Inside the Battlespace of Stability Operations

Abstract

Since the end of the Cold War stability and support operations represent the majority of U. S. Army deployments. The writers of the Army's capstone manual, FM 100-5, Operations, grapple with replacing the 1993 version with a comprehensive doctrine which adequately addresses the needs of staff planners to orchestrate military operations. Expounding on the battlespace framework introduced in the 1993 FM 100-5, the writers developed four types of military action: offense, defense, stability, and support (ODSS). To orchestrate military operations, staff planners must understand the relationship among time, space, and mass in order to visualize, describe, and direct those operations towards a common purpose. By tracing the development of the operational level of war, establishing the systemic nature of operational warfare, and examining the functions of the elements of operational design for the military application of force, the monograph identifies the Newtonian nature of conventional offensive and defensive (OD) operations. A theoretical model based on concepts introduced during the conduct of the first student planning exercise assists in illustrating the functions of the elements of operational design in the OD environment. Having outlined the Newtonian OD environment, the monograph examines the battlespace of stability operations to determine if the elements of operational design assist staff planners with the development and execution of military operations. Because the nature of operations shifts from the application of force to the application of effort, stability operations exhibit quantum theory characteristics. Applying the quantum nature of effort application to the theoretical model demonstrates how staff planners must alter their employment of the elements of operational design in the stability environment.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 01, 1999
Accession Number
ADA374772

Entities

People

  • James D. Nickolas

Organizations

  • United States Army Command and General Staff College

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical
  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Engineered Resilient Systems
  • Materials and Manufacturing Processes
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Agreements
  • Battles
  • Cognition
  • Cold War
  • Doctrine
  • Employment
  • Humanitarian Assistance
  • International Relations
  • Military Applications
  • Military Operations
  • Military Organizations
  • National Security
  • Quantum Mechanics
  • Stability Operations
  • Uncertainty Principle
  • United States
  • Warfare

Readers

  • Joint Military Operations and Doctrine.

Technology Areas

  • Quantum Computing
  • Space