Applying power in all its forms to secure the present and future is ultimately a leadership challenge. That challenge is especially complex in the current century when the forms and patterns of security are changing in so many ways at an accelerated pace than ever before. The capabilities required to threaten a nation, region, or even global stability are available to both rich and impoverished nation states, as well as small networks of people who can and do operate relatively independent of any nation state. There is more data available than ever before to make sense of this era.

In October 2008, in the wake of a financial crisis not seen since the Great Depression, the Congress enacted the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 (EE SA) as an attempt to restore liquidity and stability to the financial markets.

Bank failures, more so than any other corporate collapse,directly undermine the stability and public confidence in thenation’s financial banking system. As a result, preventing and