David S. Alberts

David Stephen Alberts (1942) is a former American Director of Research for the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (OASD) for Networks and Information Integration (NII).

Biography
David S. Alberts undergraduate work was at City College of New York where he received a BA in Statistics in 1964. He received a Masters (1966) and a Doctorate in Operations Research (1968) from the University of Pennsylvania.

Alberts' academic career has included serving as first Director of the Computer Science Program at NYU and has held professional rank posts at NYU Graduate School of Business, CUNY, and most recently as a Research Professor at George Mason University.

He was the Director, Advanced Concepts, Technologies, and Information Strategies (ACTIS), Deputy Director of the Institute for National Strategic Studies, and the executive agent for DoD's Command and Control Research Program. This included responsibility for the Center for Advanced Concepts and Technology (ACT) and the School of Information Warfare and Strategy (SIWS) at the National Defense University.

He has chaired numerous international and national conferences and symposia and has many publications, some of which are included in tutorials given by the IEEE and other professional societies. He has served as an officer in a number of professional societies and has actively contributed to AIAA, MORS, TIMS, AFCEA, and ORSA. At the local level, Alberts has served as Assistant to the Commissioner, NYPD.

Recent honors have included the Secretary of Defense's Outstanding Public Service Award, Aviation Week and Space Technology's Government/Military Laurel, and the inaugural NCW Award for Best Contribution to the Theory of NCW presented by the Institute for Defense and Government Advancement (IDGA).

Work
He led efforts that produced the NATO NEC C2 Maturity Model the NATO Code of Best Practice for C2 Assessment,] and the NATO Code of Best Practice: Experimentation.

In his most recent book (2011), he proposes "agility" as the measure of choice for organizations, collections of organizations, processes, systems, and individuals engaged in complex endeavors (e.g. civil-military, cyber-security, economic development). He co-authored an article with Mark E. Nissen, which was published in the International C2 Journal, entitled Toward Harmonizing Command and Control with Organization and Management Theory. Another recent article Agility, Focus and Convergence: The Future of Command and Control challenges not only long-held command and control beliefs but the very language of command and control itself.

In early 2010, he developed a comprehensive educational campaign to remedy the lack of awareness and understanding of the nature of 21st century missions, Networked Enabled Capability (NEC), and the implications for Command and Control (C2) and intelligence. The overall objective is to develop the widespread awareness and in-depth understanding necessary to accelerate a “network-centric” transformation of existing C2I organizations, processes, and systems to make them more effective and efficient. This campaign involves the development of curricula, courses, educational materials, and experimental environments that provide students with “hands-on” opportunities to experience a variety of network-enabled capabilities and network-enabled C2 (NEC2) under different mission-related scenarios and circumstances is the first such offering. The C2-related educational materials he created, the Network Enabled Command and Control (NEC2) Short Course,consists of 8 course modules. Each can be accessed and downloaded from the CCRP website (NEC2 Short Modules).

Outreach and Support
The CCRP sponsors the Focus, Agility, and Convergence Team (FACT). FACT is a forum for bringing practitioners, theorists, and analysts together to progress in conceiving and developing new approaches to achieving the agility, focus and convergence needed to successfully prepare for and participate in complex endeavors across the spectrum of crisis to conflict. Alberts has presented at numerous FACT meetings.

Alberts also chairs a NATO research group, SAS-085, which will conduct research activities to better define C2 Agility and recognize Requisite C2 Maturity for complex endeavours. Previous NATO groups he has chaired produced the NATO NEC C2 Maturity Model, the C2 Conceptual Reference Model, and the NATO Code of Best Practice for C2 Assessment.

Publications
Alberts is credited with helping to provide the intellectual foundation for an Information Age transformation of military institutions. His works include:
 * 1995. Command Arrangements for Peace Operations. With Richard E. Hayes. Washington, DC: National Defense University Press Publications.
 * 1996. Defensive Information Warfare. Washington, DC: National Defense University Press Publications.
 * 1996. The Unintended Consequences of Information Age Technologies. Washington, DC: National Defense University Press Publications.
 * 1997. Complexity, Global Politics, and National Security. With Thomas J. Czerwinski, eds. Washington, DC: National Defense University Press.
 * 1999. Network Centric Warfare Developing and Leveraging Information Superiority (second edition). With John J. Garstka and Frederick P. Stein. Washington, DC: CCRP Publication Series.
 * 2001. Understanding Information Age Warfare. Washington, DC: CCRP Publication Series.
 * 2003. Power to the Edge. With Richard E. Hayes; with a foreword by John Stenbit. Washington, DC: CCRP Publication Series.
 * 2003. Information Age Transformation. Washington, DC: CCRP Publication Series.
 * 2005. Campaigns of Experimentation : Pathways to Innovation and Transformation. With Richard E. Hayes. Washington, DC : CCRP Publication Series.
 * 2006. Understanding Command and Control. With Richard E. Hayes. Washington, DC: CCRP Publication Series.
 * 2007. Planning: Complex Endeavors. With Richard E. Hayes. Washington, DC: CCRP Publication Series.
 * 2010. The NATO NEC C2 Maturity Model. With SAS-065 Research Task Group. The full membership of SAS-065, along with their national affiliations and organizational homes, can be found in the Acknowledgments section.
 * 2011. The Agility Advantage: A Survival Guide For Complex Enterprises and Endeavors
 * 2012. Megatrends in C2. With Marius Vassiliou.

In 1999,Command Arrangements for Peace Operations and Complexity, Global Politics, and National Security were suggested for The Airpower Professional’s Book Club Top Ten List.