_______________ STRATFOR, Inc. March 24, 1999 _______________ STRATFOR Launches its New "Crisis Center" With Coverage on Kosovo You know that we like to be different, but you may be wondering why, on a day when cruise missiles are falling on targets in Serbia, we chose to write the GIU on political events in Paraguay. Trust us, there is a method to our madness. There is a new place to go to get all the most recent news and analysis on events in Kosovo and, you guessed it, that place is http://www.stratfor.com. Click on the "Kosovo in Crisis" button to find out the low down on the players involved, the background of the situation, ongoing commentary from STRATFOR analysts, force structure, maps (of course, who can live without lots of maps), and helpful links to other sites with further resources. Bottom line, if you want to have a comprehensive overview of the Kosovo crisis, along with updates on the most recent events, plus get the tools with which to put it all in context, check out STRATFOR's Crisis Center. This is an experiment. What we have developed is a Crisis Center. This is the place to keep up to date with what is happening in situations like Kosovo, where things are moving at a rapid pace and constant monitoring is necessary to keep abreast of developments. We had been doing dry runs on maintaining a Kosovo Crisis Center and, in a fit of madness and hubris, decided to take it live by 0900 CST (1500 GMT). What you see now is the Crisis Center in its infancy. We would really appreciate if you would take a few seconds to go check it out at http://www.stratfor.com. Bear in mind that it will change and develop over the next few days as we add new content, shift things around, update our analysis and so on. As time goes on, we will increase the frequency and duration of the monitoring and reporting. The Crisis Center is far from perfect yet, but based on your feedback, we can continue to improve it. We may even go to 24-hour coverage, depending on the response to the site and the changing situation in Kosovo. After the crisis ends, and all crises do end, we will do a post- mortem, see what lessons we've learned, and then make it, along with some other new features, a permanent part of the web site. Fair warning: when we do come up to speed, we plan to charge a modest fee to users since someone has to pay for our pizzas. (The Global Intelligence Updates will keep coming to you for free, five days a week). This will be an added value for interested users. It will include not only the Crisis Center (crises don't happen every day) but other information on international trade and finance, politics and of course, war. We plan to become the portal for information on the international system. Please take a look and give us your suggestions for improvement. You can e-mail your comments to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Then tell all of your friends about the site and come back often to get the most recent updates. We'd also be interested in hearing from you what you think a reasonable annual (or monthly) fee would be for this in-depth service. Thanks for your support! And please remember: this is an experiment and not a finished product. David Marshall, CEO STRATFOR, Inc. 504 Lavaca, Suite 1100 Austin, TX 78701 Phone: 512-583-5000 Fax: 512-583-5025 Internet: http://www.stratfor.com/ Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
