Info Ops in Iraq and Syria

Question (S3): What must the coalition do in the information environment to achieve its objectives in Iraq and Syria and how can it deny adversaries the ability to achieve theirs?

Author | Editor: Spitaletta, J. (Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory).

The following set of responses to Question S3 represent an attempt to distill the input from individuals who have contributed to any number of OSD-SMA efforts in recent years. Giordano’s Access, Assess, Engage (AAE) framework will be used to categories these recommendations. The recommendations are an attempt to distill the concepts proposed in a set of recent OSD-SMA publications . CENTCOM may improve cognitive engagement by producing a broader, more expansive joint intelligence preparation of the operational environment (JIPOE). An expanded JIPOE (Joint Intelligence Preparation of the Operational Environment) could potentially identify the behaviors of target audiences necessary to achieve US objectives, to develop possible psychological effects and leverage operations as a cognitive scheme of maneuver that could lead to synchronizing actions and messages to achieve coalition objectives. Below is a very high-level summary — details are in the report.

Access

Determining the accessibility of a target audience, the sixth step in the doctrinal target audience analysis process), identifies how a particular audience may be reached through various media.

Assess

Employing the Strange Model of Centre of Gravity (COG) analysis to identify critical capabilities, critical requirements (CR) and associated critical vulnerabilities (CV) of the threat. This type of functional decomposition could identify cognitive aspects of the threat that are exploitable through the information dimension. Our working hypothesis is that the COG lies in the cognitive domain.

Engage

CENTCOM should consider the combination of informational and physical powers in concert with members of the interagency to drive CENTCOM actions through an operational narrative. Leverage existing MISO programs Actions and messages are synchronized to generate the behaviors necessary to achieve coalition objectives.

‍