Human aspects of Air Force operations : the roles of social, cultural, and political knowledge and skills in the full spectrum of multidomain operations / Kirsten M. Keller, David E. Thaler, Kathleen Reedy, Caroline Baxter, Ryan Haberman, William Mackenzie, Miriam Matthews, Phillip Padilla, Yuliya Shokh.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Keller, Kirsten M., author.

Thaler, David E., author.

Reedy, Kathleen, author.

Baxter, Caroline, author.

Haberman, Ryan, author.

Mackenzie, William, author.

Matthews, Miriam (Behavioral scientist), author.

Padilla, Phillip, author.

Shokh, Yuliya, author.

Contributor:

Project Air Force (U.S.). Manpower, Personnel, and Training Program.

Rand Corporation.

United States. Air Force.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Military art and science--United States.

Military art and science.

Sociology, Military--United States.

Sociology, Military.

Armed Forces--Planning.

United States.

United States. Air Force--Planning.

United States. Air Force.

Other Title:

Human Aspects of Air Force Operations

Place of Publication:

Santa Monica, Calif. RAND Corporation 2020

Summary:

Countering emerging threats is not based solely on defeating a nation-state's military forces by conventional, kinetic means. Fundamentally, these threats are met by understanding and manipulating the human aspects that drive the adversary's ideological narrative within the target population. Understanding how local populations and foreign governments, and partner and adversary military forces, will read and react to different stimuli is essential to operating in the competition space. Consequently, it is important that the U.S. military understand the human aspects of military operations; or the social, cultural, physical, informational, and psychological elements that determine partner nations' and adversaries' motivations, thinking, influence, activities, and recruitment. The special operations community has focused on leveraging human-focused capabilities, but the conventional Air Force has yet to fully embrace human aspects of military operations. In this report, the authors explore whether there is a need for a joint warfighting domain focused on human aspects of military operations, and they consider how sociocultural knowledge and skills related to human aspects of war could be better integrated into conventional Air Force multi-domain operations. The authors offer insights into how the Air Force can institutionally prioritize human aspects in its culture, improve the human-aspects–related knowledge and skills of its airmen, and develop regional expertise. The authors conclude that, instead of creating a separate human domain of operations, the services and the Joint Force should focus on better integrating human aspects of military operations.

Contents:

Introduction

Precedent and Need for a Human Domain

Current Status of Human-Focused Capabilities in the U.S. Air Force

Frameworks for Integrating Human-Aspects Considerations from Other U.S. Military Services and Foreign Military Partners

Deepening Understanding of Human Aspects in Military Operations Within the Air Force

Conclusion and Recommendations

Appendix A: Interview Methods and Participants

Appendix B: Definition and Characteristics of a Warfighting Domain.