Applying the Domains of Conflict to Information Operations

Military information operations IO are about information and its use as a means to fight an adversary. Fundamental to the use of information as a military capability, or perhaps even a weapon, is an understanding of the information environment and its utility to armed forces. However, several key concepts underpinning the conduct of military operations in the information environment are too abstract for practical application by operational and tactical level armed forces. As a result, commanders and staffs frequently relegate activities to affect the information environment to the realms of the esoteric or impractical. Recent work conducted by the Department of Defenses DoD Command and Control Research Program CCRP provides a useful basis for visualizing the structure and characteristics of the information environment. Of particular utility is a model that describes three domains of conflict the physical, information, and cognitive. Initially used to describe decision-making, this model, when combined with the two primary views of information- information-as-message and information-as-medium provides a useful framework for describing how information can be used to support military operations. To execute an information operation, a military force conducts activities to affect and protect information systems and networks in the physical domain. These actions are synchronized to affect information content, flow, and use in the information domain. The result is an information advantage that, in turn, generates effects to influence adversary and other organizations decision-making in the cognitive domain and subsequent actions in the physical domain. This paper explores the relevance of the CCRPs three-domain model to military IO. By applying the model to the doctrinal concepts of information environment, information superiority, and information operations, a view of IO emerges that field commands can use to convert doctrinal concepts into practical action.