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CA 05
Supplementary Memorandum submitted by Professor Theo Farrell, Department of War Studies, King's College London
1. This memorandum follows up on a key theme that emerged in my oral evidence before the Defence Select Committee on 9 June, namely, the degree of support amongst serving British officers for the Comprehensive Approach. In my testimony, I cited from memory two surveys that I had conducted which provided some data on this question. This memorandum provides that data.
2. Both surveys were designed by myself and
Professor Terry Terriff (
3. The first survey was of British officers
at the Joint Services Command and Staff College (JSCSC), Shrivenham, from March
to May 2007. 138 officers responded to the survey; 60% of these were Army
officers and 66% were middle ranking officers (major or equivalent). The second
survey was a larger survey of European officers at the
4. Each survey asked 15 questions about military transformation. One question asked about the effects based approach to operations. Officers were asked for their views on the proposition that the future of operations would involve an 'holistic approach', involving a 'mix of military and non-military instruments', and directed towards 'strategic effects.' In the NATO survey, 86% agreed with this proposition, including 86% of British officers (see p. 4). In the JSCSC survey, 88% of officers agreed with this proposition (see p. 5). This is an extraordinarily positive result.
5. Finally, I should like to emphasize what I said in my oral evidence, that British officer attitudes to the Comprehensive Approach need to be viewed in the context of the effects-based approach to operations (EBAO). Hence, our surveys asked officers for their view on EBAO but in so doing it also tests their view on the Comprehensive Approach.
6. EBAO concepts and doctrine developed in Britain between 2004-2008, driven by two factors: (1) lessons learned from operations in Bosnia (1992-1995), Kosovo (1999), Sierra Leone (2000-01), and Iraq (2003 on) which highlighted the need for a more integrated multidisciplinary and multi-agency approach to operations; and (2) new effects-based operations (EBO) ideas and doctrine emerging from the United States in the early 2000s.
7.
8. In August 2009, US Joint Forces Command
(USJFCOM) formally abandoned EBO doctrine. This is because the new commander of
USJFCOM, General James Mattis, felt that the attempt to develop a scientific
approach to operations was a dangerous illusion and damaging to joint command
and operational effectiveness. The UK's Development, Concepts and Doctrine
Centre (DCDC), also under a new commander, Major General Paul Newton, has
likewise abandoned Britain's EBAO doctrine, in part because of the unhelpful
association with the now discredited EBO doctrine. However, the underlying
philosophy from EBAO, of the need to focus on generating and measuring
non-kinetic as well as kinetic effects, and to integrate kinetic and
non-kinetic activities in a coherent approach to operations, has been retained.
Indeed, it lies at the heart of DCDC's new Joint Doctrine Publication 3-40,
'Security and Stabilisation: The Military Contribution.'
Responses by Country
Survey
of
'Future operations will be characterized by a holistic approach, involving a mix of military and non-military instruments, and directed towards achieving strategic effects'
Survey of Joint
Services Command and March-May 2007
Number of respondents = 138
11 June 2009
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