"Avoiding a Napoleonic Ulcer: Bridging the Gap of..." Topic

… CULTURAL INTELLIGENCE (OR, HAVE WE FOCUSED ON THE WRONG TRANSFORMATION?)

"Cultural intelligence preparation of the battle space (IPB), with a focus on the post-hostilities landscape is as important, if not more so, than traditional intelligence preparation of the battle space, which has historically monopolized the intelligence effort. Contemporary challenges in post-hostilities Iraq have several parallels with Napoleon's disastrous campaign on the Iberian Peninsula nearly two centuries ago. Alone and in concert, these campaigns highlight that an inordinate focus on armies to the detriment of a proper focus on the people has, and will continue to make, winning the peace infinitely more difficult than winning the war.

If political objectives are to be achieved, the U. S. military must accept the fact that the post-hostilities environment is central to campaign design. Preventing the emergence of a strategic gap between decisive combat operations and the immediate requirement to perform stability and support operations lies squarely on the shoulders of the joint and/or combined force and must be intelligence driven.

Bridging the cultural intelligence gap will require three steps: The first is the acceptance that that history is important and the recognition that it holds clues that will shed light on cultural intelligence requirements. The second step should be a culturally-oriented addition to the intelligence series within joint doctrine, focused on "the people". The third step builds on the previous two and stresses holistic backward planning that achieves intelligence leverage in the post-hostilities phase of a campaign…"
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Amicalement
Armand

"holistic backward planning"

Boo – ha!

Reasoning by analogy is the worst kind of attempt at social science, and it doesn't get better at greater length.

Not sure military planning was that "developed" at the beginning of the 19th century?

(smile)

Amicalement
Armand