How One Nation Came to Share Two Governments Part 1 BattlePlan Virtual Framework Series Long before I understood sovereignty, constitutional arrangements, or the political history of East Africa, I knew one word: Zanzibar. I first heard it as a child while watching The Patty Duke Show. One of the show’s theme lyrics casually mentioned “Zanzibar,” … Read more
Part 2 — History, Sovereignty, and the Logic of the System The Caribbean functions as a regional mosaic in which multiple forms of political status coexist within a relatively small geographic space. This diversity is not accidental; it reflects centuries of colonial competition, shifting imperial boundaries, economic interdependence, and evolving political identity. To understand the … Read more
Part I — Understanding the Region’s Political Structures The Caribbean is one of the few regions in the world where nearly every form of modern political status exists within a relatively small geographic space. Across its islands are sovereign states, overseas territories, autonomous regions, and departments of European nations. Rather than signaling disorder, this diversity … Read more
How to Convert Community Trust into Sustainable Growth Trust is often treated as an intangible asset, an important, but difficult to define and even harder to measure. However, every enduring institution, whether a nonprofit, a social enterprise, a faith-based organization, a civic association, a mission-driven business or a government, depends upon Trust. Communities place their … Read more
Adhocracy and the Business Lifecycle Why many companies start with flexibility and gradually grow into structure This is Part 2 of a 2-part series In Part 1, we explored what adhocracy is and why some organizations rely on flexible structures to encourage innovation and rapid decision-making. But there’s another dimension to understanding adhocracy that often … Read more
Adhocracy Explained: Why Some Businesses Thrive Without Traditional Structure [This is Part 1 of a 2-Part series] If you picture a typical corporate structure, it probably looks something like a pyramid. At the top are executives making strategic decisions. Beneath them are layers of managers, supervisors, and teams. Information flows up and down through clearly … Read more
Understanding the Systems That Shape Your Community [This is Part 2 of a 2-Part Series] We have established that influence begins close to home. Now we must examine how it operates. To understand the architecture of influence, we must first understand how power moves. Power does not simply exist; it circulates through structures, policies, budgets, … Read more
Power does not begin in Washington, DC. It does not begin on cable news panels or in viral social media debates. Power begins on your block, at your school board meeting, inside your city or town council chamber, and within the everyday decisions that shape housing, policing, education, transportation, and public health. Civic engagement has … Read more
During the Cold War, Cuba existed within the gravitational pull of two global superpowers. Its geographic proximity to the United States and its strategic significance within the Caribbean placed the island squarely inside the geopolitical imagination of Washington and Moscow alike. In such an environment, expectations about Cuba’s political direction were rarely subtle or neutral. … Read more
CUBA and the Refusal of Deference Sovereignty is often discussed as a matter of law, borders, and recognition among states. Yet history suggests that sovereignty is not sustained by legal status alone. It is also a matter of posture—how a nation understands its own existence, how it narrates its place in the world, and whether … Read more
