I’ve spent most of my life trying to understand why people, organizations, and societies do what they do.
That has taken me through the military, intelligence operations and analysis, writing, teaching, art, and more than a few places I never expected to find myself. Along the way, I learned that the first explanation is rarely the whole explanation, certainty is often overrated, and the most interesting questions usually begin after someone says, “Well, obviously…”
A Few Miles Along the Way
I began as an infantry soldier and spent much of the next thirty-five years in intelligence and counterintelligence, working from tactical units to national-level organizations and in places where the difference between what appeared to be happening and what was actually happening mattered. Along the way, I realized that the answers were to be found in understanding the people, systems, assumptions, and circumstances that produced them.
That habit of looking beneath the surface followed me when I began writing. It shows up in nonfiction about revolution and complex systems, in fiction about people confronting difficult choices, and now in conversations with people whose experience or expertise gives them a different way of seeing the world. The subjects change. The underlying question usually doesn’t.
What Are We Missing?
Rick Hoppe is a U.S. Army veteran with more than thirty-five years of experience in intelligence, counterintelligence, operations, and analysis, including service with the Defense Intelligence Agency. He holds a master’s degree in Homeland Security Policy and is a three-time Texas Distinguished Veteran Artist.
