Foul WX Underground: The Dynamics of Resistance and the Analog Logic of Communication during a Digital Blackout

摘要

The current inter-agency doctrinal tools to integrate the decision- sharing elements of battle command at the operational level for defense support to civil authority operations are inadequate under conditions of extremely degraded communications. The rapidly integrated, often ad hoc, civil-military command structures suffer an over-reliance on the availability of digital connectivity to overcome basic frictions of organizational culture. We are not prepared for a digital blackout. Under the conditions of a catastrophic incident within the United States, the prospect is high for a period of 'command and confusion' immediately following a natural disaster or a major event of suspicious origin, such as an industrial accident or cascading failure of a majorpower grid. This work examines domestic incident response and defense support to civil authority through the tensions between joint military doctrine, namely Joint Publication 3-28 Civil Support, and interagency guidance, articulated in the National Incident Management System. Doctrine acts as the institutional system of record for organizational decision-making on how to view and how to approach the problem of contested disaster response.