5 Things To Know About The Pentagon’s Information Strategy
Jill Goldenziel
Nov 30, 2023,11:35pm EST
The U.S. Department of Defense released its new Strategy for Operations in the Information Environment. signed by Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin in July, and this strategy represents the department’s first strategic update since 2016. Here’s what to know about the new strategy—and what’s missing:
We All Live In An Information Environment
The DoD defines the information environment as the “aggregate of social, cultural, linguistic, psychological, technical, and physical factors that affect how humans and automated systems derive meaning from, act upon, and are impacted by information, including the individuals, organizations, and systems that collect, process, disseminate or use information.” Operations in the Information Environment may include military actions that employ multiple information forces to affect others’ behavior, influencing foreign actors, attacking and exploiting information about relevant actors, networks, and systems; and protecting friendly information, networks, and systems. OIE is a concept broader than “information operations.”
Information operations involve the employment of information-related capabilities during military operations to affect an adversary’s behavior or protect U.S. military efforts. The term OIE reflects a broadening of the department’s thinking about the ways that it, together with the Department of State and other Government agencies, can employ information as an instrument of national power—and ways that U.S. adversaries use information against it. As the DoD explores the best ways to integrate informational power, each service has organized its information-related capabilities and relevant terminology somewhat differently. The Marine Corps, for example, stopped using the term OIE in favor of “information warfighting function.”
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jillgoldenziel/2023/11/30/5-things-to-know-about-the-pentagons-information-strategy/?sh=4a9428d41308
