As design emerges throughout the United States Army’s planning and operational doctrine, the intelligence community must leverage this structure of inquiry to identify and refocus the scope of what is collected, analyzed, produced and...
This monograph examines whether or not the current U.S. Army Operational Design methodology could increase the effectiveness of airpower. Analysis of existing design literature provides a common understanding of the U.S. Army’s design methodology...
There are nine chapters in this monograph -- the first three describe design in the context of battle command (FM 3-0 in relation to the terms "understand", "visualization", and "describe"). Chapters four and five discuss the key components of...
The problem facing practitioners of emerging Army doctrine is how to expand the use of assessments beyond detailed planning to support conceptual planning during design. This raises the question, will the use of assessments enable the commander to...
After almost a decade of war, some senior Army leaders have attributed the challenges experienced in both Iraq and Afghanistan to an inadequate response to complex environmental changes or even blatant misidentification of the problem. Today’s...
The lessons learned from a decade of continuous conflict have direct application to the counterdrug mission conducted by the Texas National Guard standing 32 USC 112 task force. By applying the principles of Attack the Network, the Texas...
The recognition of the failure at the strategic and operational levels of war during the Global War on Terror, specifically in Iraq, has resulted in a quest for intellectual solutions to complex operational and strategic problems. To date this has...
The US Global War on Terror is actually a Global Counterinsurgency as defined by FM 3-24 and Al Qaida is the global insurgent currently opposing the US. Al Qaida is held up as the global insurgent through the use of their own declarations in...
Sorrells, William T., Downing, Glen R., Blakesley, Paul J., Pendall, David W., Walk, Jason K., Wallwork, Richard D.
Systemic Operational Design (SOD) is an application of systems theory to operational art. It is an attempt to rationalize complexity through systemic logic employing a holistic approach that translates strategic direction and policy into...
The U.S. Army is engaged in operations as part of the global war on terror. This presents a difficult and complex problem that requires the best possible methods to address. Although this is not the first time the Army has faced complex problems,...
With the transition from the Army of Excellence logistics structure to the single logistics command and control of the modular force logistics concept, the traditional command relationship between logistics organizations and the maneuver forces...
This monograph began as an investigation to determine if either Effects-Based Operations (EBO) or Systemic Operational Design (SOD) should replace the traditional Military Decision-Making Process (MDMP). It soon became clear that the approaches do...
Despite the vast research by Americans on General Matthew B. Ridgway's miraculous transformation of the Eighth Army during the Korean War, few studies have examined his operational approach, while contrasting it with General Douglas MacArthur's....
Since President Bush's announcement establishing AFRICOM, the Office of Secretary of Defense, the State Department, and European Command (EUCOM) began the initial planning of Africa Command (AFRICOM). As of October 1, 2007, the United States...
With the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989, the grip of
superpower strictures loosened resulting in an increase in complexity and dynamism that marks today's security environment. The rapidly changing and uncertain...
General Abrams presents a sound historical example of the practical application of operational art as viewed through the lens of the Army Design Methodology. When General Abrams' assumed command of Military Assistance Command Vietnam (MACV), he was...
Recent Government and Department of Defense publications designate stability operations as a core military mission, leading to its parity amongst other more traditional military missions along the spectrum of armed conflict. However, doctrine fails...
With the attacks of September 11th, by a transnational, global, terrorist network, the full danger of this new security threat was revealed. The initial response of the United States Government to this threat resulted in the birth of the Global War...
Operational design is an intellectual exercise that draws on the creative vision, experience, intuition, and judgment of commanders to provide a framework for development of detailed operation plans. Recently, a number of authors have questioned...
The Marine Corps should expect to fight within a strategic context of complex irregular warfare (CIW) for the near- to mid-term while retaining the ability to fight a major combat operation (MCO). As a result, the Distributed Operations...