text: Build Your Tribe & Local Network: "Tribe" is an age old concept of being surrounded by friends, family, and other people dedicated to each other's well-being and survival. It's become popular parlance in the preparedness community for good reason. Every tribe is also a de facto intelligence network, which you should be prioritizing. I'm here writing this because an intelligence network is one of those mission-critical strategic advantages. The wider and deeper your network, the more useful information you'll come across. And when it comes to community security, your intelligence network can provide you with information to generate early warning and threat analysis -- two key components of tactical intelligence. GO FURTHER: Sign up for the Gray Zone Dispatch at the bottom of the page because I'll be showing you how an intelligence network is built, among other things.Develop Political, Social, and Economic Power: Hard power -- violence, coercion, and the use of force -- is required to make you a credible actor. On the geopolitical stage, no one is afraid of the country lacking the ability to project force, whether through a conventional military, terrorism, or nuclear weapons. Countries that have those capabilities are taken seriously. We live in that world as a country and as individuals. But not all power involves violence. "Soft power" is not only a more common form, but in most cases a more useful one. Some problems can't be solved with violence, and other problems become bigger through the application of force. Soft power, on the other hand, includes the ability to influence, motivate, negotiate, and apply moral authority. This soft power includes political, social, and economic power, each of which needs to be developed for use in the gray zone. You can't flex muscles you don't have. And developing soft power helps you exercise hard power. Some problems can only be solved by a stick -- all others require a carrot. GO FURTHER: Sign up for the Gray Zone Dispatch below because I'll be diving deeper into tactics to develop political, social, and economic power at the individual and community level.Influence Community Outcomes & Your Future: The entire purpose of the Gray Zone Roadmap is to develop a path starting from individual weakness and ignominy to personal power and authority to group power and authority. Coming out on top of a low intensity conflict and winning in the gray zone requires people. In addition to being passive or active intelligence collectors, people bring their own skills, knowledge, and abilities, most of which you don't have. These people fill in your personal critical skills gaps. These people mean power, including the power to influence and shape local events and conditions to our favor. If you can do this, then you have a fighting chance of winning in the future. If you can't do this, then you will lose against a foe who can. There are no other options. GO FURTHER: You guessed it -- sign up for the Dispatch below.