Chapter 1: 21st Century Strategic Environment

This page is a section of TC 7-102 Operational Environment and Army Learning.

The strategic environment remains as it has always been―complex. The current strategic environment seems more ambiguous, presenting multiple layers of complexity and a multiplicity of actors challenging the Army with requirements beyond traditional warfighting skills and training. A wide-range of actors across current and projected environments–friendly and neutrals, malicious actors, and threats–will interact often in an uncoordinated manner to produce a complex environment. Neutral or even friendly actors act in accord with organizational goals that may be contrary to U.S. national interests and cause friction. Malicious actors use violence in pursuit of their goals and will potentially challenge U.S. national interests and vulnerabilities. Threats will use this complexity to their advantage and often employ hybrid strategies. This multiplicity of actors will continue to operate across operational environments during the foreseeable future.

Strategic Environment Awareness

The strategic environment is the set of general conditions, circumstances, and influences throughout the world that can affect military operations. It is the global environment in which the President of the United States employs all the instruments of national power. This environment is essentially the sum of all the operational environments in which commanders and units could find themselves conducting decisive action operations. The strategic environment (SE) contains multiple OEs. (See figure 1-1.)

Figure 1-1. Operational environment definition

The Army participates in many distinct OEs and simultaneous decisive action operations in the overarching SE. Conflict, post-conflict or failed state, humanitarian, disaster relief, and support  and reconstruction operations will often occur simultaneously in the same OE. Such operations will require increased coordination and integration with a range of civilian domestic and international organizations. U.S. forces will interact with nongovernment organizations (NGOs), private voluntary organizations (PVOs), and humanitarian relief organizations (HROs). Training, education, and leader development venues must replicate these conditions as a dynamic, complex, and often uncertain environment.

The Army training or curriculum developer understands the training and education charter to develop and implement the best possible institutional experiences, within available resources, to improve and sustain the competence, confidence, and capabilities of Army Soldiers, leaders, civilians, and units or organizations for decisive action in the 21st century. These institutional and operational opportunities are challenging in an era of constrained and austere resources. Nonetheless, the Army training, education, and leader development programs and initiatives must prepare Soldiers, leaders, civilians, and units or organizations to adapt rapidly to complex situations across the range of military operations in operational environments that can vary greatly from each other. The training and curriculum developer must tailor the conditions of a learning environment to provide the rigor appropriate to the stated task/action and standard.

The characteristics of conditions within an operational environment (OE) are constantly evolving. An OE exhibits complexity, volatility, uncertainty, instability, and ambiguity in events that change in speed, pace, and tempo. Complex terrain and urban environments will often limit the use of U.S. Army and unified action capabilities in mission conduct. Rules of engagement (ROE) can further limit how and when capabilities may or will be used. Myriad hybrid threats will emerge, expand, and/or recede in impact on military operations. Cyber attack is an increasingly critical threat to information technology infrastructure and the ability to effectively execute mission command. Adversaries and enemies will attempt to shape an operational environment to their advantage by changing the nature of the conflict and employing capabilities for which U.S. Army forces are at a disadvantage. Throughout this dynamic environment, human aspects of an OE are factors that must be considered in order for the Army to effectively “prevent, shape, and win.” Shaping an Army learning process embeds these types of complex environments, known and projected threats, and decisionmaking experiences.

Operational Environment Understanding

An operational environment is a composite of the conditions, circumstances, and influences that affect the employment of capabilities and bear on the decisions of the commander (JP 3-0). Each operational environment includes the dynamics of organizational leaders and members acting and reacting to a particular set of conditions, circumstances, and influences. The interaction of the human dimension among a combination of variables defines the nature and characteristics of the operational environment.

An OE is a complex system driven by human behavior, founded in human needs and desires, and framed by culture. Conceptually, a complex operational environment is composed of many actors rapidly interacting in many different ways and evidenced by structural and interactive complexity. The expectations that govern the interactions are sometimes ambiguous and may be opaque to external actors without a deep understanding of the culture and supporting narratives. There can be clear linkage between operational variables, but often there is no consistent proportional relationship between actions and outputs in an operational environment. This non-linear relationship can cause large reactions to small actions, and elevate what U.S. forces may perceive initially as trivial to critical in nature and impact. Rapid evolution in unforeseen ways recognizes human behavior can be visible but often is not explainable without an understanding of operational variables and the context of the interactions of those variables.

There are multiple actors, individual and organizational, in an OE. While many are generally neutral or friendly, some actors qualify as threats. Other actors, while malicious, may lack either the intent or capability to harm U.S. forces. Neutral or friendly actors will act in accord with organizational or personal imperatives that may be contrary to U.S. objectives. Malicious actors or organizations will often use violence in pursuit of their goals and create significant OE challenges for U.S. forces.

Mission Command and Warfighting Functions Integration

Army training and education must embed mission command principles and the effective conduct of warfighting functions in its training, education, and self-development. Mission command requires operational environment understanding that the nature of unified land operations is conducted in complex, ever-changing and uncertain OE. A developer uses these primary concepts, grounded in approved Army doctrine, to ensure the quality of adaptive and timely training and education of the Army Soldier, leader, and civilian. Embracing mission command and the warfighting functions are fundamental to how the Army operates and Army Soldiers, leaders, and civilians achieve assigned and implied missions.

Figure 1-2. Warfighting functions and elements of combat power

The mission command philosophy is the exercise of authority and direction by the commander using mission orders to enable disciplined initiative within the commander’s intent  to empower agile  and adaptive leaders  in the conduct of unified land operations (ADP 6-0 and ADRP 6-0). The mission command warfighting function (WfF) is the related mission command tasks and systems that develop and integrate those activities enabling a commander to balance the art of command and the science of control in order  to integrate  the  other  warfighting functions  (mission  command,  movement  and maneuver, intelligence, fires, sustainment, and protection as the five primary elements of combat power) (ADP 6-0). (See figure 1-2 for an illustration of the six WfF.) Mission command is the central warfighting function.

Operational Environment Analysis

The framework of OE analysis provides the training and curriculum developer with a holistic, scalable, and flexible method with which to generate an understanding of an operational environment. The framework applies the eight operational variables to a specific operational environment, a group of operational environments, or the strategic environment. The concept of analysis has applications in operations, training, education, leader development, concepts and capabilities development, and doctrine development. The operational environment framework of analysis can be applied to all levels of learning.

Army Doctrine Publication (ADP) 3-0 and Army Doctrine Reference Publication (ADRP) 3-0 describe the OE in terms of eight operational variables. By applying the operational variables to a specific operational environment, the training and curriculum developers, in cooperation with subject matter experts, gain a holistic and detailed understanding of that OE. Analysis continues systemically to identify existing and potential relationships among aspects of each of the operational variables in order to gain a holistic view of the OE. Those operational variables, often framed with the acronym PMESII-PT, are―

• Political.
• Military.
• Economic.
• Social.
• Infrastructure.
• Information.
• Physical terrain.
• Time.

Army institutions and operating forces may use these eight operational variables to better understand, analyze, and intuit the broad environmental impacts on their missions. ADP 7-0 and ADRP 7-0 establish “understanding of the OE” as one of the 11 Army principles of unit training. Integrating OE conditions provides commanders the full range of experiences needed to produce trained units and capable leaders. Commanders build the training environment based on an actual, mission defined OE or an expected OE. The actual or expected OE is described based on analysis of current and probable conditions within a country or region. The Decisive Action Training Environment (DATE), posted on the Army Training Network (ATN), presents a composite of conditions for training of U.S. forces. For example, an Army organization that is regionally aligned with Africa Command (AFRICOM) may design a training environment focused on a specific known or likely area of deployment within a single country, or the commander could design an environment that is a composite of conditions throughout a part of the area of responsibility (AOR). Regardless of what OE training or education venues portray, conditions must replicate expected operational environment challenges and opportunities as realistically as possible.

A leader development environment can be a representation of any one OE or a composite of multiple OEs. The Army Leader Development Strategy (ALDS) 2013 charters an emphasis on developing leaders to succeed in the challenges and opportunities of current and future OE. A versatile arrangement of conditions using the operational variables can offer planned as well as contingent tasks and adaptive learning among multiple tactical, operational, and strategic settings. The Army Training Strategy widens a leadership perspective for the broad range of missions that Army leaders must be ready to conduct adaptively with doctrine-based understanding, disciplined initiative and prudent risktaking, and mission command.

The purpose of OE integration in training, education, and leader development is to produce a force of leaders, soldiers, civilians, and units capable of rapidly adapting and optimizing capabilities to achieve mission objectives. The current and future realities are complex and ever-changing environments within which the Army does and will conduct operations. Complexities include but are not limited to factors, considerations, and assumptions on―

• Mission.
• Essential and critical tasks (CTs).
• Known and anticipated threat forces and capabilities.
• Available friendly forces and capabilities.
• Operational land area in rural and urban configurations, and maritime, air, cyber, and space impacts.
• Relevant population, civil considerations, and demographic data.
• Limitations and constraints on military operations.

Operational Variables

One method in dealing with the OE is to use the Army’s doctrinal framework to analyze across eight operational variables. The framework is a baseline to analyze an operational environment. These variables and the interactions among variables determine the nature of a particular operational environment. By studying the variables to a specific operational environment, the training and curriculum developer appreciates the conditions in the environment in which a task/action is to be achieved. The following description of each operational variable and selected example questions can initiate OE analysis by the developer and indicate related issues to research how a variable will be further developed and impact as conditions for a task/action.

Political

The political variable describes the distribution of responsibility and power at all levels of governance—formally constituted authorities as well as informal or covert political powers. This variable discusses all relevant political conditions within the operational environment, as well as associated regional and global political conditions. The political variable answers the following sample questions:

• What is the effectiveness and legitimacy of the current government?
• What political parties are present in the OE?
• What are the current domestic political issues?
• What are the most vulnerable sub-cultures in the OE?
• What is the attitude of the population, and political and military leadership toward the U.S.?

Military

The military variable explores the military and/or paramilitary capabilities of all relevant actors (enemy, friendly, and neutral) in a selected operational environment. Analysis includes organizational structure and equipment holdings for capabilities and limitations. Sample questions of the military variable are:

• What is the composition of the military force(s) operating across the OE?
• What threat actors are operating in the OE?
• How will threat actors use a local populace in their operations?
• What military capability does each threat actor and coalition and friendly force possess?
• What are the limitations of the military capabilities possessed by each threat/actor and the potential to exploit those limitations?

Economic

The economic variable encompasses individual and group behaviors related to producing, distributing, and consuming resources across an OE. Interaction means include physical or electronic communications and transfer. Analysis considers influences outside an OE that affect the economic status of the specified OE. The economic variable addresses the following sample questions:

• What illegal economic activities occur in the OE?
• What is the basis of the economy? (agriculture, manufacturing, technology, etc.)
• What is nature of the banking system?

Social

The social variable describes the cultural, religious, and ethnic composition within an OE. Analysis includes beliefs, values, customs, and behaviors of society members. The social variable addresses the following sample questions:

• What is the cultural makeup of the OE?
• How is the population distributed?
• How many internally displaced persons (IDPs) and refugees are in the OE?
• What is the religious and ethnic diversity in the OE?

Information

The information variable depicts the nature, scope, and effects of individuals, organizations, and systems that collect, process, disseminate, or act on information. The information environment considers the formal and informal communication means among people, as well as the use of a global information environment effect on a particular OE. Sample issues for the information variable are:

• What are the nature and contact demographics of the public communications media?
• How controlled or open is the information environment?
• What threat information warfare (INFOWAR) capabilities are used in the specified OE?

Infrastructure

The infrastructure variable portrays the basic facilities, services, and installations needed for the functioning of a community or society. The degree of macro- or micro- details depends on the fidelity required to present conditions in support of a task/action. The infrastructure variable addresses the following sample questions:

• What are the common construction patterns?
• What utilities are present and operational?
• What transportation networks exist?

Physical Environment

The physical environment variable explains the geography and man-made structures. Other necessary considerations are the climate and weather of an OE. Sample issues for the physical environment variable include:

• What types of terrain exist within the OE?
• What types of weather conditions are likely to occur during a mission context?
• What natural disasters are most likely to occur in this OE?

Time

The time variable describes the timing and duration of activities, events, or conditions within an OE, as well as how timing and duration are perceived by various actors within the operational environment. Time is a constant. The time variable addresses the following sample questions:

• What are the key dates, time periods, or events?
• What is the cultural perception of time?

Subvariables of the Eight Operational Variables

1-24. Each of the eight operational variables has associated subvariables or subordinate categories of interest. The degree to which each subvariable provides useful information relevant to a particular OE depends on the situation and training-education-leader development requirement task/action. (See table 1-1 for aspects of variables and subvariables.)

Table 1-1. Operational variables and subvariables (2014)

Political Attitudes toward the U.S. Centers of political power Type of government Government effectiveness Government legitimacy Influential political groups	Military Military forces Government paramilitary forces Non-state paramilitary forces Unarmed combatants Nonmilitary armed combatants Military functions	Economic Economic diversity Employment status Economic activity Illegal economic activity Banking
Social Demographic mix Social volatility Education level Ethnic diversity Religious diversity Population movement Common languages Criminal activity Human rights Diseases Centers of social power Cultural norms and values	Infrastructure Construction pattern Urban zones Utilities present Services Transportation architecture	Information Public communications media Information warfare (INFOWAR) Intelligence apparatus Information management
Physical Environment Terrain Natural hazards Climate Weather	Time Cultural perception of time Measurement of Time Key dates, Key time periods, Key events

Training and Education Integration of Operational Variables

Army training and education integrates the manifestations, observations, insights, and lessons learned from deployed forces in OEs for training events, education forums, and leader development activities. Potential adversaries continue to learn and adapt to U.S. operations. Not all of the enemies Army forces may confront subscribe to the accepted rules of warfare or the U.S. value system. When these facts are combined with other factors that affect decisive action, leaders and units face operational conditions that demand perceptive situational awareness and keen situational understanding in prudent risk-taking and deliberate decisions and actions.

In understanding an OE, training developers focus on defining, analyzing, and synthesizing the characteristics of each of the operational variables as it relates to the environment under review. This technique captures the relevant aspects of all conditions, circumstances, and influences in a systematic process that result in the fullest analysis and understanding of any operational environment.

Each operational environment is dynamic. This characteristic is primarily the result of the ever- changing nature of operational variables, their interactions, and the resulting cascading implications of such interactions. As the variables interact within a specific OE, resulting consequences alter the nature of other variables and subsequent interactions. These factors require continual analysis of each OE in order to understand changing conditions and implications. The Army operates typically in multicultural environments that include unified action partners. Events require an expert understanding of cultures and languages within which the Army operates.

The training developer understands the audience that the training or education conditions of an OE are to affect. A desired learning level complements this shaping of how complex or simple the conditions must be in order to accomplish the identified task/action standard. Four levels of Army professional military education (PME) and Civilian Education System (CES) illustrate the progressive nature that underpins the Army Leader Development Strategy (ALDS). Each level has tasks or actions, conditions, and standards focused on the responsibilities, authority, and decisionmaking expected at that level. Learning and understanding the opportunities or limitations of an OE, analyzing complex operational variables, and accepting prudent risk in uncertain, volatile, or ambiguous conditions must promote disciplined initiative and skillful conduct of actions and leadership.

• Initial Entry Level: This level for military personnel focuses on the period of time from recruitment through the completion of Initial Entry Training (IET) and Initial Military Training (IMT). Soldiers and junior officers enter their respective career path trajectory at a resident training center where direct observation and performance feedback is critical to developing initial military skills and moral strength. Pre-Commissioning and IMT courses in this level for officer personnel include training through either the United States Military Academy (USMA), Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC), Officer Candidate School (OCS), the Warrant Officer Candidate School (WOCS), Warrant Officer Basic Course (WOBC), and the Basic Officer Leaders Course A and B. IET courses in this level for enlisted personnel include the Basic Combat Training (BCT), Advanced Individual Training (AIT), and One Station Unit Training (OSUT). This stage for civilian personnel focuses on the period of attendance at the Foundation Course level.
• Mid-Grade Level: This is a multi-year career phase where the value of experience is particularly important. Noncommissioned officers (NCOs), officers, and civilians grow and develop professional confidence through direct operational experience, observing role models, interacting with peers, and from mentors. Professional Military Education (PME) courses in this level for officer personnel include the School for Advanced Leadership and Tactics (SALT), the Captain’s Career Course (CCC), and the Warrant Officer Advanced Course (WOAC). PME courses in this level for Non-Commissioned Officer (NCO) personnel include the Warrior Leader Course, Structured Self Development (SSD) Level 1, and Advanced Leader Course (ALC). This level for civilian personnel focuses on the period of attendance at the Basic Course level.
• Intermediate Level: This level is considered to be a transition point in the career that brings an increased level and scope of responsibility. Learning events provide NCOs, officers, and civilians additional standardized knowledge that is critical to provide a broad foundation for success. Professional Military Education (PME) courses in this level for officer personnel include the Intermediate Level Education Course (ILE) and the Warrant Officer Staff Course (WOSC)/Warrant Officer Intermediate Level Education (WOILE). PME courses in this level for NCO personnel include the Structured Self Development (SSD) Level 3 and Senior Leader Course (SLC). This level for civilian personnel focuses on the period of attendance at the Intermediate Course level.
• Strategic Level: This level is considered to be the Army’s capstone level of PME for NCOs, officers, and civilians. PME at this level prepares them for strategic levels of leadership by providing a broad contextual understanding of national security issues and their role as senior leaders. Professional Military Education (PME) courses in this level for officer personnel include the Senior Service

College (SSC) and the Warrant Officer Senior Staff Course (WOSSC)/Warrant Officer Senior Service Education (WOSSE). PME courses in this level for NCO personnel include the Structured Self Development (SSD) Level 4, Sergeant Major Course (SMC), and Structured Self Development (SSD) Level 5. This level for civilian personnel focuses on the period of attendance at the Advanced Course level.

Training and Education Implications

Army forces must have the mental and physical agility to adapt rapidly and operate effectively among the missions that reside within decisive action. By definition, decisive action is the continuous and simultaneous combinations of offensive, defensive, and stability or defense support of civil authorities (ADRP 3-0). The  institutional training domain must  present  these  types of competing demands and complex dilemmas to match tactical actions with strategic objectives. Training developers must embed the challenges of decisive action with the disciplined learning of Army mission command philosophy and exercise, assess, and evaluate the capabilities and limitations of the Army warfighting functions. Key enablers for Army learning in the institutional force include─

• Professional military education (PME), DoD and Joint schools, and the Army Civilian Education System (CES).
• Professional self-development.
• Individual training and education.
• Functional training and education.
• Collective training.

Long-term implications of the SE conditions are uncertain. Emergent events can lead to a multitude of potential alternative security futures that can range from variants of the status quo, to a more violent and unstable region or world, or the possibility of an era of greater cooperation and more effective international institutions. As the training and curriculum developer studies and identifies the probable conditions in future persistent conflict for an OE, implications include but are not limited to the following conditions:

• Simultaneous operations with multiple mission tasks rather than sequential, phased operations.
• Societal friction due to identity and/or deprivation-based social, ethnic, and/or religious allegiances.
• Increased criminality that may include genocide and/or mass atrocity.
• Irregular  warfare  (IW)  between and/or  among  states, non-state  actors,  insurgent  organizations, guerrilla units, terrorist groups, criminal organizations, and relevant populations.
• Regular military forces with near-peer and/or adaptive capabilities in specific functional areas.
• Increased military operations in complex terrain to mitigate technological advantages of an enemy.
• Cultural differences and lack of understanding that lead to broadening or deepening a conflict.
• Threats and hybrid threat that acquire and employ specific technologies that equal or exceed U.S. capability. Conversely, threats and hybrid threat can use very simple means, such as couriers, to remain masked from monitoring by sophisticated technologies.
• Information operations and exploited near-simultaneous local, regional, and global media coverage of events will remain a norm in either obtaining or sustaining support, and dissuading or deterring support by relevant populations and influential leaders, organizations, and/or states.
• Weather that can provide threat forces diverse opportunities to counter or degrade U.S. intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, and precision target acquisition.
• A common perception among adversaries and enemies that the U.S. is not willing to sustain casualties in persistent conflict.
• Cultural values and ROE that comply with the law of war and conventions on war and armed conflict create potential vulnerabilities for adversaries and/or enemies to exploit.
• Social media exploitation by adversaries and/or enemies to advance tactical, operational, and/or strategic objectives.

Training and Education Conditions

As the Army transitions to regionally aligned forces, understanding and integrating the rigor and complexities of an OE in Army training and education ensures that an appropriate set of conditions is designed, developed and implemented in the learning event by the training developer. The training and curriculum developer must determine the conditions that address current OEs and also prepare for future contingencies for a globally-engaged Army. The philosophy and principles of mission command guide the training developer in how to perceive and understand these OEs and training and education requirements.

Chapter 2 provides a five-phase training and education process of how to translate an OE and other learning conditions into relevant learning experiences and expertise in the institutional and operational domains. The progressive outcome of this learning model process builds competence and confidence in tactical and technical proficiencies, leader decisionmaking, and embeds a career-long continuum for improving the required quality of training and education for Army Soldier, leader, and civilian leadership.