Vol 6 Unit 2

Question 1

What is the publication that governs information operations?

Answer 1

Joint Publication 313, Information Operations.

Question 2

What is the key goal of information operations?

Answer 2

The key goal of IO is to achieve and maintain information superiority for the United States and its allies.

Question 3

List the five key components that make up the core capabilities of IO.

Answer 3

The core capabilities are as follows:

(1) Psychological Operations – PSYOP.
(2) Military Deception – MILDEC.
(3) Operations Security – OPSEC.
(4) Electronic Warfare – EW.
(5) Computer Network Operations – CNO.

Question 4

What is the definition of psychological operations?

Answer 4

Psychological operations are planned operations to convey selected truthful information and indicators to foreign audiences to influence their emotions, motives, objective reasoning, and ultimately, the behavior of their governments, organizations, groups, and individuals.

Question 5

What is the term used to describe those actions executed to deliberately mislead adversary decision makers as to friendly military capabilities, intentions, and operations, thereby causing the adversary to take specific actions (or inactions) that will contribute to the accomplishment of the friendly forces’ mission?

Answer 5

Military Deception – MILDEC

Question 6

How does OPSEC impact the IO mission?

Answer 6

The more an enemy knows about what you intend to do and how you intend to do it, the more they can do to disrupt your plans.

Question 7

What is electronic warfare?

Answer 7

Electronic warfare refers to any military action involving the use of electromagnetic and directed energy to control the electromagnetic spectrum.

Question 8

What is the purpose of computer network operations?

Answer 8

Computer network operations (CNO) are designed to protect our use of computers, computer networks, and all supporting equipment while denying the enemy the ability to use theirs.

Question 9

What are the five components that comprise the supporting capabilities of information operations?

Answer 9

They are comprised of the following components:

(1) Information Assurance.
(2) Physical security.
(3) Physical attack.
(4) Counterintelligence.
(5) Combat camera

Question 10

What are the three components that comprise the related capabilities of information operations?

Answer 10

They are comprised of Public Affairs, Civil-Military Operations, and Defense Support to Public Diplomacy.

Question 11

What terms make up the acronym OODA in the OODA Loop process?

Answer 11

It is a decision-making process comprised of: observe, orient, decide, and act.

Question 12

What makes up the physical domain?

Answer 12

The physical domain is composed of the command and control systems, and supporting infrastructures that enable individuals and organizations to conduct operations across the air, land, sea, space and cyberspace domains.

Question 13

What is the information domain?

Answer 13

The information domain is where information is collected, processed, stored, disseminated, displayed and protected. It consists of the content and flow of information.

Question 14

What is the most important domain and why?

Answer 14

The cognitive domain. It encompasses the mind of the decision maker and the target audience. This is the domain in which people think, perceive, visualize, and decide.

Question 15

What are the seven criteria used to evaluate the quality of information?

Answer 15

The quality of information can be evaluated by how much or how little it has of the following elements:

(1) Accuracy.
(2) Relevance.
(3) Timeliness.
(4) Usability.
(5) Completeness.
(6) Brevity.
(7) Security.

Question 16

How does technology impact information operations?

Answer 16

It makes it harder to maintain information superiority and security.

Question 17

What role does the budget play in information operations?

Answer 17

Budgets are finite. In other words, resources and the ability to fund them are limited which has a direct impact on the quantity and quality of information that can be gathered or secured.

Question 18

How does the weather affect information operations?

Answer 18

The weather can affect people and equipment. Poor weather can limit the ability to gather, transmit or process information.

Question 19

What are the five fundamental assumptions of information operations?

Answer 19

The five fundamental assumptions are as follows:

(1) The quality of information that is considered valuable to human or automated decision makers is universal.
(2) Decisions are made based upon the information available at the time.
(3) It is possible, with finite resource, to understand the relevant aspects of the information environment to include the processes decision makers use to make decisions.
(4) It is possible to affect the information environment in which specific decision-makers act through psychological, electronic, or physical means.
(5) It is possible to measure the effectiveness of IO actions in relation to an operations objective.

Question 20

For what type operations do commanders use IO capabilities?

Answer 20

Offense and defense operations

Question 21

What is the ultimate goal of IO?

Answer 21

The ultimate strategic objective of IO is to deter a potential or actual adversary or other target audience from taking actions that threaten US national interests. In other words, the goal of IO is to control the actions of a target audience by controlling the thought process of the key decision makers.

Question 22

How does viewing the OODA Loop in reverse order help a person to better understand the impact of IO?

Answer 22

If you take the OODA Loop and look at it in reverse order–Act, Decide, Orient, and Observe–you may be able to better see how IO impacts actual physical actions of a targeted audience.

Question 23

At what point in the planning process for military actions, should IO be involved?

Answer 23

As soon as possible.

Question 24

What is another name used to identify a group of information operations team members?

Answer 24

An IO cell.

Question 25

What is the primary focus of the planning initiation stage of the IO planning process?

Answer 25

The primary focus at this stage is to collect information and set the basic framework for an IO operation.

Question 26

What happens during the second stage of the IO planning process?

Answer 26

The second stage of the IO planning process, mission analysis, the IO cell identifies assumptions and constraints relative to the operations and identifies the capabilities available and the authority for deployment and employment of forces. This is the point in time when measures of effectiveness (MEO) and measures of performance (MOP) are developed to measure the effectiveness of a campaign.

Question 27

Explain what happens during the COA development phase of the IO planning process.

Answer 27

The course of action (COA) development phase is where the actual planning takes place, as in step one do this, step two do that, and so forth.… The key here is that this is the stage when the IO cell provides risk analysis for each proposed activity.

Question 28

Why do IO cell members use war gaming?

Answer 28

War gaming allows the IO cell to test run a proposed IO plan or activity. It provides an opportunity to see the strengths and weaknesses of the IO plan and make adjustments as needed before actually implementing it.

Question 29

How do MOPs differ from MOEs?

Answer 29

A measure of performance (MOP) measures the activity levels of the various sub functions of the IO cell; whereas measures of effectiveness (MOE) measure how effective a particular sub function’s activities were.

Question 30

What makes measuring the effectiveness of an IO campaign so difficult?

Answer 30

Isolating the variables and establishing a direct causal relationship between a particular activity and its result.

Question 31

Why is it important for Public Affairs professionals to be perceived as being honest and forthright?

Answer 31

The media will not want to talk to someone from the PSYOP/MILDEC community about something that is happening because there is an inherent distrust between the two. This is why it is critical for people in Public Affairs to be perceived as being honest and forthright.

Question 32

Before PA can counter adversary IO campaigns, we must be able to detect its use. What are three key things to evaluate?

Answer 32

To figure out whether or not someone is using IO to influence behavior, there are three key things to evaluate -- agenda, emotions, and truth.

Question 33

Explain what is meant by the term “agenda” as it relates to IO?

Answer 33

When we say agenda, we are referring to the idea that when someone creates a product (like a video clip, newspaper article, photograph, etc…) they have a particular idea or concept they are trying to convey.

Question 34

How are emotions used in IO?

Answer 34

Emotions are a powerful force and can generate activity. Being able to control the emotional response of a targeted audience as a result of an IO activity increases the likelihood of being able to affect behavior.

Question 35

Why is the use of truth often better than the use of lies in an IO campaign?

Answer 35

Telling lies that are believable takes a lot more work than telling the truth. The greater the number or the more complex the lies are; the easier it is to be fact-checked by someone else and to be proven false.

Question 36

What are the two best tools available to Public Affairs practitioners to counter enemy propaganda?

Answer 36

Truth and speed.

Question 37

Why is it better for Public Affairs to be open and honest with the public, even if the news may be bad?

Answer 37

Being open and honest even with bad news helps maintain the credibility of Public Affairs as a source of truthful communication.

Question 38

Why is speed a factor in countering enemy propaganda?

Answer 38

Because the first person to tell a story wins. In other words, the public is more likely to believe the first version of a story they hear. The longer the delay between the release of the first story (propaganda) and the second story (truth), the less believable the second story will be.

Question 39

What is a major pitfall PA should avoid when working with the IO community?

Answer 39

Because Public Affairs has intimate access to the media and is viewed with such a high level of credibility, some short-sighted individuals may attempt to involve Public Affairs in a misinformation campaign. This is a huge mistake. Do not allow PA to be used by any other component of the IO community as a tool.

Question 40

What is one of the functions of PA in the IO community?

Answer 40

To provide advice to the IO planners. Public Affairs can and should provide that big-picture view of how activities are likely to be perceived by the media and the public at large.