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1 [1] (November 29, 2024)

handle is hein.crs/goverlt0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Congressionol Research Service Informing the IegisI9tive debate since 1914 Updated November 29, 2024 Defense Primer: Operations in the Information Environment Information as a joint Function In 2017, Joint Publication (JP) 1 Doctrine of the Armed Forces of the United States was updated to establish information as the seventh joint function of the military, along with command and control, intelligence, fires, movement and maneuver, protection, and sustainment. This designation has necessitated clarification and revisions in some Department of Defense (DOD) doctrine. Information Warfare While there is currently no official United States government (USG) definition of information warfare (IW), DOD doctrine may use the term information warfare to describe the mobilizing of information to attain a competitive advantage and achieve United States (US) policy goals. Some DOD doctrine defines IW not as a strategy but as a subset of OIE conducted during both competition below armed conflict and during warfighting in order to dominate the IE at a specific place and time. The U.S. military contributes to information warfare by deliberately leveraging the inherent informational aspects of activities and by conducting operations in the information environment. Operations in the Information Environment According to the 2022 JP 3-04 Information in Joint Operations, Operations in the Information Environment (OIE) involve the integrated employment of multiple information forces to affect drivers of behavior by informing audiences; influencing foreign relevant actors; attacking and exploiting relevant actor information, information networks, and information systems; and protecting friendly information, information networks, and information systems. OIE activities take place within the information environment (IE), defined 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. Strategic communication, public diplomacy and public and civil affairs, and cyberspace operations may be integrated and employed by information forces. These efforts may take place in and throughout each of the global domains of air, land, sea, space, and cyberspace, and in various forms unrelated to cyberspace, such as dropping pamphlets, cultural exchanges, jamming or broadcasting targeted communications, and foreign aid programs. All instruments of national power-diplomatic, informational, military, and economic (DIME)-can be projected and employed in the information environment, and by nonmilitary elements of the federal government. Strategy for Operations in the Information Envronment The 2022 National Defense Strategy (NDS) places these activities in the context of the gray zone, coercive actions below the threshold of a military response and across USG areas of responsibility. With an eye toward the NDS, the 2023 Strategy for Operations in the Information Environment aims to improve the DOD's ability to plan, resource, and apply informational power to enable integrated deterrence, campaigning, and building enduring advantages. The NDS describes use of the electromagnetic spectrum across all domains, as well as integration with whole-of-government informational advantages to achieve these strategic goals. History of O1E In 2018, DOD issued a Joint Concept for Operations in the Information Environment. According to this document, the IE comprises and aggregates numerous social, cultural, cognitive, technical, and physical attributes that act upon and affect knowledge, understanding, beliefs, world views, and, ultimately, actions of an individual, group, system, community, or organization. Corresponding DOD policy defined OIE as actions taken to generate, preserve, and apply informational power against a relevant actor in order to increase or protect competitive advantage or combat power potential within all domains of the operating environment. OIE span the competition continuum (cooperation, competition short of armed conflict, and warfighting). This definition of the continuum aligned with the 2018 National Defense Strategy, which emphasized information warfare as competition short of open warfare. Information Operations Past definitions within DOD have conceptualized IO as a purely military activity involving a set of tactics or capabilities. In earlier iterations of DOD JP 3-13 Information Operations, IO consisted of five pillars: computer network operations (CNO), which include computer network attack, computer network defense, and computer network exploitation; psychological operations (PSYOP); electronic warfare (EW); operations security (OPSEC); and military deception (MILDEC). With the advent of U.S. Cyber Command, CNO became cyberspace operations, offensive and defensive with its own doctrine in JP 3-12. In 2010, PSYOP became military information support operations (MISO), to reflect a broader range of activities and the existing Military Information Support Teams consisting of PSYOP personnel deployed at U.S. embassies overseas. JP 3-13.2 Military Information Support Operations replaced the term PSYOP with MISO to more accurately reflect and convey the nature of planned peacetime or combat operations activities. The name change reportedly caused administrative confusion, and some services reverted to the PSYOP label.

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