Free Republic

WASHINGTON, Oct. 3, 2007 – A multi-pronged approach to conflict resolution that includes military force coupled with a powerful social push is vital to winning over hearts and minds and countering insurgents’ lure, a U.S. Central Command official said today. During a news conference at the Foreign Press Club here, Air Force Brig. Gen. Robert H. Holmes, deputy director of operations for U.S. Central Command, told reporters that his command is exploring a counterinsurgency concept called “effects synchronization.” “This is a new approach to looking at all of the national and international instruments of power that actually go beyond the...

A new study of animal populations shows that even widely separated populations of a single species will go extinct together if a common external force is applied. Take the analogy of two grandfather clocks falling into synchrony through subtle vibrations in the floorboards linking the two clocks. In the same way a common stimulant, in the form, say, of predators or adverse climate conditions, can synchronize the fate of separate enclaves of an endangered species.