Complexity, networking, and effects-based approaches to operations /
General Material Designation
[Book]
First Statement of Responsibility
Edward A. Smith.
.PUBLICATION, DISTRIBUTION, ETC
Place of Publication, Distribution, etc.
Washington, D.C. :
Name of Publisher, Distributor, etc.
CCRP Publications,
Date of Publication, Distribution, etc.
2006.
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION
Specific Material Designation and Extent of Item
xxiii, 332 pages :
Other Physical Details
illustrations ;
Dimensions
24 cm.
SERIES
Series Title
The future of command and control
GENERAL NOTES
Text of Note
"July 2006."
INTERNAL BIBLIOGRAPHIES/INDEXES NOTE
Text of Note
Includes bibliographical references and index.
CONTENTS NOTE
Text of Note
1. It's a complex world -- 2. Complexity: the promise and the problems -- 3. Dealing with complexity -- 4. Complexity in effects-based operations -- 5. So, where's the cookbook? -- 6. Seizing a decisive advantage: networking and effects-based approaches to operations -- 7. Options, awareness, and agility -- 8. Conclusion: a network-enabled but effects-based approach to operations.
0
SUMMARY OR ABSTRACT
Text of Note
Our world is a myriad of ever-changing, interdependent variables whose courses we can never entirely predict. The strength of an effects-based approach to operations is that it squarely addresses these complexities by concentrating on their most nonlinear aspects: humans, their institutions, and their actions. Indeed, the entire effects-based approach can be characterized by four things: a focus on the human dimension of competition and conflict; the consideration of a full spectrum of actions whether in peace, crisis, or hostilities; a multifaceted, whole-of-nation concept of power; and the recognition of the complex interconnected nature of the actors and challenges involved. The human dimension arises because all effects-based approaches are ultimately about shaping human perceptions and behavior, and because they depend heavily on human beings to make the complex estimates and decisions involved. The focus on an entire spectrum of actions means thinking holistically across a peace-crisis-hostilities spectrum. Finally, any effects-based approach must proceed from the recognition that all actions and the reactions they provoke are inextricably linked in a system of ever-changing and adapting human systems whose complexity shapes both the nature of the problem and the task of assessing, planning, and executing any operation. The central tenet of an effects-based approach to operations is that we can somehow purposefully shape the interactions of the actors in this complex security environment. Living systems theory offers a way of approaching this complexity. It sees the world in biological and sociological terms as an interlocking multilevel system of complex adaptive systems from which no individual system can be extracted without changing both its character and that of the system as a whole. In the model, interactions occur simultaneously on many different levels with each interaction tending to proceed at a pace dictated by local circumstances.