LEADERSHIP IN CHALLENGING AND CATASTROPHIC SITUATIONS: The Washington Center for Internships & Academic Seminars. The course is open to registrants in The Washington Center for Internships and Academic Seminars. It is one of many courses offered to undergraduate and graduate students and recent graduates from educational institutions from all over the country who registered in The Washington Center program and who are interning in Washington, DC. For information concerning the application process, contact The Washington Center for Internships & Academic Seminars, 1313 16th St. NW, Washington, DC 20036, 202-336-7600 or see http://www.twc.edu. The course will be offered as a possible course selection to incoming interns in the Fall of 2007.

This course on leadership in challenging and catastrophic situations focuses on past and present examples. The course also looks at ways in which leaders and would be leaders can improve their capabilities so that they can be more effective in addressing such situations now and in the future.

Examples of extraordinary leaders will be highlighted, including Winston Churchill, President John F. Kennedy, Mohammed Yunus (recent recipient of the Nobel Prize), Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, and General Russel Honore. The work of individuals who have great insight into leadership will also be studied, including books or articles by Mayor Giuliani, Warren Bennis, Mary Parker Follett, Margaret Wheatley, Daniel Goleman, Deborah Tannen (gender and leadership), Irving Janis (groupthink) and Herbert Shepard (innovation-producing organizations).

A wide range of challenging and catastrophic (and/or potentially catastrophic) situations will be studied and discussed, including global warming; radical Islamic extremism; 9/11; homeland security; and natural calamities and catastrophes, including Hurricane Katrina and the threat of an avian flu pandemic.

Excerpts from videos, films, and documentaries will be shown and discussed. These include excerpts from such as films as "Apollo 13" and "Thirteen Days" and documentaries on such diverse subjects as Winston Churchill, global warming, and radical Islamic extremism.

Texts for the course include Leadership by Rudy Giuliani; Organizing Genius by Warren Bennis and Patricia Biederman; The Edge of Disaster by Stephen Flynn; Mary Parker Follett ~ Prophet of Management edited by Pauline Graham; and articles by Walid Phares ("Education VS Jihad"), Deborah Tannen, and others.

The course will include a focus on skills and capabilities that can be especially important to fulfilling leadership potentials, including the following: communicating and giving orders, information sharing, networking, collaborating, problem solving, "outside the box" thinking, "managing up" (helping educate those in positions of authority over you), overcoming barriers to innovation and change, resolving conflict, and "unleashing creative energies" in organizations.

SOME KEY CHALLENGES FACING HOMELAND SECURITY AND EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT POST 9/11 AND POST KATRINA: Auburn University's Center for Governmental Services, February 5 – March 5, 2007 (3 CEU Units) and tentatively scheduled for the Fall of 2007. This course is one of several courses being offered online as part of an emergency management certificate program through Auburn University's Center for Governmental Services. The course is designed to help those currently in roles of public responsibility develop a deeper understanding of some newly emerging challenges relating to homeland security and emergency management, challenges that have been unfolding since 9/11 and since Hurricane Katrina. This course is taught solely in asynchronous time. For information concerning enrollment in this online course, contact the Center for Governmental Services at (334) 844-4899 or access the website linked to: www.auburn.edu/outreach/cgs.

The course has been designed to increase overall awareness and understanding concerning the implications of 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina. The course is designed to introduce those taking the course to a wide array of accompanying issues and concerns relevant to homeland security and emergency management in a post 9/11, post Katrina world. After 9/11 and before Hurricane Katrina, the Department of Homeland Security appeared to be focusing primary attention on preventing and responding to possible attacks involving weapons of mass destruction. Since Hurricane Katrina, greatly increased attention has been placed on an all-hazards approach to prevention, mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery, and continuity of operations. DHS is now emphasizing an all-hazards approach to disaster preparedness and response. Some specific areas that will be addressed during the course include the following:

• the cultural divide between homeland security and emergency management that has evolved since 9/11 and that has become even more apparent in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and the role this cultural divide has played before and after Hurricane Katrina;
• the post-Katrina efforts on the part of DHS to embrace an all-hazards approach to homeland security and emergency management;
• the need to refocus efforts on prevention, mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery, and continuity of operations that will help ensure the reliability, resilience, stability, and continuity of critical infrastructure;
• in light of the wide range of challenges and threats facing the nation, the need to include an emphasis on the development of disaster resistant communities and regions, including disaster resistant infrastructure within those communities and regions and within the nation as a whole ; and
• organizational culture and intergovernmental challenges involving public sector efforts to address homeland security and emergency management challenges.

"The Ethics Map ~ A Values-Based Approach to Defining Ethics and Integrity in the Public Service," Paper presented to the Normative Foundations Group, Transatlantic Workshop on Ethics and Integrity, March 23, 2007, Adelphi, Maryland (Posted at http://gordonhomeland.com.)

"Hurricane Katrina and Post Hurricane Katrina Intergovernmental Challenges: Comparing and Contrasting Some Differing Perspectives on the Role of the Federal Government in Hurricane Katrina and in Potential Catastrophic Events in the Future," Presentation, June 13, 2007, University of Nevada, Las Vegas (Executive Master of Science Program in Crisis and Emergency Management).