To Design or Not to Design (Part Four): Taking Lines out of Non-Linear; How Design Must Escape 'Tacticization' Bias of Military Culture

Abstract

The fifteen pages of design doctrine in FM5-0 Chapter 3 Design introduces non-linear open system concepts while paradoxically recommending traditional linear methodology for transforming these dynamic open systems into the desired state. While the first eleven pages on design discuss open systems and their inherent tendencies to learn, adapt, and resist mechanistic action, section 3-58, The Operational Approach, resorts back to linear causality by recommending lines of effort as a method to depict transforming the system.3 Once again, Army design doctrine suffers an identity crisis in which holistic approaches to complex systems struggles with an institutional preference for tacticizing all levels of war.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Apr 05, 2011
Accession Number
ADA546335

Entities

People

  • Ben Zweibelson

Organizations

  • United States Army Command and General Staff College

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • C4I
  • Human Systems

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Adaptive Systems
  • Air Force
  • Army Training
  • Cold War
  • Complex Systems
  • Doctrine
  • Land Warfare
  • Linear Systems
  • Military Applications
  • Military Doctrine
  • Military History
  • Military Operations
  • Military Organizations
  • Military Science
  • New York
  • United States
  • Warfare

Readers

  • Business Analytics
  • Systems Analysis and Design