Managing Strategic Surprise

Paul Bracken is Professor of Management and Political Science at Yale University. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and works with private equity and hedge funds on using scenarios for investment strategies. Ian Bremmer is President of Eurasia Group, the world's largest political risk consultancy. He is also Senior Fellow at the World Policy Institute and a columnist for the Financial Times. His research focuses on states in transition, global political risk, and US national security. David Gordon is Director of Policy Planning at the US Department of State. He previously served as Vice Chairman of the National Intelligence Council (NIC) in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) and is the former Director of the CIA's Office of Transnational Issues (OTI). He has directed major analytic projects on country-level economic and financial crises, emerging infectious disease risks, global demographic trends, and the changing geopolitics of energy.

• 1. Introduction Paul Bracken, Ian Bremmer and David Gordon; 2. How to build a warning system Paul Bracken; 3. Intelligence management as risk management: the case of surprise attack Uzi Arad; 4. Nuclear proliferation epidemiology: uncertainty, surprise, and risk management Lewis A. Dunn; 5. Precaution against terrorism Jessica Stern and Jonathan B. Wiener; 6. Defense planning and risk management in the presence of deep uncertainty Paul K. Davis; 7. Managing energy security risks in a changing world Coby van der Linde; 8. What markets miss: political stability frameworks and country risk Preston Keat; 9. The risk of failed state contagion Jeffrey Herbst; 10. Conclusion: managing strategic surprise Paul Bracken, Ian Bremmer and David Gordon.

'Politicians tell us it is a dangerous world but promise absolute security. Responsible policymakers, however, have to move beyond platitudes and learn to cope with risk and uncertainty. This volume forces the reader to think - and ought to be required reading for the next administration.' Nikolas K. Gvosdev, editor of The National Interest