Most of the personal security and self-defense market in US seems to cater to traditional hard skills reactive training, in particular shooting and physical self defense techniques. These are important skills to have but there seems to be a dearth of training in other more soft, preventative skills. Even with in the hard skills arena…
Situation awareness is a key component of personal protection. In fact it may well be the key component of personal protection around which everything else is built. Interest and appreciation for the importance of situational awareness is growing. One aspect that is sometimes overlooked though is the importance of tying it to effective decision making. …
There are certain situations where individuals may be specifically targeted for attack. It may arise from a business or personal dispute, due to perceived wealth, political profile or another reason. Assuming you are not a head of state, high net worth person or other individual with a large security detail and other protective infrastructure support,…
Layering contacts: What does it mean and why should you consider doing it? When traveling overseas, particularly to higher risk locations or locations where cultural and business practices are significantly different, it can make sense to not put all your eggs in the same basket. To set the stage and make it easier to understand…
Who is more vulnerable? Who is at greater risk? A short-term traveler or a long-term visitor/expatriate? It’s an interesting question and one without a clear-cut answer. All other things being equal, each one can present its own set of vulnerabilities. Let’s look at each one and then compare and contrast. For simplicity sake I will…
While many people now recognize that situational awareness is a key component of personal security and is the element that is most likely to help you avoid a bad situation, applying it daily can be a challenge. One reason is that it is sometimes not taught or explained well in self-defense or personal protection classes…
Wherever you go it’s important to get to know the local rules. This will prevent you inadvertently getting yourself into a situation where you break a law, offend someone or make yourself unintentionally vulnerable to becoming the victim of a crime. While this article is mainly directed at international travelers and expatriates, it also applies…
Adversarial mindset is important to any security program whether you are protecting a Fortune 500 company, critical infrastructure, a high net worth person or yourself. We discussed some of the elements of using adversarial mindset here: http://iprotectiveconcepts.com/4-steps-to-taking-the-adversarys-perspective-and-enhancing-your-security/. I should empathize at this point I am mainly looking at protection against physical threats and not looking…
Assuming you are not a head of state or other individual with a large security detail and therefore need to do it yourself or with limited resources: Avoid time & place predictability. This is generally considered the number one way people are successfully ambushed/assassinated. This means varying your routes and times of departure, arrival and…
As anyone who has read any of our articles or books knows already knows we place a high premium on developing and using situational awareness as an integral component of personal security. In fact if you were to do only one thing to make yourself safer – and nothing else – it would be to…