of his own life.
Dr. Campbell cautioned:
You can’t predict what a myth is going to be any more than you can predict what you’re going to
dream tonight. Myths and dreams come from the same place. They come from realizations of
some kind that have then to find expression in symbolic form. Every mythology, every
religion is true in this sense: it is true as metaphorical of the human and cosmic
mystery. But when it gets stuck to the metaphor – then you're in trouble. … The real horror
today is what you see in [Jerusalem] – where you have the three great Western religions –
Judaism, Christianity, and Islam – and because the three of them have three different names for
the same biblical God they can't get on together – they're stuck with their metaphor and don't
realize its reference. Each needs its own myth … love thy enemy – open up. Don't judge.
Christine Lederhouse | 219 East 25th Street, Studio 5E | NY, NY 10010 | clederhous@aol.com
3-of-5
The GSA’s tactical theory hinges on the exuberant/plastic early/late adolescent brain (11-23) and
the science of change to fill the globalized myth vacuum in the noosphere with the kernel of a
narrative that enhances the legacy operating systems on which most of the world still runs. The
goal is to employ chaos theory (specifically – fractal geometry, self-similarity, self-organization,
strange-attractors, and the butterfly-effect) to insert a few new values (e.g. peace, tolerance,
accountability) without overwriting core beliefs, values, and norms: the task is analogous to
updating ISP software without erasing favorites, downloads, and archived e-mail. (See Appendices)
Christine Lederhouse | 219 East 25th Street, Studio 5E | NY, NY 10010 | clederhous@aol.com
4-of-5
From pop-culture, religion, and politics to think tanks and the US military, all agree. In every
dimension and on every scale, narrative is key. Dr. Douglas Johnston and his team at the
International Center for Religion & Diplomacy (ICRD) have tapped into the narrative fountainhead in
Pakistan and are enhancing the intolerant and hateful binder/narrative [that] they are using to
prepare suicide bombers and [provide] many destructive ways to get back at the West. For the last five
years, Dr. Johnston’s madrasa enhancement project has worked with more than 2000 madrasa
administrators and teachers from more than 1300 madrasas to: expand the curriculum; promote
critical thinking skills; and provide skills needed to train others. He has proven that it is possible to
reverse the damage done in the ’80’s by the anti-Soviet, social-engineering project/textbook that
helped plant the seeds of jihad in the madrasas in the first place. ICRD’s model of engagement and
its demonstrable track record of success can point the way forward not only throughout Pakistan,
but in other parts of the world where similar tensions exist. (See Appendices)
But narrative alone is not enough. It is only one of three primary factors in the fractal geometry of
mythology, where Human=H:
H=H(Narrative [epic+poetic] x Rituals [daily+weekly+annual+lifetime] x Symbols [landmarks+relics+sounds+images])
To achieve full force and effect, according to Dr. Campbell, narratives must be enacted in rituals
and reinforced by symbols. Doing so taps into the power of myth: the “bits of information from
ancient times which have to do with the themes that have supported man's life, built civilizations,
informed religions over the millennia – [that] have to do with deep inner problems, inner mysteries,
inner thresholds of passage – [they are] the guide-signs along the way, [without which] you have
to work it out yourself. But once this catches you there is always such a feeling from one or
another of these traditions of information of a deep, rich, life-vivifying sort that you won’t want to
give it up. Myths are clues to the spiritual potentialities of the human life.” (Joseph Campbell)
Myths are for soft power what atom bombs were for hard: chain-reacting force-multipliers.
You are now where General Leslie R. Groves was in September of 1942 when he took over the
Manhattan Project. The same integrated military/civilian effort that went into uranium enrichment,
atom-splitting, and charge-shaping in the early ’40’s must now go into human-capital enrichment,
state-building, and narrative-shaping (ironically, partnering military and civilian expertise this time
is urgently needed to avert rather than create a cataclysmic chain-reaction).
This triple challenge is complex, but no more so than computer-generated landscapes, gene-
splicing, or viral marketing. The difficulty lies in coordinating and integrating the wealth of soft
power knowledge and experience scattered around the world currently operating in isolation.
Dr. John Hamre, President of CSIS, stepped into the shoes of Vannevar Bush in 2006 when he
mobilized the bipartisan Commission on Smart Power to develop a vision to guide America’s global
engagement. A few months later, at the launch of the Smart Power Speaker Series, he cut through
the complexity and captured all the themes with the timeless keystone question: “What is the
broader narrative that binds America together – looking forward? We’ve become in some
ways quite a tortured and torn country. The Cold War gave us – through external forces – a kind of
consensus that carried us for quite a ways – and we are struggling now – what is that – what could
it be?” On the micro and the macro scale, the need for narrative is universal and eternal.
Ambassador Dobbins and Drs. Robert Orr, Larry Diamond, Karin von Hippel, Beth Ellen
Cole, et. al. have produced volumes of post-conflict state-building how to’s and what not to’s based
on historic cases and hands-on experience. Earnest efforts by everyone involved have been
undermined by difficulty institutionalizing lessons learned, as well as a lack of anticipation,
preparation, coordination, indigenous ownership, and consideration for the religious/spiritual
dimension of statecraft. Introduced as the “Dean of our field” by Rick Barton at a CSIS Smart
Power event in 2008, Ambassador Dobbins is the perfect J. Robert Oppenheimer for this
Y2K-Manhattan Project. Given that failed and fragile states are the problem, “informed,
strategic, operational, and concerned with results” is exactly what’s needed. Who better to design
the curriculum and direct development of the indigenous, civilian-surge capacity required to
restore/establish stability and functionality in these ungoverned spaces?
Christine Lederhouse | 219 East 25th Street, Studio 5E | NY, NY 10010 | clederhous@aol.com
5-of-5
For your National Defense Research Committee (NDRC) you have the foundational luminaries
already named and the following extraordinary knowledge-base: The Hon. Richard Armitage, Dr.
Spencer Wells, Dr. Jared Diamond, Dr. Steven Kull, Dr. Jon Alterman, Dr. L. Michael White, Juan
Zarate, Prof. Marc Lynch, Anupam Ray, Mitchell Silber, Arvin Bhatt, Ahmed Rashid, Jessica Stern,
Liora Danan, Prof. Jeffrey Haynes, Dr. Samuel Huntington, Dr. Anne O’Donnell, Dr. David Steele,
Patrick Cockburn, Karim Sadjadpour, Dean Victor Kazanjian, Anna Greenberg, Charles Firestone,
Michael Furdyk, Chad Hurley, Larry Sanger, Jimmy Wales, Rebecca Linder, Evan Williams, Biz
Stone, Dr. Alpheus Bingham, Michael Gray, Dr. James Lovelock, Dr. John Briggs, Pierre Chao, Loren
Carpenter, George Lucas, Christopher Vogler, Bryan Fuller, Greg Garcia, Brian McAllister, Ian Cross,
Andrew Niccol, Tom Forman, JD Roth, Will Wright, Dr. Gerald Lesser, Gary Knell, Murray Fisher,
Carol Bellamy, Dr. Stephen Joel Trachtenberg, Dr. Vartan Gregorian, Bryan Alexander, Dr. Tony
Corn, The Hon. Mac Thornberry, Dr. Kathleen Hall Jameson, Dr. Christopher Paul, Dr. Russell Glenn,
David Brooks, David Ignatius, Walter Isaacson, Ami Dar, Michelle Nunn, Capt. Westley Moore, Alan
Khazei, Flavia Pansieri, Jay Backstrand, Chris Myers Asch, Shawn Raymond, Dr. James Traub, Dr.
Jessica Matthews, Dr. Nancy Birdsall, Jean-Marie Guéhenno, Dr. Kemal Dervis, Dr. Lael Brainard,
Stuart Bowen, Steve Radelet, and Dr. Gordon Adams; together with their colleagues at CSIS,
RAND, Brookings, Aspen, ICRD, USIP, Carnegie, Stimson Center, NYPD, Princeton, Harvard, Yale,
MIT, Stanford, UCLA, Santa Fe Institute, Annenberg, Edutopia, TakingITGlobal, InnoCentive, UN
Volunteers, Idealist, USPSA, et. al.; have taken the lead in human migration, societal collapse,
radicalization, power of religion, complexity, narrative-shaping, education exchanges, wikis, mobile-
learning, strategic communication, service, post-conflict reconstruction, and foreign aid reform.
Finally, to operationalize this CT/COIN/STABILITY strategy, a permanent home for smart/soft power
equal to that of the regional training centers in UAE and Jordan is required. The same reasons
General Petraeus cited in his Changing Regional Security Architecture speech apply:
[W]e can leverage regional training centers for greater collective benefit. The Gulf Air Warfare
Centre in the UAE and the soon to open King Abdullah II Special Operations Training Centre in
Jordan are examples of very impressive facilities, and there are others in the region … Leveraging
these training centers … and the already substantial number of bilateral and multilateral maritime,
air, and ground exercises we conduct, will improve our abilities to work together and hone the
experience of our various forces.
The training centers represent important opportunities for multilateral training, capacity building,
and partnership, and we should seek to leverage them in major multinational exercises … (The
Fifth IISS Regional Security Summit, Bahrain, 12/14/08).
Governors Island in New York Harbor is looking for a highest and best use; its history, proximity,
and restricted access make it an ideal location. According to Dr. Patrick Okedinachi Utomi, decades
ago the precedent was set; 747’s full of young people came to the US to be trained and then
returned to their homes to play the roles that they played. (See Appendix)
Where better to build General Mattis’ fourth block and begin the 21st century narrative that
promotes global service as the honored hero sacrifice – than under the guiding light and watchful
eye of Lady Liberty?
With gratitude and admiration,
Christine Lederhouse
P.S. Hoping you’ll agree – your first-hand experience/knowledge of the region, irregular warfare,
indigenous troop/police training, post-conflict reconstruction, military academy transformation,
Pentagon culture, and bureaucratic impediments turn this confluence of coincidences into a Jungian
synchronicity. By comparison, a CT/COIN/STABILITY strategy that’s three-parts Road Trip Nation,
Globe Trekker, and hero adventure; equal-parts Truman Show and PSYOPS; and thirteen-parts
Kid Nation, vocational training, and Endurance – seems perfectly plausible.
Playing a part would be an honor. Please be assured, however, no strings are attached to this
proposal; getting a Global Service Academy on Governors Island is ALL that matters!
Christine Lederhouse | 219 East 25th Street, Studio 5E | NY, NY 10010 | clederhous@aol.com
APPENDICES
* - Under Construction
Christine Lederhouse | 219 East 25th Street, Studio 5E | NY, NY 10010 | clederhous@aol.com