Rob,

I've been given your post some serious thought over the last several days. I just finished reading Ambassador Passage's article on Global Command Structure, and his thinking seems to follow along the similar flow of what you are asking.

Initially, I was going to ask if you thought the Civilian heavy/ Military light approach of Plan Colombia and the Phillipines would be a better fit as Iraq transitions from COIN to SSTR. Although those operations were of significantly diminished scale in contrast to Iraq, the Whole of Government approach with State Department lead seemed to help de-militarize the effort (at least in terms of perception of the local populace). The down-side is that the SF teams had to deal with increased limitations on their ability to combat advice and conduct operations. Is that a down-side? I'm not sure. Anyways, just a thought for discussion.

IRG to institutional change, I've been trying to remember what Henry Mintzberg had to say in Organizational Behavior. DoD is probably the largest example of a Machine Bureacracy. This type of organization works well in a stable environment, but it has trouble adjusting in a complex, dynamic, and hostile environment (i.e. war).

If I recall correctly, Mintzberg suggested several approaches to institute change.

1. Change the Structure. Stakeholders (Congress) or top level leaders can create, destroy, or merge existing structures to force change.
2. Change the Culture. Typically spearheaded by mid-level managers, culture change takes time.
3. Cult of Personality. A dynamic leader can change the culture of an organization, but in a machine bureacracy he will have a dynamic confrontations from the status quo.

I'd like to add one more that I think is now relevant.

4. SWJ. This medium will have some effect b/c it allows greater horizontal and vertical communications. Sites like SWJ may help decrease the traditional time needed for change as ideas flow more rapidly.

Anyways, that's how I remember the theory (I'm sure some of the smarter guys will correct anything I left out or got wrong). Now to the hard part- figuring out how to implement it.

v/r

Mike