›› Background, Operations and Services....

The Chroma Group, Ltd. ("TCG") was founded in 1991.  Operating under a “for profit and self-sustaining" business model, it is an internally funded organization, accepting no financial support from individuals, organizations or sovereignties which could possibly have any specific political agenda.  It is further our mandate to be fully responsible for the placement of resources and/or services on the ground where required, on a project by project basis, as opposed to the forwarding of supporting funds to other organizations or groups, while we do honor and applaud much of their hard work.

The basic groundwork for TCG's primary mission of Transnational Conflict Prevention and Interdiction Programmes ("TCP & IP") in any given project's Area of Responsibility ("AOR") or Region of Responsibility ("ROR"), such as the Horn of Africa or Kashmir, begins with the acquisition and ongoing maintenance of a total Spherical Situational Awareness ("SSA") regarding the applicable AOR/ROR's geometry.  That is to say, TCG achieves a comprehensive awareness of any and all social, tribal, cultural, geopolitical and theological elements, both historical and current, which influence the decision cycles and dynamics of the local population as well as its official and/or de facto leaders.  The most important ingredient to SSA is, first and foremost, a human presence in the AOR/ROR in the person of a culturally well-versed individual or individuals, for which there is no substitute.  In addition to human information acquisition and listening closely to local "bush-wire" communication, SSA is then further enhanced by TCG's other ongoing methods of acquisition and analysis, which include:

• Maintaining a constant presence on an ever evolving list of more than 6000 IRC and IM networks.
• Daily monitoring of 800+ newspapers, publications and broadcast sources in over 200 countries and non-states.
• Monitoring of Situation Reports ("SitRep") upon their issuance by various peacekeeping and stability missions.
• Global tracking of legitimate and illicit arms transfers to and from state and non-state actors, with a cross-searchable database.  (see simple sample output)
• Monitoring pertinent events on the ground in the AOR/ROR via geospatial assets.

Any and all information which is gleaned from these and other sources is input in real-time, and is accessible using our version of the NORA ("Non-Obvious Relationship Awareness") system which is quick to recognize any interactions between individual actors, groups, places, things, events, dates and locations with selectable sensitivity.

Operating from this posture of "boots on the ground" SSA, integrated and balanced with other instruments of National power such as embedded humanitarian, stability and peacekeeping operational relationships, in particular Civil Affairs and Psychological-type Operations ("CA/PSYOP"), while also continuing to maintain ongoing positive relationships with Non-Governmental/International Non-Governmental Organizations ("NGO/INGO"), with local and international journalists, with local persons of influence, and with cooperative international law enforcement agencies, effectively enables TCG to achieve considerable success with constructive, local social engineering while also assuring the persistent integrity of its information acquisition and analysis capabilities.  National strategists can then better craft approaches to policy regarding the applicable AOR/ROR which leverage all of the core competencies in each of these communities.

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