Sanctuary (or perhaps just area) denial operations at the Afghanistan village level

[jcustis]

Instead of thinking in terms of I need to get from Shape to Clear to Hold to Build (becuase you can do all of those things in theory and not affect what phase the insurgent is in a single, significant bit); it is to my way of thinking far more instructive to have your intel guys (hey, after all they love to brag how intel drive ops...) produce a product for you that shows you what phase the insurgent is in across your battlespace.

Excellent points BW, and something I have been trying to get at with this thread all along.

You can even build a color coded overlay for your map that shows Green (ph 0), Amber (ph1), Red (Ph 2) and Black (Ph 3) regions. This allows you to explain to politicians, the media, and the populace back home, that you are not here to FIX (build?) the country, but merely to bring the situation within the realm of civil capacity.

Another excellent point. Fiddling in/around the BUILD phase, and wringing our hands over what part the host nation is playing, seems to be kicking our ass at the moment. Heck, it's been kicking our ass the entire time, with the analyses I've seen of our disjointed development efforts.

[Surferbeetle]

Many different knowledge models have been applied to the marketplace of ideas and motivations over the ages. Knowledge models can be characterized as communities who employ characteristic methodologies used to gain advantages for their respective stakeholders. The SWJ/SWC and USG knowledge models make for an interesting comparison.

SWJ/SWC could be described as a digital community frequented by stakeholders in the nuts and bolts of America’s day-to-day efforts to make the world a better place. The demographics include experts and students of the myriad facets of security, economics, and governance from various lands. Pacing daily changes, ‘best of breed’ ideas, concepts, and Tactics Techniques and Procedures (TTP) are examined and debated in a non-hierarchal, open, Socratean manner. The community is an example of the results of democratization and globalization of information and knowledge, in that transactional costs associated with gathering and analyzing information are very low and flash mobs of stakeholders can form, as time and resources permit, for 24-hour analysis of interesting/vexing problems. The quality of output from the SWJ/SWC knowledge model varies (trending towards stochastic) as a factor of the educational, experiential, and motivational levels of the participants.

The USG could be described as a physical and digital community comprised, primarily, of paid stakeholders in the nuts and bolts of America’s day-to-day efforts to make the world a better place. It uses a more common, closed model of vertical and hierarchical integration (with high transaction costs) in which information gathering and analysis is, more often than not, primarily limited to in house personnel specialized in the myriad facets of security, economics, and governance (among many other topics). Standardized training, and educational experiences are part of an attempt to provide a regulated and dependable (trending towards deterministic) output from stakeholders.

It is my thesis that the SWJ/SWC model offers the added potential for involving local stakeholders in a way, perhaps, that the USG does not currently attempt. It would be interesting to see if stakeholders who live in the area of interest agree with the proposed framework outlined by jcustis in post #18 of this thread.

It would also be interesting to see what the two communities could do to develop solutions, and how solutions would differ with the information available to each for an agreed upon area of interest.

[jcustis]

This thread has been the most important one for me since joining the SWC, from a practical aspect. I am about to put my moderator and contributor effort on hiatus due to my immediate OEF deploy, but I'll try to circle back around to this thread and provide feedback if this analytical framework actually bears any fruit. Stay frosty guys...

[slapout9]

This thread has been the most important one for me since joining the SWC, from a practical aspect. I am about to put my moderator and contributor effort on hiatus due to my immediate OEF deploy, but I'll try to circle back around to this thread and provide feedback if this analytical framework actually bears any fruit. Stay frosty guys...

Good luck and stay safe, Slap