Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)Armistead's "Information Operations Matters" is a thoughtful and thorough piece of scholarship. Armistead's research includes over 50 interviews with subject matter experts and practitioners. He is well versed in the history of information operations, including detailed knowledge of insider discussion and contestation over revisions to doctrine. The presentation is comprehensive, and the analysis is of very high quality.
With regard to specific substance, Armistead hypothesizes and concludes that a "significant gap exists between the theory and reality of IO" in the United States (p. 5). A conclusion that I agree with in my own Information Operations - Doctrine and Practice: A Reference Handbook (Contemporary Military, Strategic, and Security Issues) (I wanted to toss that in there in the interest of full disclosure: I also study this area).
The book focuses on perception management and computer network operations, leaving aside other traditional elements of information operations (such as electronic warfare, military deception, and operations security). Armistead takes a broad view of perception management as including psychological operations, public diplomacy, and strategic communications [sic]. "all of these terms can be considered analogous, and the author has elected to use these terms somewhat interchangeably." (p. 5). He rightly acknowledges dangers inherent in traditional definitions of information operations: "Because the definition of IO is so broad and generic, at once it is everything as well as nothing, it is very difficult to understand where to frame the boundaries of the discussion." (p. 10).
Armistead asks (and tries to answer) four critical questions with his book:
1. Why is there no overall strategic theory in the United States for IO?
2. Is IO really the best term to describe these activities?
3. Why is the top-down approach to IO not working in the U.S. government?
4. Why is there no rhyme or reason to the IO training and education curricula?
Chapter Six presents his key findings, most of which I agree with, including the concerning observation that, "Information has always been an element of power, but it is often seen as an enabler of supporting component and not as the decisive factor in conducting operations." (p. 103).
Though I have nothing but admiration for the scholarship this work demonstrates and agree with much of the analysis and the conclusions, I do have one very serious complaint: THE BOOK IS DATED. Although this book was published in 2010, it appears to have been written in 2005 or 2006. Looking through the (quite extensive) bibliography, only a smattering of the citations have dates later than 2006. Nothing in the significant content considers events or developments after 2006.
Were this strictly a history, that would not be a problem; good history is timeless. However, the field of information operations (and persuasion management, strategic communication, etc.) is a fast moving train. Doctrine is changing, practice is changing. Reports, articles, white papers, and other discussion fly in flurries around the edges of this continually evolving area of endeavor. My book on information operations (linked/mentioned above) was published in 2008 and is at risk of becoming OBE in 2010, but is still more current than this volume.
If you want a solidly researched and detailed history of information operations up to 2006 along with some thoughtful analyses and conclusions going forward from that period, this is your book. If you want "the latest" on IO, do not be fooled by the 2010 publication date and imagine that this it.
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Introduced in 1998 by the Department of Defense, the concept of information operations (IO) proposed to revolutionize the ways in which warfare, diplomacy, and business were conducted. However, this transformation has not come to fruition. Two large gaps remain: between policy and theory, and between the funding needs of IO initiatives and the actual funds the federal bureaucracy is willing to provide to support these operations. These two discrepancies are central to the overall discussions of Information Operations Matters.Leigh Armistead explains why these gaps exist and suggests ways to close them. Also in discussing best practices in IO, he clarifies how the key agencies of the U.S. government can use the inherent power of information to better conduct future strategic communication campaigns. Information Operations Matters presents a more pragmatic approach to IO, recommending that IO policy be made surrounding usable concepts, definitions, theories, and capabilities that are attainable with the resources available. To meet the threats of the future as well as those facing us today, Armistead argues, it is necessary to use this new area of operations to the greatest extent possible.
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