Gaps in understanding impede close coordination between the two communities and lead to missed opportunities and reduced operational effectiveness.ĭoctrine and policy are still catching up with the demands of operating in the IE and do not address many of the challenges that U.S. Conversely, IO practitioners must be familiar with intelligence resources and processes for how information is collected, analyzed, and disseminated. To support IO practitioners, intelligence personnel must be familiar with the types of information that are relevant to OIE. For example, IO practitioners may have difficulty drafting actionable requests for intelligence, and intelligence personnel may have difficulty fulfilling these requests as a result. A primary reason is a lack of shared processes, common lexicon, and understanding of what the other community does. There is friction between the intelligence and IO communities over whose responsibility it is to collect the information and conduct the analyses necessary to support OIE. Gaps in Awareness and Understanding of Roles and Responsibilities The first capability is the responsibility of intelligence practitioners and the second is the responsibility of IO practitioners. But countering adversaries in the IE requires both a clear understanding of the environment and an ability to conduct operations in and through the IE. Numerous changes to policy and doctrine have emphasized the importance of leveraging the inherent informational aspects of military operations, illustrated by the elevation of information to the status of a joint function. What distinguishes them is how each community compiles, sorts, analyzes, and uses information. military operations, and information is the essence of both communities. interests.īoth intelligence and information efforts have long been core components of U.S. In the meantime, near-peer competitors are actively engaged in the IE, investing in capabilities and waging information campaigns that threaten U.S. These shortfalls are compounded by a lack of coordination and understanding between the information operations (IO) and intelligence communities, hindering the ability to strategically plan and conduct OIE. Defense intelligence organizations excel in providing detailed enemy orders of battle and other related and valuable products, but many of these products fail to encompass important aspects of the IE. Yet, there is still not sufficient appreciation across the joint force for what these operations can contribute. Department of Defense, accompanied by growing awareness of operations in the IE (OIE) and the effects they generate.

There has been a recent surge in interest in the information environment (IE) across the U.S.

Potential solutions will require improving processes, prioritizing support for OIE and associated capability integration, expanding training and education opportunities for personnel involved with OIE, and allocating personnel appropriately.

Intelligence and information operations professionals need to work together to address these challenges.Challenges to meeting the intelligence needs of OIE fall into six categories: coordination and collaboration, division of labor, missing expertise, prioritization, gaps in concepts or doctrine, and intelligence authorities.The information operations community needs to increase understanding and awareness of operations in the information environment (OIE) within the intelligence community to bring about improvements in how these operations are planned and conducted.

Army intelligence support activity