The Demise of Decision Making: How Information Superiority Degrades Our Ability to Make Decisions

Abstract

The quest for information superiority degrades the decision making ability of United States military leaders and the situation will worsen without adjustments to professional military education and training. This pursuit has degraded American military leaders' ability to make intuitive judgments, develop creative solutions, and critically consider a situation. Additionally, this hunt for more information increases a leader's risk aversion and propensity to micromanage subordinate leaders, two trends that can quickly erode trust among the force. Despite the claims of some, information superiority can increase fog and friction of war for military leaders instead of reducing or removing them. It is for these reasons the United States military should address shortfalls in education and training to decrease the chance of self-inflicted decision failures.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
May 20, 2013
Accession Number
ADA583529

Entities

People

  • Christopher J. Kirk

Organizations

  • Naval War College

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Human Systems

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Civil War
  • Doctrine
  • Education
  • Friction
  • Military Education
  • Military Operations
  • Military Science
  • Military Training
  • National Security
  • Second World War
  • Students
  • Thinking
  • Training
  • United States
  • War
  • War Colleges
  • War Games

Readers

  • Joint Military Operations and Doctrine.
  • Military History of the United States in the 20th Century.
  • Strategic Security Studies