Tori J. Ross 
The Marine Corps wants commanders and militaries to start thinking about how information fits into combat operations. And it all starts with a new discussion paper that aims to illustrate how information, and the systems used to transmit it, are used in conflict.
The 126-page document, called Marine Corps Doctrinal Publication 8, explains concepts such as the “information environment” and “dominant narratives” and how these fit into military objectives.
“By elevating information as a combat function, we are making it an important consideration for commanders in their planning process from the start, so that we don’t have a situation where they come up with our plan and then bring our information. professionals, such as our [information operations] people, kind of at the end to try to fix this,” Eric Schaner, senior Marine Corps information strategy and policy analyst, told reporters June 28.
The goal is for the concepts laid out in the doctrinal document to eventually find their way into training, be integrated into wargaming efforts, and help determine existing capability gaps – particularly with respect to systems. of command and control, officials said. Additionally, the authors want navies to familiarize themselves with how competitors, especially Russia and China, view information warfare.
“If we view the information environment as a contested space, we need to be able to sense and understand that space. And so awareness of the battlespace in the information environment is crucial,” Schaner said. “And the Marine Corps contributes to the joint force, we need to close the gaps and fix our command and control architectures and make them as transparent as possible so that we can coordinate action over large distributed areas using forces joint forces in all areas.”
Lt. Gen. Matthew Glavy, deputy commander for information, told reporters the commander was intimately involved in the process of editing the document, particularly when it came to incorporating examples from the ongoing conflict. in Ukraine amid Russia’s invasion, including the Biden administration’s efforts to “pre-empt” Russia’s pre-invasion narratives with the release of satellite imagery and other intelligence information, and comments on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s “masterful use of digital media and inspirational messages”.
“It was about near real-time updates as we went into final editing, about editing, adding and updating the document, because we thought those lessons were essential,” did he declare.
“If you take a look at the Ukraine scenario, and try to look at it through the lens that we provided in MCDP-8, the three types of advantages that we describe – the superiority of systems, the dominant narrative and resilience – you can see those working and playing in the Ukrainian storyline,” Schaner said.
For example, Zelensky “was able to maintain communication channels, even thwarting Russia’s attempts to deny this form of communication via Starlink terminals”, he said, which is an example of overstepping systems.
“So you combine the ability to continue to communicate, to generate support and to inspire your people to stand up and fight. You are now building the idea of resilience within Ukraine. And we see that combined to some of the problems that Russia has had and we see a persistent and resilient Ukraine fighting and fighting,” Schaner said.
