How to win and know it: an effects-based approach to irregular warfare

• Main Author: Sullivan, Michael P.
• Other Authors: Gustaitis, Peter J.
• Published: Monterey, California. Naval Postgraduate School 2012
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10945/3048

The United States is entering its seventh year of the Global War on Terror and continues to struggle with irregular war. As the Department of Defense's lead for Irregular Warfare (IW), U.S. Special Operations Command co-authored the Irregular Warfare (IW) Joint Operating Concept (JOC) Version 1.0 with the U.S. Marine Corps Combat Development Command in order to "outline a holistic U.S. Government and partner nation approach to IW." The concept establishes the need to integrate all instruments of national power in order to enable a joint force commander to successfully conduct a protracted IW campaign against state and non-state actors. The end state is a joint force with enhanced capability for IW and a balanced approach to warfighting. To succeed in IW the commander and staff need a campaign planning system that answers two primary questions: "How do you effectively focus on controlling or influencing populations?" and, "How do you measure your efforts in IW?" The answer maybe a "marriage" of an effects-based thinking with the concepts outlined in the new IW JOC. This thesis will analyze the potential of such a concept utilizing a case study of Special Operations Command Pacific's own effects-based approach to the War on Terror.