tury, Defense planners ignored the characteristics of
RC staffing and modeled deployments on AC patterns. Whether “leaning forward” or “running to the
sound of the guns,” short-war mentalities run the risk
of squandering limited resources.
Lessons Learned or (at least) Observed
In 2012, the Joint and Coalition Operational Analysis (JCOA) division of the Joint Staff published Enduring Lessons from the Past Decade of Operations, expected
to be volume 1 of a series, Decade of War.2 The publication compiled themes derived from 46 studies, highlighting four key changes in the strategic environment
and identifying eleven strategic themes. Of the key
changes, two are of particular interest to CA: (1) the
shift from U.S. hegemony to multipolar concentrations of power and (2) an emphasis on the information
domain. All eleven strategic themes are relevant to
CA, but seven are particularly so:
• Understanding the Environment
• Battle for the Narrative
• Transitions
• Special Operations Forces (SOF)–General Purpose Forces (GPF) Integration
• Interagency Coordination
• Coalition Operations, and
• Host-Nation Partnering
Of the seven, Colonel (ret.) James Ruf highlighted
the four italicized . Regarding the operational environment, Ruf stressed not only understanding the nation
that is the target of an intervention, but also aware11