Paper #52. Beyond Doctrinal Plug-Ins: Integrate IO to Win Complex Wars
- August 15, 2022
- ICSL admin
- Security, Strategy
- No Comments
Winning complex wars requires setting more than military end states. Information-heavy complex problems (ICP’s) in hyper-connected environments can persist for generations (Ehlers and Blannin, Campaigning for Complex Problems). These problem sets require enduring social efforts and information-led operations such as narrative warfare. As in Ukraine and Taiwan, the perpetual fight is to get an adversary to…
Paper #49. Supply Chain Networks in the Age of AI, Part II: Advanced Analysis
- February 15, 2022
- Thomas A. Drohan, Ph.D., Brig Gen USAF ret.
- Commercial, Cyber, Strategy
- No Comments
All the techniques used in the JMark Services Information Environment Advanced Analysis (IEAA) course apply to supply chain networks. I’ve selected three and added a new fourth type based on Project Socrates (see endnote xi). Our first step is to characterize the IE to understand the battlespace. We begin with baselines used in IEAA practical…
Paper #46. A Profession of Effects for the Age of AI: Competitive Strategy and Russian Examples
- November 23, 2021
- Thomas A. Drohan, Ph.D., Brig Gen USAF ret.
- Cyber, Leadership, Strategy
- No Comments
If democracies are to compete with savvy authoritarians, we need to up our game in the artificial intelligence (AI) information environment (IE), where out-thought is outfought. Beyond a profession of arms with all-domain military strategy, we need a profession that integrates all effects. Such a profession of effects begins with strategy. Competitive Strategy In an…
Note #23. Net Assessment and JADC2: A Step Toward All-Effects Warfare?
- October 7, 2021
- Thomas A. Drohan, Ph.D., Brig Gen USAF ret.
- Asia-Pacific, Cyber, Eurasia, Strategy
- No Comments
Net Assessment The purpose of net assessment is to gain an asymmetric advantage over competitors. US goals generally seek technological superiority. The US Office of Net Assessment, in a rare run of leadership continuity (Andy Marshall, 1973-2015), analyzed strategic competitions and recommended offsets against adversary strengths. Some offsets threatened the mutual vulnerability of Mutual Assured…
Paper #41. Concepts of Influence: Critical to Strategy and Human Control of Artificial Intelligence
- May 31, 2021
- Thomas A. Drohan, Ph.D., Brig Gen USAF ret.
- Cyber, Leadership, Strategy
- No Comments
Strategy for dynamic end-states must be multi-dimensional to be competitive in the information environment (ICSL Note #22). If operations are not informing and influencing, they become existential rather than instrumental. They justify themselves, which makes for poor strategy. Yet strategy is the competition that matters most for relevant operations. As we consider the three basic…
Paper #39. Information Intelligence & Assessment for All-Effects Warfare: A Competition that Subsumes Combined Arms & Deterrence
- May 6, 2021
- Thomas A. Drohan, Ph.D., Brig Gen USAF ret.
- Leadership, Security, Strategy
- No Comments
Our previous paper offered an assessable definition of “information“ to address two persistent problems in US security strategy: (1) the mismatch between narrow military doctrine and its broad effects; and (2) a “competition continuum“ below armed conflict. Why does this matter? The Information Environment is expansive, accessible and dynamic, characteristics that enable competitors to exploit…
Teaching & Learning #3. Visual Analytics & Case Method Applied to COVID-19
- March 3, 2020
- Thomas A. Drohan, Ph.D., Brig Gen USAF ret.
- Teaching & Learning, With Blackboard & Map
- No Comments
In an age of artificial intelligence and quantum computing, governments and businesses become more dependent on machine learning. Human learning is a continual requirement.
Paper #20. Competing with Analog Weapons in a Digital Arena? How to Gain Advantage
- February 27, 2020
- Thomas A. Drohan, Ph.D., Brig Gen USAF ret.
- Commercial, Leadership, Strategy
- No Comments
Let’s explore how to gain advantages by comparing analog and digital characteristics of the Information Environment (IE).
Paper #19. From Jargon to Jointness: Understanding the Information Environment and its Terminology
- February 27, 2020
- Robert S. Ehlers, Jr., Ph.D., Col USAF ret. & Thomas A. Drohan, Ph.D., Brig Gen USAF ret.
- Leadership, Strategy
- No Comments
The Department of Defense (DoD) spends much time and effort trying to make sense of the Information Environment (IE). This effort is not new.
Note #12. We Need More than Kinetic Effects: Globally Integrated Operations in the Information Environment
- October 1, 2019
- Thomas A. Drohan, Ph.D., Brig Gen USAF ret.
- Leadership, Strategy
- No Comments
We are well into complex, hybrid, grey zone warfare that dynamically blends confrontation with competition. Victory in the form of relative advantages tends to be temporary, requiring a systematic yet supple all-domains all-effects approach. We have to be able to produce all of types of effects and in superior combinations to compete against other relatively-great powers.
Paper #1. Tactics of Strategy and Strategy of Tactics: Winning and Losing in Complex Competition and Warfare
- April 15, 2019
- Thomas A. Drohan, Brig Gen USAF ret.
- Strategy
- No Comments
Smart competitors are using tactics of strategy to achieve broader-than-military objectives, while US policies produce strategies of tactics that deploy forces for ambiguous purposes.