THEORETICAL IMPLICATIONS FOR INFORM AND INFLUENCE ACTIVITIES

Army leaders are generally dissatisfied with the results of the employment of information related capabilities such as public affairs and military information support operations. Recent efforts to improve results have all focused internally and include: organizational changes at the national level related to strategic communication; a doctrinal reorganization of information operations into inform and influence activities and cyber-electromagnetic activities at the Army level; renaming psychological operations as military information support operations; and the possible inclusion into doctrine of a 7th warfighting function focused on the human domain. While some of these changes are useful, they miss the fact that much of the failure of the Army’s communications campaigns is due to the failure to use scientifically based processes. Inform and influence activities doctrine must include a foundation in complexity theory, mass communication theory, social psychology theory, and possibly others. This monograph concludes with recommendations to improve the Army’s ability to employ information related capabilities.