Blending into the mindset of the Human Terrain

[Coined]

Hi Coined,
In January, Rob Thornton and I were presenting and the discussion moved to what is being simulated. What bothered me most of all was that what was being simulated was a desired reality rather than anything that was even close to real.

If you want to simulate training for, say, a multiplayer insurgency, then you actually need to have insurgent "leaders" who can think like the insurgents they are playing. This means that the IO/PSYOPs "shaping" would be as effective as it usually is in the field, i.e. really poor and often conveying the wrong message.

That's certainly a valid point, although I would argue that culture, economy, politics, etc. are all battlespaces as well - the only substantive difference is the conventions governing each of them.

Thanks Marc, I agree that creating such a scenario will be highly time consuming and complex.
I just took PsyOps as an example and would challenge the participants in this discussion to look further. Going back to PsyOps, for that "art" it is important to learn Why and How to make an assessment of the population, Why and how to create messages for local TV and radio, and so on. That is just one part.
This has to be integrated with the other elements which make part of a Modular unit.
Try to look at a training as an endstate you like to reach, derive effects from it and "effect-bringers", the last ones are the elements of the Modular unit.
Still, and there you make an important statement, we should not create a desired reality !!!!!!!
Maybe I am not clear enough in my first contribution of this thread, must be my Denglish
but .... Van gave it a try in his latest contribution:
"This reads like a "best practices" approach to Small Wars (COIN, low intensity conflict, SASO, pick your buzzword). You are trying to assemble the concepts that have worked in Latin America in the 1930s, Malaysia in the 1950s, Viet Nam in the 1960s-70s, the hords of Middle Eastern expats that are employed by the U.S. Army National Training Centers right now, etc? If so, you've put together a good framework".

About the battlespace part. Usually this term refers to linear and stove piped thinking but if we agree on this being more than the place to kinetically attack the "enemy" it is fine with me