Reorganizing for Irregular Warfare

Abstract

A thorough understanding of Irregular Warfare (IW) and the principles of organizational theory and design will enable the Department of Defense (DoD) to organize efficiently and effectively for operations within the Irregular Warfare Environment, while maintaining its conventional capabilities. We develop our argument for this thesis in several stages. First, we define irregular warfare and differentiate it from conventional warfare through the development of our critical success factors. We introduce organizational theory and design in order to incorporate the critical success factors. We conclude that the DoD should reorganize certain elements of the U.S. Special Operations Command by incorporating existing capabilities, focusing on conducting operations within the Irregular Warfare Environment, and implementing our critical success factors.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Dec 01, 2009
Accession Number
ADA514365

Entities

People

  • David J. Painter
  • Mark C. Weaver
  • Scott C. White

Organizations

  • Naval Postgraduate School

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical
  • C4I
  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Human Systems

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Afghanistan Conflict
  • Asymmetric Warfare
  • Combat Areas
  • Contingency Operations (Military)
  • Conventional Warfare
  • Law
  • Military Organizations
  • Military Science
  • National Security
  • Organizational Structure
  • Psychological Operations
  • Terrorism
  • Terrorists
  • Unconventional Warfare
  • Unified Combatant Commands
  • United States Special Operations Command
  • Warfare

Readers

  • Irregular Warfare and Special Operations Cyberspace Operations against Adversarial Threats.
  • Maritime Combat Support and Expeditionary Logistics.
  • Systems Analysis and Design