# Situation Room



## aykalam (Apr 12, 2010)

I find this fascinating.

*EU builds situation room for Arab League in Cairo*

Catherine Ashton's foreign service has built a situation room for the Arab League in Cairo to help handle future crises.

EUobserver.com / Foreign Affairs / EU builds situation room for Arab League in Cairo

"If there is a terrorist attack, for instance, we need to know who to talk to. We have had huge difficulties in the past to find out exactly what is happening with European citizens on the ground ... We need reliable people on the other side of the line."


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## expatagogo (May 31, 2010)

So they've installed a bunch of high tech equipment in a room in Cairo.

Why? What's the purpose of establishing a physical presence when moving information is its purpose?


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## aykalam (Apr 12, 2010)

expatagogo said:


> So they've installed a bunch of high tech equipment in a room in Cairo.
> 
> Why? What's the purpose of establishing a physical presence when moving information is its purpose?


My impression is not that they can't get hold of the moving information (they don't need a room for that) but rather that in the past they couldn't get hold of the people who need to manage the situation on the ground and coordinate an appropriate response.


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## expatagogo (May 31, 2010)

aykalam said:


> My impression is not that they can't get hold of the moving information (they don't need a room for that) but rather that in the past they couldn't get hold of the people who need to manage the situation on the ground and coordinate an appropriate response.


EXACTLY my point.

"The material includes Tarika - open source intelligence monitoring and scenario-planning software developed for the European Commission before Ashton's European External Action Service (EEAS) came along."

That's _not_ people.


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## aykalam (Apr 12, 2010)

expatagogo said:


> EXACTLY my point.
> 
> "The material includes Tarika - open source intelligence monitoring and scenario-planning software developed for the European Commission before Ashton's European External Action Service (EEAS) came along."
> 
> That's _not_ people.


no, of course software is not people.

I found the article interesting not because of the infrastructure they are putting in but because of the not so subtle indication that in the past the EU have had a hard time trying to get hold of the people they needed to deal with "situations" in order to coordinate


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