THREATS TO DEMOCRACY: CAN IT BE SUSTAINED, AND WHAT MIGHT REPLACE IT?

Democracy has increasingly come under pressure as democratic norms are being eroded. This article explores why democratic processes are at risk in Europe and the United States and what might replace them. It reflects the thinking of the Study Group on Democracy convened under the auspices of the International Association for Intelligence Education in 2022. Its deliberations identified a set of underlying key drivers, documented how they manifested, and speculated on what new forms of governance might replace democratic rule. Recent trends cited include the corruption of norms, the disruptive influence of social media, the growing diversity of society, the shift from community-based problem-solving to reliance on identity politics, the emergence of existential threats, and the need for strong leadership. The group concludes that prospects for sustaining democratic institutions can best be understood by viewing future trends along two perspectives: the complexity of society and modes of decision-making.

SCIENCE AND STOVEPIPES: THE COVID/CLIMATE MANDATE FOR INTELLIGENCE ANALYSIS AND EDUCATION

Intelligence education and practice require significant adaptations to the global heating crisis, pandemic disease, and environmental threats. The latter are now and will increasingly influence traditional national security, yet most security analysis focuses almost exclusively on human agency, not complex environmental risks. This unique era in human history possesses unprecedented "wicked" security drivers altering more familiar international economic, geopolitical, and military variables. The security drivers present an acute cultural, intellectual, and institutional adaptation problem. The Intelligence Community (IC) community remains limited by bureaucratic tribalism, inertia, predictable human cognitive security biases, and fundamental knowledge gaps. U.S. politically driven controversies about climate and pandemics threaten its professional analytical effectiveness. The IC must go beyond business-as-usual incrementalism toward much greater interdisciplinary integration of science and natural systems into intelligence education and practice.

KAUAʻI'S PANDEMIC RESPONSE AND RECOVERY: ADDRESSING THE WICKED PROBLEM OF HOUSELESSNESS IN A SUSTAINABLE MANNER

The shelter park responsive strategy used by the County of Kauai during the pandemic to keep the houseless safe was effective. There were no significant outbreaks in the parks and no deaths from COVID-19. During the year or more that the houseless population spent in the shelter parks, the residents developed social capital and a sense of community. The houseless population in the parks was reticent and was negatively impacted when the parks were demobilized. The houseless were forced to separate and return to living in encampments in bushes around the island. The county of Kauai and the Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources began regular sweeps of these encampments as the houseless are not allowed to stay on government land. There is no designated place for the houseless to stay on the island. Houselessness is a wicked problem and is rife with complexities on Kauai. The complexities challenge the countys ability to address the houseless populations needs effectively. The houseless population is increasingly vulnerable based on dispersion, diminishment of social networks, decreased connection to providers, and greater mental and physical health destabilization. Developing and fostering resilience in this population is within emergency managements purview. To best meet the needs identified in this study and to navigate the complex system in which they are exacerbated, solutions will ideally come from a layered complement of federal-level and private-sector partnerships empowered under a national strategy led by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. These solutions must focus on developing key elements of resilience within a houseless community structure that provides varying levels of transition, wraparound services, focused attention to health and well-being, development of life skills, and solidification of social and information networks, all framed within an operational mantra of dignity, respect, and trust.

EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING AMID DISRUPTION: NORWICH UNIVERSITY'S HONORS PROGRAM AND THE INTERNATIONAL SPY MUSEUM PROJECT

This article incorporates a case-study approach that examines how faculty and students in a first-year honors seminar at Norwich University navigated the disruption of the COVID-19 crisis. It delineates the revision of an undergraduate research project in partnership with the International Spy Museum in Washington, DC. The authors describe steps professors and students took to ensure successful collaboration and completion of this project, including assignment modifications, the development of a collaborative virtual learning process, assessment of project management, and tools and research strategies employed. Student reflections and pedagogical measures support the challenges and solutions outlined. The article concludes with recommended course design measures to ensure consistent learning outcomes that support positive and productive research and teaching experiences amid programmatic disruption.

BESPOKE EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING FOR STUDENTS AND FACULTY ALIKE

This article examines the benefits that experiential learning affords both students and organizations where there is sharing and participating in "real world learning." Mount Royal University Calgary, Alberta, seeks to incorporate experiential learning opportunities in most undergraduate degree programs, for example, the Department of Economics, Justice and Policy Studies, and the Department of Child Studies and Social Work. Experiential Service learning is geared toward improving student engagement and leadership. In the summer of 2021, students collaboratively developed a policy paper on how police could improve their capacity to investigate and combat cyber crimes. The policy paper was developed during COVID-19, which required creativity associated with remote learning. Drawing on literature that highlights experiential learning, this paper highlights the experience of students in Justice Policy Studies who benefitted by integrating critical course content and collaborating with community stakeholders.

EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT ON THE WILD SIDE

The University of Akron offers a senior-level progressive experiential course in which learners encounter stress as initial responders through managing the decisions and stress of wilderness adventure races in a tabletop exercise. The unique context of remote emergencies puts learners in an equal field of ignorance of competencies and stress management, allowing for increased stress levels to be developed and managed throughout the course. Unique to the course is the implementation of a wilderness first aid course for community partners, where students grow in facilitating professional development while meeting a community need. The three phases allow personal and team-based professional competencies to be practiced and tested through the experiential educational model.

CLINICAL NURSE LEADER RESILIENCE EDUCATION THROUGH FOUNDATIONS OF HEALTH SYSTEMS AND POLICY

This article summarizes a three-credit graduate clinical nurse leader (CNL) course, Foundations of Health Systems and Policy, at Georgetown University's School of Nursing for second-year CNL students during COVID-19. The course implements innovative policy education approaches that support the creation of a unique graduate nurse clinician that can help address the critical nursing workforce and healthcare equity challenges using horizontal and vertical leadership strategies. Using Ignatian pedagogy as a foundation and incorporating various experiential learning methods, including client-based stakeholder policy analysis, Foundations of Health Systems and Policy prepares CNLs to competently contribute to local, state, and national healthcare system reforms and address a myriad of traumatic healthcare shocks.

INTEGRATING CLIMATE CHANGE INTO PROFESSIONAL MILITARY EDUCATION

Despite its vast potential to shape the global security environment, climate change remains underrepresented in national security curricula, including professional military education institutions. This article draws on the authors' experience leading the first climate security course offered at the National War College to illustrate a viable approach to building climate literacy among national security practitioners and related audiences. This article describes the course structure, explains the key topics discussed, and highlights essential pedagogical considerations for teaching climate security to rising strategic leaders and professional audiences. The authors intend for their experience to provide a roadmap for other instructors who seek to incorporate global climate change into their national security or political science courses at all academic levels.