Highlands Group

The Highlands Group is an international consulting network based in Bethesda, Maryland, Washington, D.C. and Carmel Highlands, California.¹⁾

Richard O'Neill founded the group in 1994. It was formed as an “[i]nformal cross-disciplinary network established to explore information revolution issues” and “conflict in an information age” to assist the United States Department of Defense (DoD) and the United States Government in general.²⁾

The first Highlands Forum was sponsored by the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD), held in Carmel Highlands in February 1995 with “about a dozen people” in attendance. The Forum's co-chairs at the time were O'Neill, Andrew Marshall of the Department of Defense, and Anthony Tether of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) (formerly vice president of SAIC’s Advanced Technology Sector).³⁾

The focus of the first set of Highlands meetings was information warfare, spurring the creation of strategy and policy documents on “information operations.” This resulted in “a variety of institutions that were formed in order to carry all that out.”

The Highlands Group participated in the creation and activities of the President’s Commission on Critical Infrastructure Protection (PCCIP), as well as Joint Vision 2020.

The Highlands Group hosts the Highlands Forum, Singaporean Island Forum, the St. Michaels Forum, and the Information Engagement Forum.

The Highlands Group is partnered with Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC).

• Wikispooks (Highlands Forum)