Civil Information and Intelligence Fusion: Making 'Non-Traditional' into 'New Traditional' for the JTF Commander

摘要

In today's operational environment, theorists and practitioners of irregular warfare (IW) realize that understanding the civilian population is as critical to a successful campaign as traditional intelligence. Still, civil information is not universally accessible by intelligence professionals and intelligence organizations frequently do not dedicate enough effort to support the process of integrating unclassified civil information (e.g. religion, values, economy, infrastructure, etc) into the intelligence picture presented to the JTF Commander. In every theater, Commanders have developed non-doctrinal organizations uniquely suited to their mission in an effort to integrate socio- cultural information into military decision-making processes. A prime example of a non-traditional organization is the Stability Operations Information Centers (SOICs) within the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) structure in Afghanistan; however, their practices are only institutionalized locally. Civil affairs and special operations units have consistently and effectively found ways to address civil information requirements, but their tactics, techniques and procedures are not a part of doctrine for general purpose forces. This dilemma is partly caused by doctrinal and cultural resistance in the intelligence community and throughout the DoD.