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 #37. The Strategy Cuboid: Elements, Dimensions, and Targets in the Global Information Environment
- March 26, 2021
- Thomas A. Drohan, Ph.D, Brig Gen USAF ret.
- Cyber, Security, Strategy
- No Comments
The need for a comprehensive approach to strategy that’s relevant to the global information environment is made clear by recent cyber and information attacks. The Solar Winds and Hafnium attacks from US data centers occurred in a context of persistent disinformation campaigns (Russia, China). Yet the US cyber, info ops and law enforcement communities have…
Stick & Rudder #4. A Basic US Strategy Toward Russia: more than Deter & Defend
- June 4, 2020
- Thomas A. Drohan, Ph.D., Brig Gen USAF ret.
- Americas, Eurasia, Security, Strategy
- No Comments
If strategy means anything, it should have definition and purpose. US strategy toward the current Russia regime, and just about any competitor, continues to be described simplistically as deter and defend.
Teaching & Learning #4. Navigating the Pandemic from a Virtual Classroom in Wisconsin
- June 3, 2020
- Ron Machoian, Ph.D., Col USAF ret.
- Teaching & Learning, With Blackboard & Map
- No Comments
On March 11th, nearly 70,000 students, faculty and staff at the University of Wisconsin were met with the news that a rapid transition to virtual classroom learning would begin following the scheduled spring break.
Stick & Rudder #3. An All-Effects Strategy Against COVID-19: Secure & Induce, Persuade & Dissuade, Defend & Deter
- March 29, 2020
- Thomas A. Drohan, Ph.D., Brig Gen USAF ret.
- Commercial, Security, Strategy
- No Comments
COVID-19 is an advanced threat against humanity, requiring a broad-based combination of effects to defeat.
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.
Paper #12. Time to Recreate Effective Competitive Advantage: Strategy, Technology and Information
- October 29, 2019
- Thomas A. Drohan, Ph.D., Brig Gen USAF ret.
- Commercial, Leadership, Strategy
- No Comments
In 1983, Project Socrates began as a Reagan initiative to develop technology-driven competitive advantage. Then it ended.
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 # 7. Intelligence Analytic Insufficiency: Fixing the Cognitive Problem
- August 1, 2019
- Michael D. Phillips, Col USAF ret.
- Americas, Leadership, Security, Strategy
- No Comments
In response to chronic shortcomings, the President, Congress, and senior leaders of our intelligence agencies and service components demand original, prescient and accurate analyses.
Note #9. Understanding Iran on its Own Terms
- July 12, 2019
- Ron Machoian, Ph.D., Col USAF ret.
- Middle East & North Africa, Strategy
- No Comments
Note #8, “Mirror Imaging Iran and the World,” brings strategic culture to the forefront of today’s anxious discussion about how best to coerce Iran into cooperation with international norms.
Note # 8. Mirror Imaging Iran and the World
- July 3, 2019
- Thomas A. Drohan, Ph.D., Brig Gen USAF ret.
- Middle East & North Africa, Strategy
- No Comments
We tend to mirror image our competitors by using clock-world analogies that apply less and less to today’s cloud-world.
Paper #5. The Power of Last Resort: An Iran Strategy
- June 25, 2019
- Thomas A. Drohan, Ph.D., Brig Gen USAF ret.
- Middle East & North Africa, Strategy
- No Comments
How should the US compete under the restraint of using armed force as a last resort against Iran, a pseudo-democratic theocracy that wages complex warfare in ways the US eschews?
Note # 7. Iran’s Shoot-down and a Strategic US Response
- June 20, 2019
- Thomas A. Drohan, Ph.D., Brig Gen USAF ret.
- Middle East & North Africa, Strategy
- No Comments
The Iranian regime’s shoot-down of an unmanned, non-stealth, hyper-expensive US reconnaissance aircraft in international airspace today was a highly anticipate-able event.
Paper #3. Defeating Authoritarian Warfare: The Case of Russia
- May 29, 2019
- Thomas A. Drohan, Ph.D., Brig Gen USAF ret.
- Eurasia, Leadership, Security, Strategy
- No Comments
While teaching sense-making in the information environment, I began to apply previous work on complex warfare strategy in East Asia to other regions. Russia is a critical case — a declining nuclear power using combinations of effects to regain a perceived loss of prestige.