The Cyber Domain: A Leviathan or Giant waiting to be Slain with the Stone of Doctrine
Abstract
This monograph examines the Army's first doctrinal publication to address operations in the cyber domain, FM 3-38 Cyber Electromagnetic Activities (CEMA), to determine if it provides a doctrinal construct to meet emergent threats and rapid technology growth. Raising cyber to the domain level has created doctrinal implications for a domain that transcends and exists in the physical domains. Domain establishment indicates that dominance and superiority must occur, but dominance and superiority may be unachievable in the cyber domain. Cyber domain's youth lacks the influence of an accepted or tested military theory, however this has little impact on military operations since the cyber domain supports the US Army's theory and doctrinal construct of Unified Land Operations. The lack of a cyber theory does not diminish the importance and relationship between policy and strategy, but compresses the two through tactical actions in cyberspace operations which can provide strategic effects. Understanding how cyberspace operations can occur simultaneously and concurrently in support of and independent of each other provides a new understanding of three tenets of Army operations: synchronization, integration, and depth. The complexity within the cyber domain has changed the understanding of the operational environment but provides opportunities to exploit vulnerabilities by fighting in and through the domain. Innovative doctrine can provide the proper construct to exploit vulnerabilities and achieve desired effects within the cyber domain to enhance the Army's effectiveness in Unified Land Operations to achieve a position of relative advantage.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- May 22, 2014
- Accession Number
- ADA612117
Entities
People
- Jason L. Glemser
Organizations
- United States Army Command and General Staff College