Organizing to Understand: How to Operate Effectively in the Human Domain
Abstract
Security professionals and academics generally agree that many of the challenges faced in Iraq and Afghanistan after 2001 were the result of a failure by national policy and strategic decision-makers to understand the political, cultural, physical, social and other human aspects of the operational environments. The human aspects of conflict stand in contrast to the traditional physical aspects of war and pose unique and complex challenges for the US national security community and military practitioners. To deal with the increasingly important human aspects, the US military has proposed the 'human domain' as a sixth domain that encompasses the other five operational domains (land, air, sea, space, and cyber). The Vietnam War and recent studies of the early years of Operation Iraqi Freedom provide sufficient material with which to analyze how the security community has approached issues in human conflict. Both were the result of misunderstanding within the human domain and had serious impacts on the war efforts. Recognizing recent failures, several nations have looked to whole of government (WoG) approaches as the means to effectively understand, organize, and operate in the changing world. This study provides two ideas for consideration as a collective solution for future implementation of the WoG approach during operations within the human domain. Most security professionals and academics would agree this type of population centric conflict is only becoming more prevalent and likely in the future environment of conflict.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- May 21, 2015
- Accession Number
- AD1001921
Entities
People
- Sean C. Williams
Organizations
- School of Advanced Military Studies