COURSE # ROO-487
INFORMATION OPERATIONS – the New Frontier in Full-Spectrum Warfare
October 13-14, 2011, in Washington, DC
...most revealing introduction to all the dimensions of this latest battlespace and to the technologies that support it...
Information Operations (IO), as currently practiced by the U.S. Military, encompass a broad range of capabilities designed to inform, influence, persuade, or deceive target audiences, and a collection of technical capabilities focused on impacting systems for storing or transmitting information. Formally, IO capabilities include Psychological Operations, Electronic Warfare, Computer Network Operations, Operations Security, and Military Deception. The relationships between the IO capabilities and other activities including conventional military operations, related and supporting capabilities, and strategic communication are not always well understood, nor are they optimally organized for specific undertakings. This class explores these relationships and presents clear definitions for all the elements as they appear in the formal doctrine, and as they function in practice. The implications of the different approaches are discussed in depth.
Applications and benefits:
You will benefit by enhancing your understanding of the:
- History and evolution of IO and its component capabilities.
- Practice and the potential of IO capabilities.
- Ways to organize IO and how these impact relationships between capabilities and operational effectiveness.
- Power of information for influence in pursuit of campaign objectives.
- Efforts related to IO, such as public affairs, strategic communication, and public diplomacy.
Who should attend:
The growing impact of Information Operation on many aspects of hostile engagement includes competencies involving Electronic Warfare. To that extent, understanding of IO and its inclusion in the ‘big picture’ adds important dimension to ‘traditional’ EW, rendering this knowledge invaluable on all competency levels.
This course is designed specifically for Management, Business Development, Administration, Procurement, Technical and Interdisciplinary Personnel in government and defense industries whose greater familiarity with information operations will enhance synergistic interactions, system effectiveness and business prospects. While the material presented is wholly non-technical, those with technical backgrounds stand to benefit from a broad contextual overview and enumeration of specific challenges that may be amenable to technical solutions.
Course Outline:
- Understanding the Lexicon
- IO, IO/IA, core and related capabilities, PSYOP, EW, CNO, CND, CNA, CNE, IA, OPSEC, MILDEC, PA, CMO, DSPD, PR, media operations, strategic communication, public diplomacy, shaping, propaganda, and other terms
- History of IO
- Command and Control Warfare
- The history of the individual disciplines
- In recent and contemporary operations
- What are we trying to accomplish with IO?
- Core goals for IO
- Different ways to organize IO and their implications
- The core and related capabilities of IO
- Systems-oriented IO capabilities: EW, CNO
- Content-oriented IO capabilities: PSYOP, MILDEC, PA, CMO, DSPD
- Their relationships
- Challenges facing influence efforts
- Focus on influence
- Enumerating challenges
- Possible solutions
- Enlisting Madison Avenue
- Findings from a study for U.S. Joint Forces Command
- Marketing concepts useful for military influence
- Lessons from the field
- Influence in ongoing operations
- Distilled lessons learned
- Whither strategic communication?
- Current proposals for the reform or reorganization of strategic communication or public diplomacy
- State of the art in U.S. government and Department of Defense strategic communication
- Strategic communication and IO
- Assessment and evaluation
- The hierarchy of evaluation
- Assessment for influence and other squishy outcomes
- Conclusions and summation
Texts:
- Information Operations – Doctrine and Practice: A Reference Handbook
, by Christopher Paul (Praeger, 2008).
Enlisting Madison Avenue: The Marketing Approach to Earning Popular Support in Theaters of Operation, by Todd Helmus, Christopher Paul, and Russell Glenn (RAND, 2007).
About the Instructor
Christopher Paul is a Full Social Scientist at the RAND Corporation working on a wide range of defense policy issues including counterinsurgency, information operations, and strategic communication. Prior to joining RAND full-time in July of 2002, he worked at RAND as adjunct staff for 6 years. Chris received his Ph.D. in Sociology from UCLA in 2001; he spent the academic year 2001-02 on the UCLA statistics faculty. Chris has developed methodological competencies in comparative historical and case study approaches, quantitative analysis, and survey research. Current research interests include strategic communication, influence operations, counterinsurgency, counterterrorism, simulation training, press-military relations, and military operations on urban terrain. Recent RAND publications include OP-250, Whither Strategic Communication? A Survey of Current Proposals and Recommendations, MG-607, and Enlisting Madison Avenue: The Marketing Approach to Earning Popular Support in Theaters of Operation. Recent commercial books include Information Operations – Doctrine and Practice: A Reference Handbook and Marines on the Beach: The Politics of U.S. Military Intervention Decision Making.
Details:
Course: ROO-487 Duration: 2 Days FEE: $1,299 CEUs: 1.44
Please direct any additional inquiries regarding our courses to Zygmond Turski, Program Director, by e-mail, FAX: (240) 371-4488 or TELEPHONE: (202) 241-6326.
Call toll free 1-800-683-7267 from anywhere in the Continental U.S. or CANADA.
Last modified November 11, 2011.
