Manhunting: Counter-Network Organization for Irregular Warfare

Abstract

Manhunting - the deliberate concentration of national power to find, influence, capture, or when necessary kill an individual to disrupt a human network - has emerged as a key component of operations to counter irregular warfare adversaries in lieu of traditional state-on-state conflict measures. It has arguably become a primary area of emphasis in countering terrorist and insurgent opponents. Despite our increasing employment of manhunting, our national security establishment has not developed appropriate doctrine, dealt with challenging legal issues, nor have we organized forces and assigned clear responsibility to deploy and employ these capabilities. Were we to do so, manhunting could become an important element of our future national security policy, as highly trained teams disrupt or disintegrate human networks. Formally adopting manhunting capabilities would allow the United States to interdict threats without resorting to the expense and turbulence associated with deployment of major military formations. Manhunting capabilities could play a central role in the implementation of U.S. national security strategy in the 21st century.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Sep 01, 2009
Accession Number
ADA514554

Entities

People

  • George A. Crawford

Organizations

  • Joint Special Operations University

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • Autonomy
  • Biomedical
  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Ground and Sea Platforms
  • Human Systems
  • Space

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Combat Areas
  • Contingency Operations (Military)
  • Employment
  • Geography
  • International Law
  • International Organizations
  • International Relations
  • Military History
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  • Military Science
  • National Politics
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  • Terrorism
  • Terrorists
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  • Weapons Effects

Readers

  • Microbial Pathology
  • Strategic Security Studies