Strategic Communication and Influence in Afghanistan: A
UK Perspective
Patrick Rose, Ph.D.
Defence Science and Technology Laboratory
England, United Kingdom.
e-mail: pjrose@dstl.gov.uk
INTRODUCTION
“True conquest is the conquest of the hearts of the people, [who are]
the waters that our fish inhabit.”
Atiyeh Abd Al-Rahman, December 2005
“We are way behind our opponents in understanding and exploiting…
the battle for people’s minds.”
General Sir David Richards, January 20101
The fundamental idea central to both the above quotations is certainly not new. The
importance of audiences, information and perceptions has a long heritage in military
thought and practice. T.E. Lawrence, for example, noted in the early twentieth century
that ‘the printing press is the greatest weapon in the armoury of the modern
commander.’2 The operational environment faced by British armed forces and their
allies over the past ten years, characterised by the complex, multi-faceted campaign
currently waged amongst the people of Southern Afghanistan, has nonetheless created
the impetus to prioritise people, their beliefs, outlook and ultimately support, as the
strategic centre of gravity.3 This is reflected in a reinvigorated (but not reinvented)
approach to counter-insurgency and stabilisation operations, in which ‘winning on the
battlegrounds of perception’ to secure the consent of indigenous target audiences is
fundamental to lasting success.4
1
Atiyeh Abd Al-Rahman, senior Bin Laden aide, in a letter to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, former leader of
Al Qaeda in Iraq, December 2009: quoted in Brahimi, A, ‘Crushed in the Shadows: Why Al Qaeda
Will Lose the War of Ideas,’ Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, No.33 (2010), p.94; Richards, D ‘Future
Conflict and its Prevention: People and the Information Age,’ transcript of talk to IISS (18/01/2010).
2
Wenham, M.H., ‘Information Operations: Main Effort or Supporting Effort?’ British Army Review
(BAR), 146 (Spring 2009), p.47.
3
Ibid, p.49. Gentile, G., ‘A Strategy of Tactics: Population Centric COIN and the Army,’ Parameters
(Autumn, 2009), pp.5-17, offers a stimulating counter to the population centric approach.
4
McMaster, H.R., ‘Foreword’ in David, G.J. and McKeldin, T.R., Ideas as Weapons: Influence and
Perception in Modern Warfare (Virginia, Potomac Books, 2009), p.xi; and see UK Joint Doctrine
Publication (JDP) 3-40, Security and Stabilisation: The Military Contribution (2009); US Army, Field
Manual (FM) 3-24, Counterinsurgency (HQ Department of the Army, 2006).
1
The importance placed upon the information realm should not be underplayed. As
Dennis Murphy has noted, ‘the explosion of information technology and ready
availability of communication methods mean all military operations, across the
spectrum of conflict, will depend heavily on the proper distribution of information to
support mission success.’5 Within current UK military doctrine and operations,
strategic communication forms a fundamental, but as yet not well understood means
to coordinate the contribution of information within the broader construct of
Influence; the formal organisational concept designed to deliver cognitive effect on
enemy forces, local, regional, international and domestic audiences, in order to aid the
achievement of campaign aims. This paper examines what strategic communication
and Influence mean in the context of ongoing UK stabilisation operations in
Afghanistan. It assesses their application by British Forces in Helmand Province and
the implications therein for long term campaign success. It concludes with a short
synopsis of how the available tools for modelling the stabilisation environment,
maintained by the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) Stabilisation
Study, hold the potential to contribute to the future integration of Influence as a
central component of stabilisation in Afghanistan (and elsewhere), through the
provision of pre-deployment training at the brigade level and above, within a joint,
civil-military context.
DOCTRINE AND DEFINITIONS
Ahead of the following discussion of strategic communication and Influence in
Afghanistan some definition of terms is required. The doctrinal term utilised to
characterise British operations in Helmand Province is ‘stabilisation,’ the umbrella
concept referring to the combination of civil and military means employed to support
states ‘entering, enduring or recovering from conflict.’6 The emphasis is on producing
the conditions for long term security and effective indigenous governance through the
admixture of efforts to reduce and prevent violence, protect civilian populations and
develop sustainable political, economic and social processes and structures.
Stabilisation employs a broad operational construct of ‘Shape, Secure, Hold and
Develop,’ nested within which is the familiar ‘Clear-Hold-Build’ tactical framework
common to western counter-insurgency approaches.7 As such, stabilisation is broadly
analogous to the US concept of stability operations, although it remains avowedly
inter-agency, not primarily military, in its nature.8 Within such operations, Influence,
‘the capacity to have an effect on the character or behaviour of someone or something,
or the effect itself,’ more explicitly refers to ‘the desired outcome of crossGovernment activities…to change the character or behaviour of agreed audiences
through physical and psychological means.9 This statement illuminates the integral
role of Influence within UK thinking on stabilisation. Central to this is the
understanding that Influence refers to more than operations in the information or
psychological realm, and that it fully encompasses both kinetic and non-kinetic
Murphy, D ‘In Search of the Art and Science of Strategic Communication,’ Parameters, Winter
2009-10, pp.105-6
6
JDP 3-40, p.xv.
7
British Army Field Manual (AFM), Vol.1, Pt.10, Countering Insurgency (October 2009), 6-2 – 6-3.
8
See for example the definition in US Army, FM 3-07, Stability Operations (HQ, Department of the
Army, 2008), p.vi.
9
Concise Oxford English Dictionary (Oxford University Press 2009); JDP 3-40, 3-2.
5
2
actions and activities. All of these will have an influence effect, even if this is not
their primary or desired purpose. As such, Influence is the desired end-state, with the
means to achieve it physical or non-physical, and often a combination of both.
In terms of an effective definition for driving practical application, strategic
communication presents the greatest challenge. At the time of writing, no true
consensus on what strategic communication means, how it should be conducted, or by
whom, exists on either side of the Atlantic.10 Originating in the United States, the
term has only recently been formally defined within UK military doctrine. The
capstone operational doctrine for current operations, Joint Doctrine Publication 3-40,
Security and Stabilisation Operations – the Military Contribution, published in late
2009, describes strategic communication thus:
The articulation of cross-government guidance on Influence [that] supports the
synchronisation of words and deeds of friendly actors to maximise decisive
effects.11
The emphasis of this definition is on the coordinated nature of strategic
communication and its intent to promote or sustain desirable behavioural change
within designated target audiences, in accord with the aims and objectives of
government or coalition policy. This relies on the inherent assumption that all actions,
at all levels, serve as a form of communication, and in turn, contribute to Influence.
The specific guidance on the message to be communicated is contained within the
National Information Strategy, which in UK practice refers to the underpinning,
campaign specific narrative to be conveyed by strategic communication. As such,
strategic communication can be most usefully considered a process for effecting the
transmission of this narrative, whilst the Information Strategy provides the message to
be transmitted and an understanding of the means by which it is to be delivered, and
to whom, at all levels from the strategic to the tactical.
Strategic communication therefore serves as the primary means for effecting
Influence at the strategic level, and whilst the transmission of narratives at the
operational and tactical levels is not unimportant, it is doctrinally separated as a
discrete undertaking under the umbrella of Influence Activities. This latter term refers
to those explicitly non-kinetic means though which Influence can be sought by
deployed forces; those that primarily seek to achieve psychological, rather than
physical, effects.12 In British doctrine, the term Influence Activities has replaced and
extended that of Information Operations,13 reflecting the broad swage of possible
methods that can be employed to exert Influence effect. These include civil-military
led reconstruction and development (or civil affairs) activities, key leader engagement,
information, media and psychological operations (including deception).14
10
See for example the dialogue on the pages of Joint Force Quarterly, No.56 (1st Quarter, January
2010), pp.3-13.
11
JDP 3-40, 3-11.
12
UK JDP 0-01.1, United Kingdom Glossary of Joint and Multinational Terms and Definitions (June
2006); UK JDP 3-00, Campaign Execution, Annex 3A (October 2009).
13
This remains the primary terminology in US and NATO doctrine.
14
AFM, Vol.1, Pt.10, 6-2 – 6-7.
3
Just as no artificial boundary separates the different levels of war, there exists no clear
distinction between strategic communication and Influence Activities. In application,
they both utilise similar means to seek the same effect, towards the same end. They do
however differ significantly in focus, JDP 3-40 noting that ‘Strategic Communication
looks up and out whilst Influence focuses inside the Joint Operational Area and down
at the population.’15 In practice, the distinction is less clear-cut. The narrative
delivered through strategic communication (whether explicitly recognised as such or
not) forms the basic informational context for all operational actions and activities,
lending them meaning. Actions and activities at the operational and tactical levels
both derive some of their Influence effect from this message, and may also serve to
strengthen or undermine it (often both at different times), according to the levels of
consistency maintained between stated word and witnessed deed.
COMPARING UK AND US APPROACHES
Before continuing to examine the application of strategic communication and
Influence by UK forces in Afghanistan, brief illustration of the different choice in
terminology and concept in the information realm between UK and US stabilisation
and counter-insurgency doctrine is instructive. Aside from the difference in language,
one key distinction between the UK approach to Influence and the broadly
comparable US use of Information Operations stands out. As noted above, the UK
definition of Influence places it as the central organisation construct through which all
effects on the enemy and various civilian populations are to be achieved. In contrast,
although US doctrine similarly emphasises the fundamental importance of
Information Operations as the potentially decisive element of counter-insurgency
operations, it considers them as a separate and complimentary Line of Operations.
This subtle yet important difference is also reflected in US perspectives on strategic
communication, the latest scholarship on which proposes the ‘inclusion of an
information end-state’ within the commander’s intent, supporting ‘the application of
the art of war in strategic communication from the outset of planning and execution,’
but not driving it.16
Whilst seeking fundamentally to achieve the same aim, this subtle difference
nonetheless cascades into the overall doctrinal philosophy presented in each case as
the formal guidance to prosecute current operations in Afghanistan. Within UK
doctrine, Influence is intended as the primary means through which campaigns are
organised and success is to be attained. It shapes the entire military planning process
at all levels to blend civil and military, kinetic and non-kinetic activities together in
order to win the support of local populations for indigenous government and create a
political environment in which support for the insurgent is undermined. It is as such
the ‘Central Idea…the lasting and decisive element in security and stabilisation
operations.’17 Within US doctrine, Information Operations form a discrete element
(albeit an important one) in the overall concept of operations seeking to marginalise
15
JDP 3-40, 3-9.
US Army, FM 3-24, pp.4-8, 1-23; US Army / US Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Manual,
(University of Chicago Press 2007), p.152; Murphy, Art and Science, p.108.
17
JDP 3-40, 3-2. On re-shaping the political context see also Petraeus, D.H ‘Learning
Counterinsurgency: Observations from Soldiering in Iraq,’ Military Review, January-February 2006,
pp.8-9.
16
4
insurgent forces and separate them from the indigenous population, as distinct from
directly seeking their support itself (although gaining it may be one means to achieve
these aims).18 As we shall see, due to a combination of factors from the strategic to
the tactical levels, this theoretical distinction specific to UK doctrine has however not
always been clearly reflected in practice, as successive British commanders have
sought to achieve Influence in Southern Afghanistan since the summer of 2006.
THE UK STRATEGIC NARRATIVE
Effective strategic narratives deliver the underlying story to convey meaning about
specific events.19 Within the context of overseas UK military operations, the
production of campaign specific higher level narratives is ultimately the responsibility
of the cross-government Information Strategy Group. Chaired by the Foreign and
Commonwealth Office (FCO), the group sets out within a National Information
Strategy formal guidance on campaign objectives, including those related to the
information environment, alongside details of key themes, messages, channels of
communication and target audiences, intended as the basic foundational guide to
deployed military commanders and their civilian counterparts.20 Given the enduring
UK involvement in Afghanistan reaching back to 2001, a cross-government
Afghanistan Communication Team is now in existence, responsible for production
and dissemination of the mission specific ‘Whitehall Core Script,’ from which all
ministries involved derive their baseline guidance for strategic communication and
other activities.21 Within the military sphere, the practical integration of this strategy
with regional messaging requirements and the operations of deployed British forces
lies with Targeting and Information Operations, part of the UK Ministry of Defence
(MoD). Alongside the Information Strategy Group, this organisation jointly
coordinates the cross-Government message and ensures its concordance with
operational objectives and activities. In practice, this overlap in roles has contributed
to a somewhat uneasy relationship in which the clarity of guidance contained within
the highest level UK narrative, and its transmission to British operational commanders
in Afghanistan has been criticised. A report co-written by a former British brigade
commander noted that in his time in Helmand during 2007 and 2008, the messages
promulgated from Whitehall were not only ‘a diluted and distant memory by the time
they reach[ed] the tactical level…they may actually have no relevance at ground level
anyway.’22
Audiences place considerable emphasis on observable actions over words, and the
consistency between the message put out and the actions concurrently taken can serve
to significantly strengthen an underlying narrative and its potential to foster popular
support, whether foreign or domestic. Conversely, a divergence between publicly
promulgated policy and action in the field naturally serves to undermine both the
Hammes, T.X ‘Information Warfare,’ in David and McKedin, op. cit., p.27, presents a more critical
appraisal of the US approach.
19
Tatham, S.A ‘Strategic Communication: A Primer,’ Defence Academy of the United Kingdom
Advanced Research and Assessment Group Special Series Paper 08/28 (December 2008), p.9.
20
JDP 3-40, 3-13.
21
Cross Government Afghanistan Communication Team, ‘Afghanistan: Whitehall Core Script,’ 25
June 2010, available at http://afghanistan.hmg.gov.uk/en.
22
Mackay, A. and Tatham, S. ‘Behavioural Conflict. From General to Strategic Corporal: Complexity,
Adaptation and Influence,’ UK Defence Academy, The Shrivenham Papers, No. 9 (2009), pp.19-20.
18
5
credibility of the narrative and the credibility of the actors involved. Within the
modern information environment, characterised by twenty-four hour global news
media and the easy availability of recording and transmission equipment, even minor
tactical events have the potential to impact at the theatre and national strategic level.
That it is now largely a truism to state that this interaction can directly shape the
perceptions of audiences both intimate with and far removed from the battlefield, and
as a result shape policy and actions themselves, does not make it any less important to
note. Especially so when any such contradiction between events at any level, political
or military, domestic or foreign, and the pronouncements of strategic level
communication are so frequently seized upon by a grateful media and exploited by
adversaries.23
Achieving effective Influence to deliver lasting and meaningful perception change in
this context places an imperative on two interrelated elements. First, positioning
strategic communication and Influence at the heart of strategic formulation and the
planning process at all levels. Second, recognising the key function of narratives in
co-ordinating, and in part reflecting, the activities that are thus driven. Operational
messages and actions and the higher level narrative are as such wholly
interdependent, and the centrality placed on communication, in the broadest sense of
the term, as the foundation for planning all activity, informational or not, has been
identified as one of the predominant aspects of any effective strategy.24 In the short
history of recent UK involvement in Afghanistan, the most easily identifiable
illustration of the mismatch between higher level narrative and operational reality
occurred at the very start of the British deployment to Helmand Province in mid-2006.
In a now well reported episode, British Secretary of State for Defence John Reid
stated that in opening this new front in the NATO International Security Assistance
Force (ISAF) campaign in Afghanistan, to spread security and reconstruction to this
key part of the country, ‘If we came for three years here to accomplish our mission
and had not fired one shot at the end of it we would be very happy indeed.’25 This
message failed to survive first contact with the ground truth of operations against the
Taliban in Helmand, as deployed units of 16 Air Assault Brigade conducted a summer
of robust kinetic operations to establish a permanent lodgement of British forces in
the province; the problem of which was not so much achieving this aim itself, but
rather the severe mismatch between the way the mission had been publicly presented
to domestic British and international audiences, and the way that events unfolded on
the ground.26
Predicting the manner in which military operations against any adversary will unfold
is an impossible task. A certain discord between the expectations and projections of
political and military leaders and the progress of events in complex stabilisation
operations, even the understanding of their basic nature, should be expected. This
does however present an acute challenge to the effective framing of strategic level
narratives that must be designed for enduring military operations with inherently
uncertain futures. In this context, not all narratives are equally successful, and
23
See especially Hammes, pp.31-2.
Ibid., p.31 so characterises the success of al’Qaeda’s strategy in the information realm. For a more
critical appraisal, see Brahimi, op. cit.
25
Transcript of Interview with John Reid, 24 April 2006: http://www.operations.mod.uk/afghanistan/
statements/transcriptjohnreid.doc. Chin, W, ‘British Counter-Insurgency in Afghanistan,’ Defense &
Security Analysis, Vol.23, No.2 (2007), pp.203-4 details the context of the mission.
26
See for example the account in Betz, D and Cormack, A, ‘Iraq, Afghanistan and British Strategy,’
Orbis, Vol.53, No.2 (Spring 2009), pp.326-7.
24
6
projecting an inappropriate narrative may prove as damaging, perhaps even more so,
than failing to project any narrative at all. Certain traits for successful narratives can
however be identified. Amongst these, flexibility is particularly important, so that key
messages are not easily over-turned or overtaken by events on the ground, or fatally
undermined by the attempts of adversaries to exploit them.27 Flexibility, and the
robustness to the passage of events and activities of others it affords, can be most
effectively achieved through simplicity; the fewer facets of a message there are the
less opportunity exists for their contradiction. But a confluence of internal factors,
combined with the nature of the Afghan information environment and that of the
current battle of perceptions, militates against the achievement of both simplicity and
consistency in the UK approach to strategic communication, and its role in achieving
success in Afghanistan.
Conceptually, despite the recent introduction of JDP 3-40 at the head of the UK
doctrinal hierarchy for current operations in Afghanistan, its characterisation of
strategic communication has yet to be universally recognised as the fundamental
working principle upon which this activity should take place, whether in Whitehall,
Helmand, or elsewhere.28 It is further notable that the over-arching narrative for
stabilisation operations is by design produced at the national level without the
involvement of deployed commanders. These individuals nonetheless bear the
responsibility for projecting this same message through their activities, as well as
delivering it to a variety of different audiences at the operational and tactical levels,
where its impact is arguably most important. In recent UK practice, a ‘one size’
message determined from the top down has rarely, if ever, ‘fitted all’ at the coalface
of UK Influence; the level of deployed formations. JDP 3-40 explicitly notes this
unhelpful abstraction of the overarching narrative from those tasked to deliver it to the
most critical audience, yet provides no guidance on how the challenges thus posed can
be managed and overcome. It is here that Targeting and Information Operations form
the critical linkage between the higher information strategy and its delivery at the
regional and theatre levels, and at this crucial juncture that the lack of clear guidance
on presenting the UK narrative within Helmand Province has been most keenly
discerned by those operating at the brigade level and below since the acceleration of
the British campaign in mid-2006.29
Two primary reasons account for this issue. In the first instance, Targeting and
Information Operations operate within an organisational framework in which there is
no single owner of UK strategic communication. The Information Strategy Group,
Afghanistan Communication Team and Targeting and Information Operations each
have distinct, yet overlapping roles, while another key player, the government
Research, Information and Communication Unit (RICU), exists to promulgate
domestic communication efforts to counter radical extremism. This issue is intimately
bound into the rationale for ongoing operations in Afghanistan, yet RICU has no
representation from the MoD. The foreign counter-terrorism effort is also conducted
under a separate organisation, the FCO led Overseas Contest Group; further structural
Tatham, ‘Strategic Communication,’ p.9. For illustration of how strategic narratives can be left
following, rather than shaping, opinion and events, see Utting, K ‘The Information Campaign and
Countering Insurgency: Lessons from Palestine 1945-1948,’ available at:
http://www.rusi.org/analysis/commentary/ref:C4AB7E3B86C0B8/.
28
Observation based on interviews with UK influence practitioners conducted for Dstl Influence and
Strategic Communication study, 2009. See also Tatham, ‘Strategic Communication,’ p.3.
29
Interviews conducted for Dstl Influence and Strategic Communication study, 2009.
27
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manifestation of the unhelpful plurality of effort that makes up the UK strategic
communication effort to meet current national security priorities, of which the
Helmand mission is arguably foremost.30 Much potential therefore exists for better
integration of all strands of UK messaging that have a stake in the outcome of
operations in Afghanistan, as well as British security priorities more broadly. As such,
whilst the relative emphasis placed by the MoD’s Targeting and Information
Operations on its two different (if not unrelated) functions, with the balance of the
former over the latter being questioned, as a first step in effecting a change in the way
that the UK designs and delivers its strategic communication effort in and for
Afghanistan, the plight of Targeting and Information Operations themselves within
this counter-productive organisational context must be both appreciated and
resolved.31
DELIVERING INFLUENCE IN AFGHANISTAN
In part, formulating an effective narrative that fulfils the competing purposes of
flexible, robust information strategy on the one hand, and clear guidance to drive the
planning of military activities on the other, will always pose a particular challenge,
whatever the organisational context in which it is formed.32 Furthermore, the
complexities of the Afghan operational environment make any clear identification of
the ‘right’ way forward, and thus formulation of the correct message to support and
sustain it, intensely problematic. In theatre, as at the national level, no-one body truly
‘owns’ the UK strategic communication problem, whilst the missions of ISAF, each
of the more than forty contributing nations, and the US led Operation Enduring
Freedom all provide a different perspective. The inconsistency of view engendered
becomes further muddled as it transits each successive layer in the ISAF command
chain. As a result, a discernible difference in the nature of the narrative projected by
ISAF Regional Command (RC) South, and the weight attached to such activity itself,
has been apparent within the brigade level headquarters of the UK Task Force
Helmand (TFH) as successive national component commanders, by turns British,
Canadian or Dutch, rotate through this appointment. The impact of this change has
reduced as the campaign has evolved, aided not least by the clear overall strategy
promulgated from the highest levels of ISAF following US General Stanley
McChrystal’s critical review of late 2009.33 But UK control over operational level
messaging within Helmand (and the surrounding provinces) has nonetheless
fluctuated with this national rotation of responsibility, and the pattern is set to
‘Whitehall Core Script,’ op. cit, explains the rationale of UK involvement in Afghanistan. RICU is
comprised of elements of the Home Office, Foreign and commonwealth Office, and Communities and
Local Government: Tatham, ‘Strategic Communication,’ p.20-21; for details of the Overseas Contest
Group, see HM Government, Contest: The United Kingdom’s Strategy for Countering International
Terrorism - Annual Report (The Stationary Office, March 2010), pp.11, 22.
31
For comment on TIO’s organisational bias see Mackay and Tatham, p.36 n.27.
32
However, that this has occurred against a backdrop of strong academic criticism over the apparent
absence of any clear strategy for the British mission in Afghanistan also tells part of the story. See Betz
and Cormack, op. cit., pp.335-6; Cornish, P and Dorman, A ‘Blair’s wars and Brown’s budgets: From
Strategic Defence Review to strategic decay in less than a decade,’ International Affairs, No.85, Vol.2,
pp.247-261. Miller, S.N ‘A Comprehensive Failure: British Civil-Military Strategy in Helmand
Province,’ BAR, 146 (Spring 2009), pp.35-40 gives a military perspective.
33
Farrell, T ‘Appraising Moshtarak: The Campaign in Nad-e-Ali District, Helmand,’ RUSI Briefing
Note (May 2010) pp.2-3, details the ‘McChrystal effect’ and the benefits to TFH of a British led RC
South.
30
8
continue as the newly formed RC South West assumes operational control, initially
with US leadership, of all ISAF forces in Helmand (and neighbouring Nimruz),
during summer 2010.34 The pivotal role of TFH as the locus of enduring British
military involvement in Afghanistan, with the superior UK operational command,
Permanent Joint Headquarters in Northwood, working directly to it, and not through
the ISAF chain of command, may also serve to heighten this spasmodic relationship
with the ISAF chain of command.35
Establishment of RC South West demonstrates timely recognition of the great
increase in military activity and troop numbers in Helmand since the initial
deployment of 3,300 British forces into the province in mid-2006. With over 50,000
troops now operating in Helmand (including those of the Afghan National Army), the
scale of the ISAF effort had far outgrown the ability of the Kandahar based RC South
(and TFH below it) to provide effective control. Whilst RC South West will provide
much needed clarity of control (if not necessarily direction) at the operational level,
the tactical command structure within the UK contingent in Helmand presents a much
less happy picture. With UK forces now numbering a little over 10,000, six full battle
groups operate under the command of what is effectively a brigade headquarters; a
span of command twice that designed, and such that the running of day to day
operations leaves little excess capacity with which to design and execute the wider
Influence effort with a truly energetic long term perspective.
This combines with the very complex human terrain inherent both to Afghanistan, and
in many ways to all military operations conducted among, and in intimate contact
with, civilian populations. A basic foundation of effective communication is the
understanding that different audiences assign different meaning to messages based on
pre-existing biases, experience and cultural factors. The most effective narratives are
thus those which resonate with their intended target along familiar social, cultural,
historical or religious lines, and are delivered through sources trusted by and credible
to that audience.36 Therefore although the underlying narrative must, for the sake of
consistency, remain fundamentally the same, the messages derived from, and used to
support and sustain it, must be carefully tailored for specific local audiences to best
enable a positive effect, and mitigate unintended negative consequences. Realising
this in practice is however no easy task. Although the population of Helmand
Province is approximately 95 per cent Pashtun, there exist approximately sixty
separate Pashtun tribes, and roughly 400 sub-tribes, many of which are represented
within the same village or local area.37 Great care is required to ensure that actions
and support given to local power brokers (including the Afghan National Police),
neither create nor sustain divisions or conflict between different tribes and groups.
Long standing enmity and competition may exist, and the relative advantages and
34
Interviews conducted for Dstl Influence and Strategic Communication study, 2009. ISAF Regional
Command (RC) South acted as the superior 2 star headquarters to the UK 1 star Task Force Helmand
until the formation of RC South West to control operations in Helmand in May 2010. Command of RC
South West is projected to rotate between the US and UK: ‘Command and control changes in Southern
Afghanistan,’ http://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/DefenceNews/DefencePolicyAndBusiness/
CommandAndControlChangesInSouthernAfghanistan.htm, 21May 2010.
35
For description of this effect in Iraq, see Alderson, A ‘The Validity of British Counter-Insurgency
Doctrine after the War in Iraq 2003-2009,’ Cranfield University PhD thesis, November 2009, pp.193-4.
36
West, J.P ‘Information (in) Operations: More than Technology,’ in David and McKeldin, op. cit.,
p.130. Mackay and Tatham, p.15 outlines the operational implications.
37
JDP 3-40, 3-4.
9
agendas different groups seek may by turns engender partiality for the Taliban,
government or foreign forces; nuances and linkages that British units have found it
hard to discern, let alone exploit. In this manner, local interests are intimately bound
into the wider contest between the insurgency, host nation and ISAF forces.38
Effectively delivering a coherent narrative within this environment requires an
intensive, persistent effort to define the full range of target audiences across the
operational area, and a well develop understanding of the interplay between them;
only then can measures be attempted to shape it according to campaign aims.
The fundamental requirement within Helmand Province that ‘every village must be
treated as a separate Influence campaign,’ has led to the rapid evolution of UK force
composition right down to company level.39 This has created the basic structures
necessary to meet both the practical needs of the Helmand stabilisation environment,
and the doctrinal centrality of Influence as the primary means to effect a change in
population perceptions supportive of campaign aims. This reorganisation reflects not
only the increasingly sophisticated direction and delivery of high level narrative
themes along cultural, religious, ethnic and tribal lines for consumption by specific
elements of the civilian population, but also the much broader elements that make up
the UK Influence effort in Southern Afghanistan. At present, Influence within TFH is
led and coordinated by the SO1 Influence, a senior staff officer at Lieutenant-Colonel
level. Operating under their direction is a Psyops Support Element (PSE) of trained
psychological operations personnel responsible for analysing the human terrain within
the operational area, segmenting target audiences and identifying key local
‘influencers;’ those decision makers, tribal and religious leaders through which they
can be communicated with.40 The PSE also holds the capability to design, produce,
authorise and disseminate psyops messages employed by subordinate units through all
available medium, including television, radio, print and loudspeaker. Alongside the
PSE sit media operations professionals and CIMIC personnel. The latter form (in
current parlance) a Development and Influence Team (DIT), jointly manned by
civilian stabilisation experts, military engineers, pysops and intelligence
representatives, to plan and lead consent-winning reconstruction activities in close
accord with the overall brigade Influence effort. The DIT function is mirrored at battle
group level by the Military Stabilisation Support Team (MSST). These are again
multi-disciplinary, with those in Helmand assigned to specific areas of responsibility
with their own civilian advisor. Two Influence specific posts also exist at this level:
the SO2 (Major) Influence (often dual rolled as the attached artillery sub-unit
commander) to coordinate soft and hard effects as part of battle group operations; and
the SO3 (Captain) Influence Activity officer, responsible for non-kinetic aspects. At
company level this task falls on the Non-Kinetic Effects Team (NKET), a small group
operating under a captain or warrant officer with the achievement of Influence as their
primary, rather than additional responsibility. NKETs are supported both by their
battle group MSST, plus organic Tactical Psyops Teams (TPTs) capable of the design
Rosen, N ‘Identities, Ideologies and Motivations of Non-State Groups from Afghanistan to Somalia,’
lecture at United States Military Academy, West Point, 22 June 2010.
39
JDP 3-40, 3-4.
40
Current doctrine also suggests the manning of an SO3 post specifically to coordinate Key Leader
Engagement for the brigade commander and his deputy, plus coordinate and exploit the outcomes of
KLE activities within units and sub-units.
38
10
and delivery of target audience specific messaging, often most effectively within
rural Helmand through local radio stations or the portable ‘Radio in a Box.’41
With this evolving re-organisation, the UK military Influence effort in Southern
Afghanistan has been actively improved. The competing insurgent information
campaign has however itself developed rapidly during the same period, and from
disorganised roots in 2006 the Taliban swiftly established an organic media
production organisation modelled on that used by al’Qaeda in the Middle East. This
has proven capable of conducting everything from leaflet and radio campaigns, to the
exploitation of embedded media to report successes and deliver the insurgent
narrative to regional audiences well beyond the confines of Southern Afghanistan’s
Pashtun belt.42 In contrast to the complexity of UK messaging within Helmand
province, where the necessary requirement to cater to fragmented audiences
fragments the message itself, Taliban messages are typically simple, and unbounded
both by western perceptions of truth and cumbersome bureaucratic channels intended
to prevent credibility damaging inaccuracy. To describe adversary information efforts
at the local level merely as armed propaganda is incorrect (although this remains a
strong element of insurgent influence), but within Helmand they remain largely adhoc and ill-coordinated. However, when establishing an interpretive framework on
events, those who shout first often shout loudest, and the great strength of the Taliban
information campaign lies in its immediacy. This stands in stark contrast to UK (and
other ISAF contingent) information efforts, in which extremely thorough and
perceptive forward planning is needed to mitigate the constraints on timeliness forced
by the need for accuracy and the imperative to verify any message sent out through
the staff at TFH. This latter step in particular hampers the ability of British forces at
company and battle group level to fully and fruitfully exploit success in the
information realm; a clear impediment to being ‘first with the truth’ as UK counterinsurgency doctrine demands, and denoting one key area that the decentralised
mission command philosophy so forcefully espoused in British military doctrine has
yet to reach.43
The impact of this mismatch is also keenly realised in the battle for perceptions at the
regional level, where the key Taliban audience and support lies, and ISAF and UK
information efforts are least coordinated and effective. Furthermore, in terms of what
it is required to achieve, the insurgent strategic communication task is comparatively
easier to that of the ISAF coalition, and the UK contingent within it. To sustain the
insurgency, Taliban messaging only has to challenge the credibility of UK forces and
their partners, not necessarily establish their own, and in the wider context of the
Global War on Terror, present a message that will resonate with the relative minority
predisposed to sympathise with, support and at the extreme end of the scale, act upon
it. This is very different to the much more exacting task of persuading large
populations, local, regional and domestic, and by turns ‘good, bad and just plain
41
AFM, Vol.1, Pt.10, 6-8, Chapter 6 Annex B and C. For further details of PSEs, TPTs and target
audience analysis see 15 (UK) Psychological Operations Group, Annual Report 2007-8 (2008), pp. 6,
11; on the use of radio ‘Building Goodwill in Gereshk: Part Two – A Military Operations News
Article,’ www.mod.uk accessed 24 November 2009.
42
On the evolution of the Taliban information campaign, see especially Tatham, S ‘Tactical Strategic
Communication: Placing Informational Effect at the Centre of Command,’ BAR 147 (Summer 2009),
pp.59-62.
43
See for example AFM Vol.1, Pt.10, 6-5 – 6-6, 6-15.
11
indifferent,’ to specifically support and sustain the aims not only of British
involvement in Afghanistan, but also the credibility and utility of the Afghan
government that ISAF forces back.44 This is perhaps the conceptual aspect of strategic
communication and Influence hardest to crack: the need to formulate ‘an end state
that can be clearly articulated to all audiences and that can also be translated into a
campaign on the ground.’45 There may be clear national strategic interests driving UK
operations in Afghanistan, but translating this assessment into a palatable story to
persuade members of the general population, whether in Helmand Province, Pakistan
or the UK, of their validity, rectitude and imperative, in a form to which they can
readily empathise, is a stern challenge indeed. Last, but certainly not least, it is to be
remembered that in UK parlance, strategic communication is ultimately about
coordination of word and deed. As such the most difficult element of this difficult
task is the delivery of what must be promised. Just challenging and undermining the
insurgent narrative is not enough, and there exists a clear imperative for UK forces
and their partners to demonstrate in practice what they preach. As Robert Jones
reminds us, ‘to bring the populace back into the fold, mere words are never enough, the
counterinsurgent must actually perform.’46
MILITARY OPERATIONS AND INFLUENCE IN HELMAND
It is as such in the appropriate balance of kinetic and non-kinetic activities, rather than
a wholesale shift to the prioritisation of non-kinetic, information led approaches that
the key to effecting Influence is to be found in Southern Afghanistan. As one British
officer noted, ‘Actions (hard effect) and messages (soft effect) must be considered
together, not separately. Every action sends a message - and actions are our strongest
messages.’47 The first British formation to explicitly recognise and exploit this
approach in Afghanistan, and in a manner that prefigured much current UK thinking
on Influence, was 52 Infantry Brigade, deploying to Helmand in October 2007.
Utilising essentially the organisation laid out in the preceding section, the brigade
commander, Brigadier Andrew Mackay, sought to elevate Influence as the primary
consideration driving the planning and conduct of operations at all levels throughout
his formation.48 Brief description of 52 Brigade’s major operation of its time in
Helmand, Operation MAR KARADAD, the seizure of the town of Musa Qala
between 7-12 December 2007, provides good illustration of how kinetic and nonkinetic activities can be integrated to achieve a key operational objective with lasting
political effect.
The fundamental departure distinguishing MAR KARADAD from major UK
offensive operations preceding it was the explicit prioritisation of Influence over all
other planning factors, including operational security.49 Shaping activities conducted
Passage, D ‘Reflections on Psychological Operations: The Imperative of Engaging a Conflicted
Population,’ in David and McKeldin, op. cit., p. 56. Quotation from Mackay and Tatham, p.13.
45
Utting, op. cit.
46
Jones, R ‘Winning the Ideological Battle for the Support of the Populace (Understanding the Role of
Ideology in Insurgency), www.smallwarsjournal.com; accessed 30 June 2010. Mackay and Tatham,
p.11, rather underplay the difficulties of the ISAF strategic communication task.
47
Wenham, p.49; see also Tatham, ‘Strategic Communication,’ p.15.
48
See Mackay and Tatham, idem.
49
Tatham, ‘Tactical Strategic Communication,’ on which this section is based, provides the standard
account.
44
12
before the assault focused on intensive intelligence collection and the establishment of
an early ground presence by the Brigade Reconnaissance Force, combined in the
immediate period before the attack by the overt manoeuvre of key force elements (in
this case Warrior armoured fighting vehicles) in plain view of insurgents invested in
the town, alongside a tactical psyops plan to mask the main thrust of the planned
attack.50 At the same time, a concerted leaflet and radio campaign was employed to
deter Taliban resistance and inform local civilians of UK forces’ intentions, warning
them to stay inside or seek refuge elsewhere during the anticipated battle.
Considerable efforts were also made to plan for the provision of not just physical
security of the civilian population in the aftermath of the operation, but tangible
benefits directly resulting from ISAF and Afghan National Army presence. To realise
this in practice, multiple Shuras were conducted with local leaders outside the town
environs before major military operations commenced. These arranged a substantial
programme of quick impact reconstruction projects to provide jobs and improve local
infrastructure as soon as the town was under ISAF control.51 Commencing on 7
December 2007, the final attack was conducted by British, US, Danish, Estonian and
Afghan forces, and in line with the priority placed upon winning local consent over
defeating the local Taliban, employed minimal use of indirect fires to minimise
collateral damage and civilian casualties. Some hard fighting was required, supported
by carefully targeted air strikes, before the town was entered by lead elements of 3
Brigade, Afghan National Army, on 12 December. As such, ‘Musa Qala did not fall
on non-kinetic power alone…yet neither was the town destroyed by hard kinetic
effect;’ this success recorded and reported to international audiences by an embedded
Saudi Arabian television crew.52
The operation to retake Musa Qala, and the concepts and corporate mindset of 52
Brigade that underpinned its planning and execution, have been considered an
exemplar of how all aspects of military led activity, from warfighting to information
operations and reconstruction, can be coordinated to achieve concrete objectives and
an enduring effect on key target audiences within a discrete area.53 Many key
elements of the operation have been replicated in the recent Operation
MOSHTARAK of February 2010, and on a much larger scale. Alongside the
traditional military activity associated with large scale military operations to secure a
sizeable span of territory in central Helmand, and its incumbent population, three key
features of MOSHTARAK are worthy of further mention. Firstly, operational security
again took a back seat to Influence. Despite the understandable unease of some
military officers and media commentators, the intent, general area and aims of the
forthcoming operation were clearly signposted to the local population, insurgents and
international audiences alike. This overt signalling was conducted to ‘give the Taliban
a choice [,]…to make the population aware that the operation was about to unfold
[and allow] a much greater level of Afghan involvement and ownership’ in its
outcome, and is largely credited with persuading senior Taliban leadership to flee the
area preceding the operation, thereby minimising resistance to the initial ISAF
Ibid; and see especially Phillips, A ‘Brigade Reconnaissance Force – Op Herrick 7,’ BAR 146
(Spring 2009), pp.7-12.
51
UK guidance on the employment of such projects as part of military Influence can be found in
Stabilisation Unit, Quick Impact Projects, pp.19-34.
52
Tatham, ‘Tactical Strategic Communication,’ p.66.
53
See for example Barley, D ‘Winning Friends and Influencing People,’ BAR 148 (Winter 2009/10),
p.58
50
13
surge.54 Secondly, a substantial intelligence effort ahead of the operation identified
and led the engagement of key local leaders to agree the conditions for immediate
development of governance and reconstruction activities once suitable levels of
security had been established. Particular attention was paid to avoiding any vacuum
between the ‘clear’ and ‘hold’ phases of the operation, and the initiation of
reconstruction efforts to impart an immediate consent winning effect. ‘Hot
stabilisation’ was the watchword, and within the first 48 hours of the operation, a
shura of more than 100 local leaders had been held within the TFH area of
responsibility and a registration point established to recruit workers for quick impact
and cash for works projects.55 Lastly, one of the most important developments
ushered in by the operation was the welcome resolution of a critical gap in strategic
communication messaging to the domestic British population. Driven by the
perceived failure during early to mid-2009 of adequately justifying the ongoing
campaign, its nature, results and aims within the UK itself, this fundamental
requirement was addressed by the establishment in December 2009 of the Chief of the
Defence Staff’s Strategic Communications Officer.56 The appointee is the senior
military spokesman for delivering information on current operations to the domestic
UK audience, and the benefits of the role were clearly demonstrated in the initial
stages of Operation MOSHTARAK. At the forefront of the operation was a proactive,
coalition wide and very public international information and media operations
campaign, underpinning and explaining all actions undertaken from the strategic level
down to the tactical. Within the UK, this sustained strategic communication effort was
a primary focus for the current Strategic Communications Officer, Major-General
Gordon Messenger, with additional high profile commentary from other key
individuals, up to and including the UK Secretary of State for Defence.57
FUTURE IMPLICATIONS AND THE IMPACT OF ORGANISATIONAL
CULTURE
Whilst progress in meeting the objectives of Operation MOSHTARAK has been
slower than anticipated, the latest commentary on its impact has been cautiously
optimistic. Moreover, in terms of the use of Influence (and supporting strategic
communication efforts) as the major contributing element in the UK stabilisation
campaign waged in Southern Afghanistan, the evolution of technique evident between
MAR KARADAD in late 2007 and MOSHTARAK in 2010, and the nesting of the
latter within a coherent ISAF regional strategy, presents a hopeful picture for the
future.58 There was however no easy or even progression in the way that Influence has
‘Consolidation and stabilisation begin on Operation MOSHTARAK: A Military Operations News
Article,’ www.mod.uk, accessed 14 February 2010; interviews conducted for Dstl Influence and
Strategic Communication study, 2009.
54
55
Ibid; Farrell, pp.4-5
On this failing see Simpson, E., ‘Gaining the Influence Initiative: Why Kinetic Operations are
Central to Influence in Southern Afghanistan,’ BAR, 147 (Summer 2009), p.67.
57
See for example: Marcus, J ‘Afghanistan Conflict an “Information War”, ’ www.bbc.co.uk, accessed
11 February 2010; ‘4th Mechanized Brigade prepares for 'holding phase' of Op MOSHTARAK: A
Training and Adventure news article,’ www.mod.uk, accessed 10 February 2010; ‘Ainsworth sets out
risks and benefits of Operation MOSHTARAK,’ www.mod.uk, accessed 8 February 2010. MajorGeneral Messenger led 3 Commando Brigade in Helmand from October 2008-March 2009.
58
Farrell, pp.10-11; Transcript of UK MoD press conference, 23 February 2010.
56
14
been integrated with military operations by successive British brigades rotating
through six month operational deployments to Helmand during this period. In
particular, this experience highlights several key areas for concern that have the
potential to undermine both the realisation of full benefit from the ongoing ISAF
campaign to spread governance across Southern Afghanistan, and the effectiveness of
the UK military contribution to it. Brief coverage of the changes in the approach to
Influence between 52 Brigade and two successive UK formations operating in
Helmand serves to illustrate these factors.
In terms of the conceptualisation, integration and use of Influence, a certain degree of
consistency was maintained when 52 Brigade was replaced by 16 Air Assault Brigade
in April 2008. The major change with this transition was structural, with the artillery
chain of command rather than bespoke organisations providing the focal point for the
coordination and delivery of Influence at each layer of command down to company
level. More subtle, but significant in its effect, was the gradual re-positioning of
Influence throughout 16 Brigade’s time in Afghanistan into an output of, or addition
to, the brigade planning process. This stemmed from a different conception of
Influence within the brigade HQ to that of 52 Brigade, highlighting the difficulties for
maintaining consistency of approach in the absence of effective doctrinal definitions,
and also a feeling that the Influence-heavy approach of 52 Brigade was not entirely
suited to the evolving combat environment. Although key personnel within 16
Brigade felt that Influence should remain the driver of command intent and planning,
as the tour developed they became increasingly focused on leading non-kinetic
activities and conducting messaging, rather than contributing to the holistic
application of Influence in the manner of current British doctrine. In late 2008, 16
Brigade were replaced by 3 Commando Brigade, whose main HQ focused even more
on traditional paradigms of military activity. Influence was developed largely as a
discrete task and fed independently into the brigade synchronisation matrix at the end
of the planning process. This difference in approach can however be explained by the
unique role of the UK Landing Force Command Support Group within 3 Commando
Brigade’s structure, of which there is no Army comparator. During 3 Commando
Brigade’s operations in Helmand of 2008-2009, this group provided an existing
structure to command and combine the specialist capabilities of reconnaissance,
electronic warfare and information operations, acting as the focal point to coordinate
the brigade Influence effort, primarily through the activities of the organic
Information Exploitation (IX) Group.59
Whilst Influence therefore figured heavily in the approach of all three formations, the
manner of its pursuit varied considerably, and continues to do so as the British
campaign progresses. More fundamentally, whatever the rights and wrongs of the
conceptual and organisational choices made about the utility and application of
Influence in Helmand, the mere fact that the approach can (and typically does) differ
substantially every six months is in itself inherently damaging to the compound
success of British stabilisation operations over the long term. This point intimately
relates to the issue of campaign continuity (or lack thereof) that has been highlighted
59
Interviews conducted for Dstl Influence and Strategic Communication study, 2009; 3 Commando
Brigade, ‘Information Exploitation Group,’ http://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/royalmarines/units-anddeployments/3-commando-brigade/uk-landing-force-command-support-group/news/informationexploitation-ix-group, accessed 16/03/2010.
15
as a prime cause of indifferent UK military performance in the Afghanistan mission.60
Any discord between the activities of successive formations across the full spectrum
of security and development, at the heart of which lies the key issue of Influence,
imposes considerable risk on the long term progression of key projects and residual
political changes critical to campaign outcomes. The area most affected is the crucial
juncture between the hold and develop phases identified in British stabilisation
doctrine, where the focus shifts from military-led security operations to civilian (or
civil-military) led reconstruction and development activities, allied to increased host
nation responsibility for security and governance. In particular, recent UK experience
has highlighted that effective non-kinetic Influence campaigns and valuable civil
affairs initiatives have often failed to survive the transition of responsibility between
rotating brigades, undermining at a stroke their potential to achieve full or lasting
effect, and denying the effort, and often lives, extracted to initiate them.61
Maintaining sensitivity to the long term perspective really matters for three primary
reasons. Firstly, achieving Influence, what Mackay and Tatham characterise as
‘nudging people towards making that choice’ which supports our aims and specific
political objectives, takes time.62 Secondly, governance and state building are
intimately bound into the stabilisation construct, especially so in Southern
Afghanistan, with their progression measured in decades rather than months and years.
Making an effective military contribution in these areas relies on the nuanced
exploitation of specific local and regional perspectives and interests that again
necessitate long term engagement with, and investment in, local people and power
structures.63 Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, both Taliban insurgents and the
local population take ‘the long view;’ and the latter will typically withhold their overt
support until an external actor has conclusively demonstrated an enduring ability to
provide for their needs and protection.64
The shortcomings of the British military to properly address this key issue of
campaign continuity and its deleterious effect on long term success has been laid
largely at the door of the six month duration of formation tours in Afghanistan.
Closely related to this has been the identified failure to develop enduring structures
capable of ensuring consistency in the UK approach, operations and message as
different units rotate in and out of Helmand Province.65 The mismatch in time spent
on the ground by key personnel is most keenly felt between military commanders and
those from other UK government agencies involved with leading civil-military
activities; civilian posts within the Helmand Provincial Reconstruction team for
example typically being manned continuously for between twelve and twenty-four
months at a time. While some key posts have been extended, creating three nine
month ‘continuity posts’ within TFH (deputy commander, SO1 Influence and SO1
Afghan National Security Forces liaison), manning such positions remains
challenging given the current tempo of operational deployments, and specialist
60
See especially Betz and Cormack, p.334.
Interviews conducted for Dstl Influence and Strategic Communication study, 2009.
62
Tatham and Mackay, p.10.
63
Lockhart, C ‘A Governance and State Building Perspective.’ BAR 148 (Winter 2009), p.53; Murphy,
pp.113-4.
64
UK Joint Doctrine Note (JDN) 1/09: The Value of Culture to the Military, 2-10.
65
Betz and Cormack, op. cit: Alderson, pp.191-5 provides a comparative perspective based on analysis
of stabilisation operations in Iraq.
61
16
Influence posts are amongst those worst affected. Moreover, whilst the PSE within
each UK brigade is manned with psyops professionals for operational deployments to
Afghanistan, these key personnel typically have little opportunity to fully integrate
within the formation HQ during the pre-deployment training cycle. At lower level,
those filling Influence roles still remain either ‘double-hatted’ in their duties, or are
volunteer augmentees with limited role-specific training who rarely gain the
opportunity to develop or reapply their growing expertise and experience beyond the
singular confines of a specific operational tour of duty.66
It is however not the length of time military personnel spend in Helmand that
fundamentally disjoints the UK effort across different deployments. Military units
must be rotated, for as Theo Farrell points out, within the politically sensitive
stabilisation environment, ‘completely worn-out soldiers do not make great counterinsurgents.’67 Any system of rotation necessarily imposes a period of lost
effectiveness as newly arrived formations integrate with local conditions, and the
information environment poses a particular challenge to swift assimilation, especially
given its complexity in Southern Afghanistan. This is where effective and enduring
information management structures really aid continuity of key local knowledge
critical to the Influence effort, but represent one area that has lagged behind the rapid
pace of other UK organisational developments in improving the capability of
deployed forces. At present, local Influence efforts are severely disrupted every six
months within the UK area of responsibility, and development of a truly effective
means, both physical and conceptual, to ensure the long term accrual of local
information, its’ sharing and exploitation, remains a priority.68
Shortcomings in detailed local knowledge are however inherent to a certain degree in
any military campaign in which there is constant expansion into areas of little or no
previous control; an unavoidable consequence of spreading the remit of Afghan
governance throughout Helmand Province. As such, the nexus of the effort to improve
the consistency of UK stabilisation operations in Helmand, and the integration of
Influence within them, lies primarily in reducing the variation in approach between
deploying formations themselves; in short, institutionalising the endorsed approach to
Influence across the UK armed forces. Doctrine naturally has a key role in this
process, but its impact to date as the foundational basis for the conduct of operations
in Afghanistan has been muted. Firstly, until early this year it has followed, rather
than led the evolution of practice on the ground, mainly as a result of the pace of
change forced by the constantly changing demands of the Afghan stabilisation
environment. Secondly, the nature of its use in current operations reflects a long held
cultural tendency within the British military, and the British Army in particular, that
views doctrine not as the basic conceptual underpinning to unify thought and action,
but rather a set of guiding principles for flexible application according to local
conditions and the preference of individual commanders.69
66
Farrell, p.8; Mackay and Tatham, p.25; Barley, p.59-61.
Farrell, p.12 n.59.
68
Crapper, T ‘Enabling Operational Knowledge Management,’ RUSI Defence Systems, June 2009,
pp.64-6 outlines some of the challenges based on recent UK experience in Afghanistan. US evidence
points to a period of up to four months in theatre before a formation is able to effectively operate in the
information environment: Murphy, p.115 n.8.
69
For a more detailed discussion see Rose, P ‘British Army Command Culture 1939-1945,’ PhD
Thesis, King’s College London, March 2009.
67
17
Historically, the Army’s reliance on this pragmatic approach has not been
unsuccessful, even in major wars.70 But the lack of consistency it engenders between
different elements of the same force has impacted operational effectiveness, and now
impedes the securing of long term success in the current stabilisation campaign in
Southern Afghanistan, where the personality and preferences of individual
commanders still drives the approach to Influence, not doctrine.71 Clearly we are now
far from the observation made of sixty years ago that in the British Army ‘Tactics are
the opinion of the senior officer present and doctrine is something for quoting in
promotion exams.’72 But this statement still holds a certain ring of truth, one recent
study identifying ‘a lack of general awareness amongst junior [British] officers of the
military doctrine underpinning the types of military operations being routinely
conducted in Afghanistan.’73 To date, it is this more than any other factor that has
meant ‘the British military campaign in Helmand has really been a series of six-month
campaigns.’74
Current UK doctrine itself implicitly recognises and reflects its indifferent
organisational status. Illustrative of this point is the suggested, but not mandated, use
of Influence Activity Coordination Boards to articulate all non-kinetic activities with
brigade and battle group operations, and how this function is meshed with the normal
battle rhythm of formation and unit HQs remains the purview of individual
commanders.75 Other areas also witness a departure from endorsed ‘best practice,’
and the structures chosen to deliver Influence within Helmand remain at the time of
writing largely dictated by command preference and local expediency rather than
doctrine (although the latter, six months after publication, is gradually exerting a
standardising effect). Ad-hoc structures formed on a situation by situation basis are
not necessarily inefficient relative to the tasks they perform, but typically exacerbate
the other challenges to long term coherency experienced in the roulement of
formations in and out of Helmand Province.76 Doctrine should of course never
become dogma, but nor should an unhelpful variation of approach and organisation be
allowed to impede operational effectiveness and the overall achievement of campaign
outcomes.
Much has been written by serving British officers about the need to adopt the correct
institutional mindset to effectively prosecute counter-insurgency and stabilisation
operations.77 Yet the character of this enduring debate, focused on overturning
‘counter-productive’ warfighting approaches to those employing a balanced mix of
kinetic and non-kinetic activities, runs the risk of masking the real issue now at
70
See especially Palazzo, A Seeking Victory on the Western Front: The British Army and Chemical
Warfare in World War I (University of Nebraska Press, 2000).
71
Ibid; Interviews conducted for Dstl Influence and Strategic Communication study, 2009; Wenham,
p.51, details the importance of command climate in dictating the approach to Influence.
72
Kiszely, J ‘The British Army and Approaches to Warfare Since 1945,’ in Reid, B.H (ed.) Military
Power: Land Warfare in Theory and Practice (London, Frank Cass, 1997), p.185.
73
Harvey, C and Wilkinson, M ‘The Value of Doctrine,’ RUSI Journal, Vol.154, No.6, pp.26-31.
74
Farrell, p.8; Alderson, p.193 notes a similar linkage in UK operations in Iraq between the latitude
afforded deployed commanders and an absence of proper campaign continuity.
75
AFM, Vol.1, Pt.10, 6-10. Signally, this publication is intended for brigade commanders and below.
76
See for example ‘Household Cavalry keep Taliban on back foot,’ accessed www.mod.uk accessed 14
December 2009.
77
For example Barley, p.59; Mackay and Tatham, p.24.
18
stake.78 Whilst it is, and has been, important to lay bare the evolution of what is in
essence a fundamentally new approach to the design and conduct of military
operations when compared to the traditional estimate and planning cycle intended for
major combat, now that endorsed UK doctrine is essentially correct for the task for
which it is intended, this ongoing interchange, ‘selling’ the role of Influence, distracts
focus from the thorny issue of how this doctrine should be inculcated across the UK
armed forces, not just what it should look like.
MODELLING INFLUENCE AND STRATEGIC COMMUNICATION: A
TRAINING OPPORTUNITY
Operation MOSHTARAK provides a hopeful glimpse of the identifiable application
of UK stabilisation and counter-insurgency doctrine in the planning and execution of
a major regional offensive. But the fact that a recent study of 114 junior British
officers with counter-insurgency experience found that only 31 per cent had a sound
working knowledge of British stabilisation and counter-insurgency doctrine denotes
that much remains to be done in developing a common philosophy for the conduct of
operations in Afghanistan across the UK armed forces.79 It is as such not primarily
mindset or doctrine that requires change, but the effective merging of the two into
coherent, consistent practice across the whole force. Positively, a strategic
communication education program is now part of all UK staff courses held at the Joint
Services Command and Staff College: the eight week Initial Command and Staff
Course for Lieutenants and Captains; single year Advanced course (for Majors and
Lieutenant Colonels) and the Higher Command and Staff Course for senior officers.80
Yet it remains the combined efforts of formations rather than individuals that will
ultimately determine the success of the British stabilisation mission in Afghanistan.
And it is at this level of collective training that current MoD capabilities for modelling
the stabilisation environment present a particular opportunity.
The MoD stabilisation model suite currently consists of two primary elements,
developed and maintained by the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory
Stabilisation Study. The heart of this capability is the Peace Support Operations
Model (PSOM) Operational Game, a human in the loop computer-assisted
representation of the stabilisation environment at the campaign level (brigade and
below). Typically run over a distributed computer network by a small control team,
the Operational Game models the long-term effects on a multi-faceted civilian
population of the compound activities of player factions representative of the
stabilisation environment. These include the full range of foreign intervention and
host nation security forces, international bodies (such as the UN and EU), civilian
stabilisation and non-governmental organisations, plus non-aligned and adversary
non-state actors. Sitting above the Operational Game is the Strategic Interaction
Process. This provides a structured wargaming framework for each player faction to
formulate orders and intent, conduct theatre and strategic level media interaction and
78
Kinetic operations still retain a fundamental utility: see especially Simpson, pp.68-9; Westerman, I
‘JDP 3-40: New Doctrine for the Military Contribution to Security and Stabilisation in a Changing
World,’ BAR 146 (Spring 2009), p.34.
79
Farrell, p.1; Harvey and Wilkinson, p.29.
80
Dillegge, D ‘Strategic Communication Primer,’ Small Wars and Insurgencies blog 12 September
2009: http://smallwarsjournal.com/blog/2009/09/print/commander-steve-tatham-royal-n/.
19
key leader engagement. The outcomes of this process are inputted into the
Operational Game which, based on a 30 day time-step, produces population responses
by ethnic group to faction actions according to levels of threat, security and consent,
plus state functionality based on infrastructure and goods provision. Population
consent, modified by these other factors, is the primary metric for representing
Influence and the effects of non-kinetic activities. Within the current iteration of the
PSOM Operational Game, this includes information operations, civil-military
reconstruction and development activities, the Posture, Presence and Profile of
military units, plus intimidation and reassurance stances. Efforts are currently
underway to better reflect the complexity and centrality of Influence in current UK
operations in Afghanistan, as well as wider developments in British stabilisation and
counterinsurgency doctrine.81
The PSOM wargaming system can be used for a variety of analytical tasks, including
force structure and course of action analysis. But the future aspiration is to capitalise
upon its utility as a formation training tool for key military staff elements at brigade
level and above. Its use in this role has been demonstrated over the past twelve
months with the conduct of wargames involving elements of HQ 12 Mechanized
Brigade, 3 (UK) Division and representatives of other UK government departments. It
has also been successfully employed in a multinational context as part of HQ Allied
Rapid Reaction Corps Exercise ARRCADE FUSION 2009.82 In this training role,
PSOM offers an immersive and challenging cross-government context to test doctrine,
concepts and campaign plans against a range of dynamic adversaries, competing for
the consent of civilian populations in an evolving and complex stabilisation
environment in which it is appropriately hard to achieve success. By enabling key HQ
personnel, potentially as a structured, enduring part of pre-deployment training, and
by so doing develop understanding, test and rehearse concepts, operational plans and
procedures, PSOM affords the opportunity to play a role in spreading the consistency
of endorsed doctrinal best practice on Influence and strategic communication
throughout formations deploying to Afghanistan.
CONCLUSIONS
There now exists within the UK military a broad consensus view that places Influence
and strategic communication at the centre of the effort to gain popular support for the
aims and objectives of ISAF and their Afghan partners in Southern Afghanistan. The
organisational structures to achieve Influence over this strategic centre of gravity – for
UK forces the rural population within Helmand Province – are now largely in place
within deploying British formations; as is the conceptual foundation of endorsed
doctrine to drive and inform their employment. Achieving Influence in a contested
and challenging stabilisation environment takes time, and whilst there is a clearly
81
Body, H Peace Support Operations Model (PSOM): Philosophy, Concepts and Systems Description,
Justification and Source. (Unpublished Dstl Report, 2009). Development work is currently focused on
improved media representation in the strategic level game, plus the representation of Influence specific
force elements – TPTs, NKETs, MSSTs etc.- their activities and effects, in the operational game.
82
There is also potential for similar use within the US, with the wargame held and used under
collaborative agreement by the Office of the Secretary of Defense Joint Staff, the United States
Military Academy at West Point, and the Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey.
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identifiable need for what has been termed ‘operational patience,’ to allow for its
effects and impact to be realised, time, politically and practically, is not on the side of
UK forces, their Afghan partners, or international allies.83 Despite the success of
recent operations in maximising Influence effect as an avowed priority, driving their
design and execution, changing popular perceptions in Southern Afghanistan and
sustaining the political basis of the campaign more broadly remains a difficult
prospect. Stern challenges are posed by the complex human environment, agility of
adversary information efforts, complexities of current UK structures for delivering the
higher level campaign narrative, and above all, a lack of coherency in the approach of
different British formations rotating through Helmand Province. Combined with these
other considerations, this latter factor disrupts the continuity on the ground required to
build and sustain enduring effect among the critical target audience; Afghan civilians
themselves.
It is in this critical area that the UK stabilisation modelling capability, in the form of
the population centric PSOM wargame, exists as an untapped resource to aid in the
uniform inculcation of endorsed doctrinal practices across successively deploying
military formations. Presenting a proven mechanism for the conduct of higher tactical
and operational level training, within a complex, cross-government stabilisation
context, the PSOM wargaming system has the aim and potential to reduce the
variation in approach to Influence that has characterised, and to a certain degree
undermined, its application by British forces in Southern Afghanistan since 2006. In
this way, and with the admixture of other efforts to address the organisational
shortcomings in delivering effective strategic communication from the highest
national level to that of deployed formations, Influence can be placed in its rightful
and appropriate doctrinal place; as the driver of integrated and enduring efforts to
maximise the achievement of campaign aims in Afghanistan, not as a transitory
abstraction to them.
*
*
*
*
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This paper is based upon the Dstl Stabilisation Study research into Influence and
Strategic Communication conducted during 2009 and 2010. The author gratefully
acknowledges the contribution of Dr Gemma Warren and the support of Colin
Marston, Howard Body and Tony Hopkin of the Defence Science and Technology
Laboratory Policy and Capability Studies Department.
83
Farrell, pp.9-10.
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