ecopolis

David H. Petraus, general of the U.S. Army in Iraq, released last december a research called Counterinsurgency. The book is aboout 300 pages and after being a hit in the web, now some editors printed it and sold it for 15$.

Chapter four is entitled “The Importance of Campaign Design” and surprised me to find a chapter dedicated to design, also if it’s well known that cybernetic, among others contemporary disciplines, grew up in a military environment.

Here’s an excerpt:

It is important to understand the distinction between design and planning. While both activities seek to formulate ways to bring about preferable futures, they are cognitively different.
Planning applies established procedures to solve a largely understood problem within an accepted frame-work. Design inquires into the nature of a problem to conceive a framework for solving that problem. In general, planning is problem solving, while design is problem setting. Where planning focuses on generat-ing a plan—a series of executable actions—design focuses on learning about the nature of an unfamiliar problem.

Key design considerations include the following:
* Critical discussion
* Systems thinking
* Model making
* Intuitive decision making
* Continuous assessment
* Structured learning

Rigorous and structured critical discussion provides an opportunity for interactive learning. It deep- ens shared understanding and leverages the collective intelligence and experiences of many people

Systems thinking involves developing an understanding of the relationships within the insurgency and the environment. It also concerns the relationships of actions within the various logical lines of opera-tions (LLOs). This element is based on the perspective of the systems sciences that seeks to understand the interconnectedness, complexity, and wholeness of the elements of systems in relation to one another.

In model making, the model describes an approach to the COIN campaign, initially as a hypothesis. The model includes operational terms of reference and concepts that shape the language governing the conduct (planning, preparation, execution, and assessment) of the operation. It addresses questions like these: Will planning, preparation, execution, and assessment activities use traditional constructs like center of gravity, decisive points, and LLOs? Or are other constructs—such as leverage points, fault lines, or critical variables—more appropriate to the situation?

The Army and Marine Corps define intuitive decision making as the act of reaching a conclusion which emphasizes pattern recognition based on knowledge, judgment, experience, education, intelligence, boldness, perception, and character. This approach focuses on assessment of the situation vice comparison of multiple options . An operational design emerges intuitively as understanding of the insurgency deepens.

Continuous assessment is essential as an operation unfolds because of the inherent complexity of COIN operations. No design or model completely matches reality. The object of continuous assessment is to identify where and how the design is working or failing and to consider adjustments to the design and operation.

The objective of structured learning is to develop a reasonable initial design and then learn, adapt, and iteratively and continuously improve that design as more about the dynamics of the COIN problem be- come evident.