To Design or Not to Design: An Introduction

Author: Ben Zweibelson

Introduction: Are the Joint Operational Planning Process (JOPP) and the Military Decision Making Process (MDMP) unable to address the growing complexities of modern, ill-structured conflict? Does the U.S. Army’s design methodology provide the military institution a more effective structure, format, vocabulary, and process that are understandable to the force and applicable? Many military professionals charge that design is ‘just MDMP’s mission analysis on steroids,’ while others claim design is merely ‘Effects Based Operations (EBO) by another name.

This six article series on Army Design responses ‘all of the above’ and holds that due to U.S. Army attempting to satisfy all rival factions within the military institution, it pleased no one and published an orphaned design doctrine that suffers from multiple personality disorder of methodologies.

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