The unstoppable spread of information networking and knowhow gives rise to the need for a new edge—one that utilizes 

but transcends networks—by developing people, teams, and 

decisionmaking methods that convert information into better 

choices and outcomes. We call this new edge “battle-wisdom.”

ndupress.ndu.edu

9 781579 060725

9 0 0 0 0

ISBN 1-57906-072-2

Battle-Wise

Battle-Wise

Seeking Time-Information 

Superiority in Networked Warfare

David C. Gompert, Irving Lachow,

and Justin Perkins

Foreword by Raymond C. Smith

Afterword by Linton Wells II

Published for the

Center for Technology and National Security Policy

by National Defense University Press

Washington, D.C.

2006
The opinions, conclusions, and recommendations expressed or implied 

within are those of the individual authors and do not represent the views of other 

contributors, the Department of Defense or any other agency or department of 

the Federal Government. This publication is cleared for public release; distribution 

unlimited.

Portions of this work may be quoted or reprinted without further permission, with credit to the Center for Technology and National Security Policy. A 

courtesy copy of any reviews and tearsheets would be appreciated.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Gompert, David C.

 Battle-wise : seeking time-information superiority in networked warfare / 

David C. Gompert, Irving Lachow, and Justin Perkins ; foreword by Raymond 

C. Smith ; afterword by Linton Wells II.

 p. cm.

 Includes bibliographical references and index.

 ISBN 1-57906-072-2 (alk. paper)

 1. Command and control systems—United States. 2. Military art and science—

Automation. 3. Computer networks—United States. 4. Operational art (Military 

science) 5. Information warfare—United States. I. Lachow, Irving. II. Perkins, 

Justin, 1975– III. National Defense University. Center for Technology and 

National Security Policy. IV. Title. 

UB212.G66 2006

355.3'30410973–dc22

2006048202

First Printing, July 2006

NDU CTNSP publications are sold by the U.S. Government Printing Office. For ordering information, call (202) 

512-1800 or write to the Superintendant of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. 

20402. For GPO publications on-line access their Web site at: http://bookstore.gpo.gov. 

For current publications of the Center for Technology and National Security Policy, consult National Defense 

University Web site at: http://www.ndu.edu/ctnsp/publications.html.
vii

vii

Contents

Foreword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix

Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii

Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xvii

Chapter One

From Firepower to Information Power 

to Brainpower . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3

Chapter Two

Cognitive Demands of Networked Warfare . . . . .13

Chapter Three

Beyond the Networking Advantage . . . . . . . . . . . . .39

Chapter Four 

Defeating Networked Adversaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .59

Chapter Five 

Integrating Intuition and 

Reasoning in Action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

Chapter Six

From Networking Power 

to Cognitive Power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .85
viii BATTLE-WISE

Chapter Seven

An Excursion beyond the Military . . . . . . . . . . . . . .99

Chapter Eight

Creating a Battle-Wise Force . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .119

Chapter Nine

Recommendations and Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . .149

Afterword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .165

Glossary of Key Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .171

About the Authors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .173
 FOREWORD ix

ix

Foreword

Rear Admiral Raymond C. Smith, USN (Ret.)

As the world careens into the 21st century, the capacity and means by 

which the American Armed Forces defend their nation are entering 

a paradigm-breaking transition period. Previous transitions have 

been driven by the technologies of weapons and their platforms: from 

sail, to boiler, to turbine; from foot, to horse, to vehicle; from balloon, to 

manned aircraft, to unmanned aircraft. This is not so in the 21st century. 

We need to reset our “warfighting gyro,” so to speak. To this end, taking the 

information revolution as a starting point, Battle-Wise argues that only by 

strengthening the relationship between information technology and brain 

matter will the U.S. military enhance its ability to outsmart and outfight 

future adversaries. 

The authors approach this transition in great detail by making a 

strong case for building what they call battle-wisdom. An improved light 

machinegun will not measurably improve our soldiers’ capability if they 

are outsmarted by an adversary who has blended into a hostile town and is 

not in a uniform. Neither will improved weapons offer the necessary edge 

against a sophisticated strategic adversary in the information age. What 

will improve our soldiers’ capability are the means to draw discreet tactical 

information and the capacity to weigh a multitude of tactical options—all 

at battlefield speed. This is the essence of battle-wisdom. 

Building superior battle-wisdom in a competitive world will not

be easy. It will require our military to face up to ground-breaking issues 

that will challenge even the most farsighted of its leaders. For example, 

platoons and companies will become capable of warfighting decisions 

that historically have been the responsibility of the battalion. The same 

could be said for the new battle-wise battalion commander as he relates 

to his brigade or division. Changes in personnel policy also will have to be 

contemplated. 

Take the concept of lateral entry of potential battle-wise soldiers 

from analogous civilian occupations. The U.S. Army, Marine Corps, and 
x BATTLE-WISE

Special Operations Forces (SOF) have utilized this avenue for doctors, 

lawyers, and civil affairs soldiers, but have yet to introduce such changes in 

recruiting warfighters. Yet metropolitan police officers who spend significant portions of their careers in task forces combating gangs, drugs, or organized crime have relied on the equivalent of battle-wisdom, albeit at less 

technically sophisticated and violent levels. Their training and experience 

in domestic urban warfare certainly are more suitable for leadership in the 

military than are those of the newly certified doctor or lawyer who enters 

service with only professional education as a credential. The cultural complication confronting this concept is the military rank system. Could a 30-

year-old police officer with relevant experience be recruited into service at 

an advanced rank? Is that police officer qualified to command a platoon 

of soldiers, especially if they are expected to battle insurgents in an urban 

environment? What about a company or battalion of soldiers? Such ideas 

have been floated before; in the context of battle-wisdom, there is a strong 

case for reexamination.

Traditional service training programs, almost without exception, 

focus on a conventional adversary. In the 21st century, our military will 

face not only strategic challengers but also unconventional adversaries 

who present nondoctrinal and nonstandard threats. How can the military 

establish and train to a doctrine meant to confront an adversary that has 

no doctrine or standard operating procedure? The authors’ answer is a call 

for changes in military education and training that are no less sweeping 

than the technological and geopolitical changes that have fundamentally 

altered the challenges of warfare.

As commander of the Naval Special Warfare forces during Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm, I appreciate how crucial it is for our 

forces to supplement pre-mission intelligence briefings with real-time 

ground truth while on mission. Despite their many successes during those 

campaigns, Navy and other SOF could have been significantly more valuable. To be sure, units and individuals were as well trained as humanly 

possible, given their 5 months of preparation during Operation Desert 

Shield. Yet in retrospect, what was lacking was the technical capacity to 

feed updated, collated, and analyzed information by which SOF team leaders could maintain tactical advantage while operating behind enemy lines. 

And even with the technical means to provide the forces such updates, 

Navy SOF were not trained to absorb, process, and adapt to a continuous 

flow of information. Such skills can only be developed through intense 

training that would have enabled the warfighter to marry the use of instincts with real-time information heretofore unavailable.
 FOREWORD xi

Since the first Gulf War—from Somalia to Afghanistan to Iraq—we

have learned of the unpredictability and ruthlessness of our present and 

future adversaries through pain and loss of life. We cannot wait for them 

to transform into our idea of an adversary because it is not going to happen. Sam Rayburn, former Speaker of the House of Representatives, said 

it best about learning from mistakes in life: “There is no wisdom in the 

second kick of a mule.” Although he did not have 21st-century warfare 

in mind, his wisdom is particularly applicable to our military and its 

challenges. 

We certainly have had our challenges in recent military operations. 

Despite the exceptional heroism, courage, and intellect of today’s young 

military members, we need to reformulate the manner by which we prepare them. For decades we have given them the best weapons systems our 

country could produce. The authors believe, as I do, that the time has 

come to augment weapons systems and information networks with the 

intellectual tools that will enable them to gain and maintain cognitive 

superiority and thus turn the tables on our clever and nimble adversaries. 

Only by developing battle-wise soldiers—a daunting, but critically important effort on the part of our military leadership—can we expect to avoid 

the “second kick of a mule.”
xii BATTLE-WISE
 PREFACE xiii

xiii

Preface

This book is an inquiry into the possibility of improving the operational thinking and decisionmaking of U.S. military individuals, 

teams, and forces who fight for their nation. The inspiration for 

this work lies in both the belief that information networking presents a 

unique chance to improve cognitive effectiveness in battle and the worry 

that U.S. security interests could suffer if this chance is missed. 

The United States is presently unrivalled in military power and assured of remaining so for the foreseeable future, thanks to its resources 

and the transformation of its forces based on networking principles. 

However, as adversaries of various sorts and sizes also adopt those same 

principles and exploit increasingly available and easily usable information 

technology (IT), U.S. operational advantages and strategic equities could 

be eroded. The unstoppable spread of information networking and knowhow gives rise to the need for a new edge—one that utilizes but transcends 

networks—by developing people, teams, and decisionmaking methods 

that convert information into better choices and outcomes. We call this 

new edge battle-wisdom.

We form a view of the need for and nature of battle-wise people, 

forces, and decisionmaking by tackling several crisscrossing questions: 

As adversaries of the United States acquire IT and employ networking 

in warfare, how will U.S. operational advantages be affected?

What options exist to gain new advantages that use but transcend 

networking?

How can military decisionmakers make good sense and full use of the 

flood of information that networks are able to supply?

How do people think and solve problems in situations of urgency, danger, high stakes, complexity, confusion, and information abundance?

What are the respective cognitive contributions of reasoning and intuition in such situations, and how are they combined?

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xiv BATTLE-WISE

What are the most valuable cognitive abilities in networked military 

operations and the new security environment?

What policies could improve these key cognitive abilities in military decisionmakers, the better to exploit networked information and cope with 

complexity?

Can such policies give the United States and its democratic 

allies a new and enduring military advantage?

While the thrust of this volume is toward how people think and decide in battle, it is necessary to examine the conditions under which they 

work and fight in general and in the new global security environment in 

particular. This requires exploration of a future of diverse dangers and 

increasingly networked adversaries. Although this future is approaching 

with surprising speed, we found scant analysis of the dynamics of hostilities involving two opposed networked forces—a sign that U.S. defense 

planners are still preoccupied with the need and plans for the networking of U.S. forces. Therefore, we had to postulate such conditions, using 

China to exemplify a determined, well-resourced, technologically capable 

potential challenger to U.S. interests and forces, and al Qaeda as a globally 

distributed, fanatical, stateless terrorist threat. 

The selection of these cases is not a casual one. Both China and 

al Qaeda already realize the leverage that networking offers. China 

has stepped up the modernization of its force in ways that prefigure 

a move toward networking, and al Qaeda is busily networking in its 

own technically simple but operationally cunning ways. U.S. and

coalition troops in Iraq are already battling networked terrorists and 

their insurgent allies, with disquieting results.

Our aim is to understand whether and how advantages in thinking and decisionmaking under operational conditions can affect 

outcomes—victories or defeats—especially in networked warfare. It 

is important to identify as precisely as possible the mental abilities, 

such as anticipation and rapid adaptation, that are of greatest utility 

in networked operations and thus in strategic competition so that 

these abilities can be emphasized in the ways that military personnel 

are recruited, taught, developed, and organized. Still deeper character traits—notably, the willingness to take on responsibility and the 

propensity to learn—can matter greatly in how and how well soldiers 

think and decide in the severe and stressful conditions of battle. 

We have found it helpful to take an excursion into nonmilitary sectors and organizations, especially some that not only have 

■

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 PREFACE xv

embraced networking but also recognized that doing so is only a

platform for more effective use and performance of people and their 

minds. The military, a latecomer to the networking revolution, can 

learn from civilian experience, though it is important to judge carefully what lessons do and do not apply. 

Of course, combat presents a particularly taxing mix of high 

stakes, violence, confusion, and urgency. With networks providing 

plentiful information, the opportunity exists to enhance informed 

reasoning and analysis under such conditions, time permitting. 

Yet because time often does not permit, it is just as important to 

strengthen intuition, even while being aware of the biases of one’s 

mental models and the limits of one’s experience. The key, as shall 

be shown, is to integrate intuition and reasoning—the yin and yang 

of cognition. 

We are not the first to flag the heightened importance of reasoning and intuition in the context of networked warfare. The issue 

has generated significant interest as well as a growing body of good 

and timely research. However, instead of treating cognition as a detail to be worked out so that information networks can fulfill their 

promise—as some have done—we see it the other way around: networking offers a golden opportunity to improve the power of thinking under fire. 

The mind is often inadequate to solve complex problems, such 

as those that will be commonplace in the unpredictable military

contingencies of a fluid future. But the mind is gifted beyond any 

machine—indeed, beyond its own comprehension—and it now 

has high-performance, distributed information systems to assist it. 

Far from being less important, reasoning and intuition are more

important, and they hold new potential. In any case, computers and 

networks cannot be held responsible, but people can. 

The role of the mind in networked warfare is still unknown. 

This book is meant to raise ideas, issues, and possibilities, as well 

as—at the risk of seeming presumptuous—a potential framework. 

Some new concepts and terms are introduced, and some established 

ones are heavily used. To assist both our explanation and the reader’s 

understanding, we provide a short glossary of key terms at the back 

of the volume. 

This book is written for the policymaker, the strategist, the warfighter, 

and the layman. At the same time, we hope that the research community 

will benefit from our attempt to put battlefield cognition into strategic and 
xvi BATTLE-WISE

policy contexts. Clearly, more empirical and theoretical research is needed, 

which is why we conclude the book with a set of questions for further 

analysis. Where we have suggestions to make, they are only indicative and, 

we hope, provocative. As this field continues to evolve, we can be sure of 

only one thing—ours is far from the last word.
 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xvii

xvii

Acknowledgments

Along the journey leading to this book, we acquired a huge debt to our 

colleague, Courtney Richardson—a superb researcher, thoughtful 

critic, and relentless trail-boss. We thank Martin Libicki, Dave 

Signori, Harry Thie, Hans Binnendijk, and Jim Hosek for giving us the 

benefit of their insights, experience, and advice. The understanding of our 

significant others—Cynthia Gompert, Stefanie Schmidt, and Ayari De la 

Rosa—has been as indispensable as ever. Thanks also to the Office of the 

Chief Information Officer of the Department of Defense for its support. 

Lastly, the Center for Technology and National Security Policy and the 

National Defense University, of which the Center is a part, deserve special 

recognition and gratitude for providing the time, resources, and encouragement for such a speculative piece. 
xviii
Battle-Wise

 BATTLE-WISE 3

3

Chapter One

From Firepower to 

Information Power to 

Brainpower

Approaching a New Threshold 

From cornering terrorists to stabilizing war-torn countries to waging 

all-out war, the courses and outcomes of military campaigns are increasingly shaped by networks that enable dispersed units to collaborate by 

sharing data. Along with the high-precision sensors and weapons they 

connect, networks are turning information power into military power.1

 In 

the logic of the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) Office of Force Transformation, networks permit information-sharing, information-sharing 

enhances shared awareness, and shared awareness enables collaboration 

and speed—the keys to military effectiveness.2

 Defense investment priorities are shifting from mechanized platforms and weapons to the information collectors, processors, links, software, and services that compose these 

networks. 

With its unmatched defense resources and technological talents, the 

United States has pioneered networked warfare, as it pioneered information networking in general. But from now on, the United States will have 

company, both friendly and not. For example, China and al Qaeda, using 

different doctrines for different purposes, are showing interest in tapping 

the power of information. The Chinese face high cultural and organizational hurdles on the path to realizing the military potential of “informationalization” (as they call it). However, al Qaeda and its affiliates already 

are showing ingenuity and resourcefulness in putting networking to work 

with virtually no investment.3

As adversaries start to exploit networking, the United States must 

seek new leverage by improving its warfighters’ ability to make sense and 

use of information in war’s confusing, severe, and violent conditions.4 

While no amount of information, no matter how good and timely it is, 
4 GOMPERT, LACHOW, AND PERKINS

can remove the strange and ambiguous circumstances of war, the mental faculties of military decisionmakers—from lieutenants to lieutenant 

generals—are more crucial than ever. The next defining capability in the 

evolution of warfare, and arguably the highest plane of strategic competition, will be that of the soldier’s mind. 

Yet little programmatic emphasis is being given to understanding, let 

alone developing, the particular human cognitive abilities that matter most 

in making good decisions during networked warfare. On the Pentagon’s 

current list of seven key elements for implementing what it calls “networkcentric warfare” (NCW), improving the quality and speed of operational 

reasoning and problem-solving by people so that they can take advantage 

of networks has no place.5

 None of the “four pillars of transformation” 

of the U.S. Armed Forces has to do with adapting human decisionmaking 

to match either the military-network revolution or the turmoil in global 

security.6

 Official documents note the growing significance of the “cognitive domain,” but no coherent strategy to excel in that domain has been 

forged. Even the best of the literature on military networking provides 

little insight into how thinking is affected and can be improved.7

 Students 

in military training and education programs are being taught how to manage networks and manipulate data, as they should be, but they are not necessarily learning how to reason within the new networked environment, 

which is surely as important.

Networking in Warfare: End or Beginning?

Networking is the most recent leap in how humans fight. Since 

warfare began, every favorite weapon eventually has been outdone by a 

better one.8

 Clubs could defeat fists but were in turn defeated by spears 

and arrows, which then gave way to guns and bombs. With industrialization, placement of guns and bombs on mechanized vehicles, such as tanks, 

submarines, and airplanes, brought decisive advantages in mobility, range, 

survivability, and explosive force. Missiles and sensors then increased the 

range, speed, accuracy, and lethality of explosive force. Throughout, those 

who mastered the production and use of each new technology have held at 

least a temporary strategic edge over stragglers, as Britain did on the high 

seas in the 19th century, Germany on land by the outset of World War II, 

and the United States by the end of World War II and again at the end of 

the Cold War.

We have reached the point where forces with information links 

among mechanized platforms, high-precision weapons, advanced intelli-
 BATTLE-WISE 5

gence collectors, well-trained fighters, and efficient command centers can 

make quick work of modern but non-networked mechanized forces. The 

swift trouncing of Iraqi army and Republican Guard divisions by smaller 

but networked American and British ground, air, and surveillance forces 

in Operation Iraqi Freedom marked the passing of the age of 20th century 

warfare.9

 Such connectivity, wisely used, also can improve military performance in noncombat operations, such as peacekeeping and humanitarian 

relief.10 By enabling any part of a force to operate with any other part, 

networking affords not just unprecedented capability but unbounded opportunity. It has been called the “apotheosis of conventional warfare.”11

Strictly speaking, the networking of forces is not new. Britain’s 

Royal Air Force relied on its newly invented radar to direct its interceptors toward incoming waves of Luftwaffe bombers. Anti-submarine warfare has long depended on links and collaboration among surface ships, 

aircraft, sensors, and hunter-killer submarines. In a precursor to today’s 

joint strike-maneuver operations, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization 

(NATO) sought to link its air and land forces to toughen defense against 

Soviet armor. In all these cases, however, communications links were 

wanting. While the concept of networking forces is not new, the ability to 

send and receive broad streams of data is—compliments of the fusion of 

computing and telecommunications that began in the civilian world about 

a quarter of a century ago. The technologies of distributed computer processing multiply the awareness, speed, combinations, uses, and efficacy of 

networked military forces. 

Information technologies and networking give U.S. forces more and 

better information, greater weapon accuracy, and a way to disperse platforms while coordinating and concentrating firepower. These technologies can make virtually any vehicle-sized object an illuminated, reachable, 

and vulnerable target.12 They increase the probability of destroying that 

which warrants destruction while sparing that which does not. By improving dramatically the economics of sharing data and providing horizontal 

(peer-to-peer) links, networking can make forces better informed and able 

to collaborate than old-fashioned stove-piped ones, within which information flowed vertically and slowly and between which it flowed only at 

the top, if at all.13 

Does networking constitute some ultimate stage in military capability and performance—an end of military history (if, sadly, not an end 

of wars)? After all, since every other imaginable military capability and 

structure can, in turn, be enhanced by being networked to others, it is 

hard to think of a better way to form and operate forces.14 An aircraft 
6 GOMPERT, LACHOW, AND PERKINS

carrier is a potent war machine, but two of them operating in tandem are 

more potent than the sum of two operating independently. No matter how 

strong an army brigade or an air force squadron is, they are bound to be 

stronger—indeed, they have been shown to be stronger—when networked 

together. By enabling forces to be more lethal, agile, precise, fast, elusive, 

survivable, supportable, and coherent (regardless of distance), networking provides an edge over history’s prior accumulation of conventional 

weapons.15

Military exploitation of data networking has progressed swiftly over 

the past decade or so. At first, data retrieved from remote sensors provided 

exact locations of fixed targets, which enhanced the accuracy of precisionguided munitions and the effectiveness of strike operations. Before long, 

linked sensors and shooters were operating as combat teams. Then, the 

fusion of data from multiple sensors improved the battlefield awareness of 

individual warfighters and units. Still more value was added when awareness was shared, fulfilling the force commander’s dream of a common 

operating picture of both enemy and friendly forces. All of this occurred 

roughly during the decade following the 1991 Gulf War (when U.S. military strategists were wise enough not to let victory cause complacency). 

Another rung on the ladder was reached when networked sensors and 

shooters with shared awareness began to collaborate fluidly and effectively 

in Operations Enduring Freedom (2002) and Iraqi Freedom (2003). As of 

now, decisionmakers throughout the force have available unprecedented 

riches of information and options from which to choose.16 Throughout 

this climb in the value of networking, the role of cognition has expanded. 

On the next rung, cognition will be supreme.

Networking involves much more than merely arranging industrialage forces in an information-age constellation. Military networking, like 

networking in other sectors, rewards ingenuity in designing systems, conducting operations, and reforming organizations. For example, relying on 

the global positioning system (GPS) instead of onboard guidance systems 

has both improved the accuracy of missiles and reduced their cost. Substituting airpower for the heavy artillery that ground forces have had to 

lug around has made those forces more transportable and maneuverable, 

yet every bit as powerful. Global and regional joint commands have been 

formed to plan, prepare, and conduct integrated operations. Entirely new 

capabilities, like the U.S. Navy’s sea basing, are being created specifically to 

exploit—and could not succeed without—networking. 
 BATTLE-WISE 7

Connecting People

“Networks of what?” the reader may ask.17 Narrowly defined, 

networks are transmission media that interconnect information systems, 

such as computers, communications transmitters and receivers, and displays of data and images.18 But these linked information systems form only 

one layer of military networks. Beneath, and linked through these systems, 

are the machines and facilities of war: weapons, weapon platforms, sensors, command centers, supply depots, and the like. At yet another level, 

networks tie together the structural components and echelons (for example, companies, divisions, and strike groups) of forces from the several 

armed services—vertically, horizontally, diagonally, and adjustably. But 

most important, if most overlooked, networks connect people—thinking, 

feeling, responsible, creative, fallible, problem-solving, decisionmaking, 

sometimes frightened people. 

The thesis of this volume is that the most rewarding task, if also the 

hardest, in seeking to realize the full military promise of networks is to 

draw and build upon the ability of warfighters to think when linked. The 

head of the Pentagon Office of Force Transformation got it right when he 

said that networking will “accelerate our ability to know, to decide, and to 

act.”19 At the end of the day, knowing, deciding, and acting are the functions—and the responsibility—of people, not information systems.

What makes networking so different from previous military-technological advances is that it can multiply both the information and the 

choices available to warfighters, assuming they are properly organized and 

employed to take advantage of it. To be sure, networking does not simplify 

warfare and may complicate it, or at least make its complexity more apparent. But by supplying more and better information, networking could, if 

accompanied by improved cognition, produce appreciably better solutions 

to complex military problems. The countries and groups that excel at converting the potential of networks into faster yet better judgments—better 

campaign strategies, tactics, and decisions—will be in a position to outperform those that do not. This is already evident in the shrewdness with 

which terrorists are using the Internet to amplify the fears of the global 

community and publicize the horror and fanaticism of the disciples of 

Abu Musab al Zarqawi in the struggle for the future of Iraq.20

Networking should not be expected to bring a new equilibrium to

military affairs. Nations and groups will scramble to exploit information 

technology (IT) and network principles, much as advances in propulsion 

disturbed warfare in the mid–19th century and the introduction of radar 
8 GOMPERT, LACHOW, AND PERKINS

triggered efforts to gain an advantage from remote detection in the mid20th century. As more armed forces and groups make use of networking in 

the years to come, perplexing questions will arise:

If two belligerents have networked forces, how can one gain an edge? 

Are the platforms of networked belligerents more vulnerable because 

networked sensors can see them or less vulnerable because they can be 

dispersed?

As more forces gain information power, what is the next defining, 

decisive strategic capability?

Of immediate interest, in view of the persistent insurgency in Iraq, 

how can networked forces use information to defeat a dispersed enemy 

that is itself networked and hidden in a civilian population?

The answers to these questions, we believe, are right between our 

ears. The instrument that can make the fullest use and greatest sense out 

of information—indeed, has biologically evolved to do so—is the brain 

of homo sapiens. Just as networking is the key to transitioning from 

firepower to information power, the mind is the key to graduating from 

information superiority to “time-information” superiority, a concept we 

will develop in due course. With the right approaches to improving decisionmaking in combat, such superiority is attainable even as enemies 

adopt networking. The erosion of the American monopoly in harnessing 

IT for military purposes creates a need to define, gain, and hold a lead in 

the ability of soldiers to think soundly and quickly while engulfed by confusion and violence. This explains the budding interest in defense-research 

circles about the cognitive implications of NCW.21

Debate over how people think and decide is not restricted to the 

military sphere. Corporations are growing more concerned with how 

their employees are using information, as well as how they can recruit 

and develop people with exceptional cognitive abilities. The information 

revolution and advances in neuroscience have spawned a new popular 

literature in human problem-solving and decisionmaking. In Blink: The 

Power of Thinking Without Thinking, Malcolm Gladwell argues that people 

can arrive at quick yet sound judgments by unconsciously noting those 

flakes of information that matter most in a blizzard of data.22 In The 

Wisdom of Crowds, James Surowiecki makes the case that, under many 

conditions, groups of people make smarter choices than smart individuals 

do.23 (Later we will address how these propositions apply to battlefield 

decisionmaking.) Even as IT is getting faster, smaller, ubiquitous, and 

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 BATTLE-WISE 9

more practical, a shift of interest is occurring toward what it all means for 

human thinking. 

Nothing, of course, is novel about the idea that superior thinking can 

win battles. Brilliant generalship has always mattered, sometimes more 

than force strength. Lee outfoxed Hooker at Chancellorsville. “Stonewall” 

Jackson befuddled and beat three Union armies in his Shenandoah Valley 

campaign. Eisenhower’s D-Day plan fooled Hitler’s best generals. In Vietnam, Giap got the better of Westmoreland. But networking offers more: an 

unprecedented opportunity to prevail in battle by bringing to bear more 

general brainpower—not just brainier generals—by enabling better problem-solving on the part of the individual, by mobilizing the minds of more 

individuals, and by honing the collective intelligence of teams. 

While information networking can help military organizations and 

personnel in many ways, the concern here is with war and those who wage 

it. Streamlining military infrastructure, logistics, and peacetime administration, and improving the performance of the people executing these 

functions, though commendable, are all beyond the scope of this study. 

The networking of forces for combat and other demanding operations 

present opportunities that the U.S. military is only beginning to fathom. 

Yet networks alone will not ensure that the warfighters connected to them 

will make full use and good sense of information. That will take a purposeful and comprehensive strategy of its own. 

Building a Cognitive Strategy

Such a strategy must span geopolitics, technological opportunity, 

military operations, command and control, and personnel policy. Crafting 

it will require the analysis of:

changing demands of solving problems and making decisions 

in warfare

emerging threats that make it crucial for U.S. forces to meet those 

demands

cognitive abilities that matter most in operations against those threats

cognitive effectiveness based on lessons from wider research on and 

experience with networking and decisionmaking. 

Following this logic, chapter two examines how the complexity, urgency, tension, and information ebbs and flows of warfare may challenge 

the cognitive capacity and judgment of military decisionmakers. Chapter 

■

■

■

■
10 GOMPERT, LACHOW, AND PERKINS

three looks at the prospect that U.S. forces will have to face networked 

opponents, and chapter four derives key cognitive abilities as well as 

deeper traits that could provide an edge in operations against such opponents. Chapter five suggests concepts and techniques of decisionmaking 

to harness those key abilities. Chapter six looks at the building blocks of 

superior cognitive performance—individuals, teams, and command and 

control. Chapter seven is an excursion into wider research and experience, 

including how leading corporations and other high-pressure, nonmilitary 

organizations are trying to put more into and get more out of the minds 

of their people. Chapter eight analyzes policies that can accentuate and 

develop key cognitive abilities and improve decisionmaking, taking into 

account the operational challenges, networking potential, and lessons 

from nonmilitary domains covered in the preceding chapters. Finally, in 

chapter nine, specific recommendations and strategic observations are offered for consideration.

Notes1 We will use network in its broadest sense to include not only information processing systems 

and communication links but also the platforms, sensors, command centers, and troops that make 

up a force. While improved precision of individual sensors and weapons, owing to IT, partly accounts 

for the enhanced effectiveness of a force, their precision is increasingly both enhanced and exploited 

by networks. 2 Office of the Secretary of Defense, Network-Centric Warfare: Creating a Decisive Warfighting 

Advantage (Washington, DC: Department of Defense, 2004). 3

 Rohan Gunaratna, Inside Al Qaeda: Global Network of Terror (New York: Columbia University 

Press, 2002). 4 Throughout this book we will refer to warfare, combat, and military operations more or less 

interchangeably. Of course, military operations span a broad continuum, including counterterrorist 

actions, peacekeeping, and humanitarian relief. We are convinced that both information networking 

and improved cognition and decisionmaking offer benefits across this continuum. Indeed, operations 

against nonstates and in semipermissive and permissive conditions may be fraught with ambiguity 

and confusion, even if not at the levels of danger and urgency found in fighting the armies of other 

states. The cognitive demands of noncombat operations are different than those of combat but are 

nonetheless formidable, growing, and in need of the same attention. Thus, the thrust of this book can 

be applied to combat and noncombat operations alike. 5 Office of the Secretary of Defense, Network-Centric Warfare. 6 Office of the Secretary of Defense, Military Transformation: A Strategic Approach (Washington, DC: Department of Defense, 2003). 7 For instance, David S. Alberts and Richard E. Hayes, Power to the Edge: Command and Control 

in the Information Age (Vienna, VA: CCRP, 2004), is a superb and seminal book on implications of networking. It touches on but does not explore how “sense-making” and decisionmaking are affected and 

how training and education should be tailored in light of network-centric capabilities and concepts. 8 Nowhere is the history of military technology better narrated and explained than in Martin 

van Creveld's Technology and War: From 2000 B.C. to the Present (New York: Free Press, 1991), in which 

he traces the progression from the stone hand-axe and sharpened flint to computers. Van Creveld did 
 BATTLE-WISE 11

not foresee the impact of networked warfare. Instead, he expected that “cybernetics” and computers 

would open the door to the “quantification” of warfare, whereby civilian managers, analysts, and economists would have growing influence over everything from logistics to operations. He also warned of 

the danger that computers would cause militaries to ignore those factors that cannot be reduced to 

numbers, such as ferocity and morale. 9 U.S. and allied forces had many advantages, including superior equipment, firepower, quality, 

discipline, and doctrine. However, what accounted for the remarkable speed of victory for a comparatively small force was the awareness, integration, and precision afforded by information systems and 

networks. 10 David C. Gompert, Hans Pung, Kevin A. O’Brien, and Jeffrey Peterson, Stretching the Network: Using Transformed Forces in Demanding Contingencies Other Than War (Santa Monica, CA: 

RAND, 2004). 11 James C. Mulvenon et al., Chinese Response to U.S. Military Transformation and Implications 

for the Department of Defense (Santa Monica, CA: RAND, 2006). 12 Admiral William Owens’ measure of success in a 200 × 200-mile area. 13 Alberts and Hayes. 

14 We recognize that networking may fail if communications links are successfully attacked, 

leaving at least parts of the networked force worse off—less effective and more vulnerable—than had 

they been organized in a traditional way. So far, the threat of such attacks seems great enough to invest 

in countering it but not to inhibit exploitation of networking. 15 Assuming that nuclear weapons remain viewed as highly disadvantageous to the point of 

being unusable. 16 The authors acknowledge the insights of Jeremy Kaplan and the late Vice Admiral Arthur K. 

Cebrowski, USN (Ret.), in recounting this progression of networking. 17 See Alberts and Hayes. Networks are physical, informational, cognitive, and social. 18 These are not all dedicated military information systems; global telecommunications and 

Internet infrastructures are heavily used. 19 Office of the Secretary of Defense, Military Transformation. 20 Ariana Eunjung Cha, “From a Virtual Shadow, Messages of Terror,” The Washington Post, 

October 2, 2004, A1. 21 For example, see the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Improving Warfighter Information Intake Under Stress Project, available at <http://www.darpa.mil/ipto/programs/augcog/>; 

and Martin Burke, Thought Systems and Network Centric Warfare, available at <http://www.dsto.

defence.gov.au/publications/2252/DSTO-RR-0177.pdf>. 22 Malcolm Gladwell, Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking (Boston, MA: Little, 

Brown and Company, 2005). 23 James Surowiecki, The Wisdom of Crowds: Why the Many Are Smarter than the Few and How 

Collective Wisdom Shapes Business, Economies, Societies, and Nations (New York: Random House, 

2004).
12 GOMPERT, LACHOW, AND PERKINS
 BATTLE-WISE 13

13

Chapter Two

Cognitive Demands of 

Networked Warfare

Cognition, Complexity, and Information Networks

Severe cognitive challenges obviously are not confined to warfare or 

to the present. Almost half a century ago, the economist Herbert Simon 

stated:

The capacity of the human mind for formulating and solving complex 

problems is very small compared with the size of the problem whose 

solution is required for objectively rational behavior in the real world 

or even for a reasonable approximation to such objective rationality.1

This gulf between limited minds and complex problems is due to the 

inadequate ability of humans to form mental models to help them discern 

the intricacies of reality. In particular, our mental models of the causes 

and effects of complex and dynamic systems, such as warfare, macroeconomics, and child raising, are grossly simplified compared to the systems 

themselves. Yet forming more complex mental models seems beyond our 

capacity. So humans find themselves trapped in a state of “bounded rationality”—with shortcomings in attention, memory, recall, and information 

processing that limit the ability to comprehend and thus to make sound 

rational judgments.2

 Worse, the ability to reason can fail when it can be 

least afforded, particularly in the face of especially difficult problems. 

Bear in mind, though, that Simon’s observation about the limits

of the human mind predated the information revolution. This begs the 

question: Does (or can) applied IT compensate for deficiencies in humans, mental models and thus improve their ability to solve complex 

problems rationally? Without doubt, computers and networking—especially data networking, which both distributes and integrates computing 

power—have begun to free problem-solving humans from their limited 
14 GOMPERT, LACHOW, AND PERKINS

attention, memory, recall, and processing capacity. Is this not, after all, 

what distributed IT is supposed to do? With electrons and photons doing 

the hard labor of crunching and passing data, can human neurons now 

concentrate more on the faculties that distinguish the species: reasoning, 

wisdom, imagination, and weighing normative values? If so, it follows that 

information networking ought to let humans formulate and solve complex 

problems as never before. 

If, instead, the advent of networked computing and the availability 

of useful data are not noticeably improving the ability of people to solve 

complex problems, maybe it is because we now face—or, thanks to IT 

(ironically), have a heightened awareness of—a more bewildering world. 

The complexities of reality, exacerbated by that information age nemesis, 

information overload, still may be too puzzling even for networked problem-solvers. In that case, the promise of networking is bounded by the 

rationality of humans. 

The truth surely lies somewhere between these alternative conjectures: information networking is unquestionably helping humans solve 

complex problems, but the inadequacy of human cognition when faced 

with complex problems limits the ability of networking to yield better 

results. We find no broad-based empirical proof that the quality of human 

judgment, military or otherwise, has improved generally and appreciably 

with the spread of information networks—not thus far, at least. Computers 

are helpful at solving problems and facilitating decisionmaking of particular sorts, specifically when quantifiable calculations, tons of data, or intricate logic are involved. But they do not ease the burden of making tough 

judgments involving disparate, competing, and subjective values. 

Nor does IT guarantee objectivity, clarity, openness, and good judgment in using information. Glaring examples of misread or misused 

information are easily found. The failure of intelligence analysts and 

government officials—smart individuals, by most measures—to heed and 

share warnings about the threat of a spectacular terrorist operation despite vast data memory, computing, and communications capacity, not to 

mention reports of highly suspicious activity, has been judged as the worst 

avoidable lapse in the failure to prevent the 9/11 attacks.3

 The infamous 

“slam dunk” conclusion that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction 

(WMD), reached by none other than the Director of Central Intelligence, 

is a reminder that considered judgments may be based on a reading of 

information that does not reflect reality. 

Whether or not IT and networking are producing better thinking 

and decisions, the ability of humans to solve complex problems is the crux 
 BATTLE-WISE 15

of the challenge of understanding and coping with our confusing world, 

including the military domain. Any thought that cognition has been made 

less important by information networking surely has been demolished by 

the effect of the Internet, which is already helping much of humanity make 

decisions on matters of every sort, but not making these decisions for 

them. If networking has not so far made people better at solving complex 

problems, including those of warfare, all the more reason to look more 

closely at human cognition and not simply at how to construct wider and 

faster networks. 

The Centrality of the Individual

People have a distinct advantage over the machines they were clever 

enough to invent: the ability to make difficult judgments.4

 The industrial 

age came about because humans, using science and imagination, invented 

machines that outperformed human brawn and reduced the need for

physically hard labor. Machines did not end human work but rather freed 

up people to make more use of their fine skills and their minds, both in 

operating machines and creating better ones. The computer age took off 

because people are better at designing computational and memory devices 

than at computing and memorizing. As networks ingest, sort, bank, and 

move data, people can turn to more cerebral endeavors, where their comparative advantage lies, and thus be more productive.5

 

As the power and uses of information systems rise, the human mind 

will find higher ground, as it is wont to do. People may not even hold for 

long an advantage over computers in contingency planning and foreseeing future moves, as evidenced by the success of the IBM Big Blue chessplaying computer against the top human player. But people are unrivalled 

when it comes to balancing and blending data, ideas, and values; combing 

and combining operational, technical, and political facts; being cautious 

or courageous, as called for; sensing intentions; imagining and pretending; exhibiting loyalty and trust; knowing right from wrong; and relating 

to other people. 

In this context, the networked, problem-solving person with access 

to information is increasingly being recognized as the true center of many 

complex and dynamic systems. Therefore, understanding how individuals 

reach decisions, and can be helped to reach better informed and sounder 

ones, is important in improving the performance of such human-centric 

systems, of which military action is but one case.6

 The above-average 

high school graduate is another example. Whether he or she opts to go to 
16 GOMPERT, LACHOW, AND PERKINS

college, get a job, or join the Armed Forces hinges on his or her ability, 

with or without parental input, to sort through a vast array of competing information, make sense of the life implications, and choose among 

quite different possibilities. Higher education systems, job markets, and 

military force planning all hinge on the informed reasoning of teenagers. 

Moreover, these systems are made interdependent by the common individual decisionmaker at their center. The better the individual decisions, 

the better these systems and set of systems work. The Internet provides 

pathways to vast amounts of information bearing on these decisions, but 

17-year-olds make them.

In the field of health care, better informed individuals—aided in 

many cases by their own Internet research—can shift market power from 

the medical, drug, and insurance industries to those with the strongest interest in, and ultimate responsibility for, health: the patients. In these and 

other such cases, the more knowledgeable the end-user and the better his 

or her ability to locate and pull useful information to assist in decisions, 

the better the decisions, the greater the leverage of the individual, and the 

better the performance of the whole system.7

 We now see this dramatically 

in air travel, where the full-service, higher-cost airlines are being challenged not only by cut-rate ones, but also by Internet-savvy customers 

seeking the best value.

Nearer the military realm, the individual problem-solver also stands 

at the center of complex systems for managing emergencies, such as public 

health scares, terrorist threats, and natural disasters. The first responder, 

informed by firsthand observation and by information from a network, 

is often in the best position to decide the critical initial course of action. 

The policeman, fireman, or emergency room physician usually will rely on 

some mix of intuition and reasoning, with the former preponderant when 

time is short and the latter increasingly involved as time permits. In turn, 

information from that first responder can be made available throughout 

the entire network, helping others to understand what is happening. 

If the first responder is unable to handle the crisis, he or she is usually 

in the best position to judge what sort of help is needed and how urgently, 

and then to call for it. In a complex disaster, a fire-fighting team leader in 

need of hazardous-material and emergency-medical back-up cannot afford to pass the call for help up a departmental chain of command, across 

to other departmental chains of command, all the while waiting for an 

answer to come back down. In such cases, linked individuals—peer-topeer in networking jargon—perform better than arms-length hierarchies 

linked at the top.
 BATTLE-WISE 17

Of course, as we know from the unsatisfactory government response to the flooding of New Orleans caused by Hurricane Katrina, 

hierarchies—even those chartered to handle emergencies, like the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Department of Homeland

Security—are prone to failure. While the availability of information was 

hindered somewhat by the damage to communications links on the Gulf 

Coast, the failure to help those stranded by Katrina was largely the result of 

poor human cognition. The inability of individual decisionmakers up and 

down the levels of government to comprehend and formulate solutions to 

nature’s sudden complexity supports Herbert Simon’s insight that mental 

models are weak and often flawed representations of reality.

 After decades of preoccupation with the technology, organizations, 

and processes of complex systems, this growing respect for the role of 

the informed individual is altering the way such human-centric systems 

work. More emphasis is being placed on giving the individual the ability 

to draw upon copious and relevant information and the authority to act 

on it. By increasing the decisionmaking possibilities and market power of 

individuals, networking increases the importance of the cognitive ability 

of individuals to use information to reach sound rational judgments. 

There is no reason to think that military operations and forces, 

with the warfighter at the center, are exempt from the general effects of 

information, complexity, and human rationality that abound in the larger 

world. No field of human endeavor has experienced more turmoil of late. 

In none is there greater need for improved, informed decisionmaking in 

the face of urgency, uncertainty, and change.

The Effects of the Information and Geopolitical Revolutions

Figure 2–1 depicts how the context of military forces and operations has changed radically in two ways over the past 15 years or so. 

First, as already noted, technologies spawned by the information revolution now can deliver data of unprecedented volume, quality, and speed to 

forces that apply network principles in the way they organize and operate. 

Second, with the end of the East-West stalemate, geopolitical upheaval is 

causing continuing turbulence and unpredictability at the global, regional, 

and local levels—in military parlance, at the strategic, operational, and 

tactical levels. As figure 2–1 suggests, it is uncertain which effect will be 

stronger in the future: the clarity resulting from more and better information or the complexity caused by increased turmoil. The interplay of these 
18 GOMPERT, LACHOW, AND PERKINS

two revolutions is complicated by the fact that plentiful information, unless properly organized, can aggravate rather than ameliorate complexity.

Figure 2–1. Interplay of Two Revolutions

Even before these dual revolutions, making reasoned and timely decisions in the violent crush of warfare was a challenge. The trail of military 

misjudgments—hopeless head-on assaults, failure to heed clear warnings, 

unwarranted caution, lost opportunities—rivals the history of mistakes 

in any field of human activity. The heart of such difficulty is, as Simon 

observed, that people are not very good at solving complex problems rationally.8

 The more complex the problem, the greater the distance between

reality and the model of reality the mind forms to fathom and solve the 

problem. 

If humans are not well equipped to solve complex problems rationally in general, they must be especially handicapped trying to do so during war, when stakes are high, truth is elusive, time is short, and a mortal 

enemy shares the battlefield. As confusion, intensity, danger, and, above 

all, urgency increase, military personnel tend to cast aside structured reasoning and rely mainly or exclusively on intuition. Instead of the logical, 

analytical, inquisitive, and quantitative capacities of the brain, these pressures can cause combatants, and others in analogous situations, to turn to 
 BATTLE-WISE 19

the spatial, imaginative, form-over-details capacities. Thus, even though 

analysis may be the right response to complexity—analytically speaking—the complexity of warfare may steer the decisionmaker in exactly the 

opposite direction.

Intuition and Reasoning

It is said that the human brain is the most versatile and finely constructed object known, although its design and functioning are not fully 

understood. Intuition, the power to attain direct knowledge or cognition 

without evident rational thought and inference, is one of the least understood aspects of how the brain works. It enables unconscious problemsolving, which may seem simple—like having a hunch or “gut feel”—but 

in fact involves complex brain activity. Although intuition is more than 

learning from repetitive experience, it does appear to function more effectively in dealing with familiar circumstances than with strange ones. 

Indeed, the aspect of intuition most germane to our inquiry into battlefield 

cognition and decisionmaking is its relationship to prior experience.9

 

Research shows that decisions in combat, as in other intense and 

urgent circumstances, are made mainly using intuition—the sense of 

drawing on experience and going with familiar solutions—rather than 

analyzing and comparing the costs and benefits of multiple options. Up 

to a point, this is understandable, natural, and desirable. Sound intuition, 

born of experience, separates competent warfighters from less competent 

ones and seasoned warfighters from novices.

Any veteran of combat knows it would be wrong to dismiss the 

importance of intuition and the reliability of snap judgments, even when 

information is plentiful. In Blink, Gladwell details numerous cases in 

which persons are able to reach conclusions within minutes or even seconds that are as good as those reached through methodical research and 

deliberation. Such “fast and frugal” thinking—or “thin-slicing”—is based 

on subtle, even unconscious, rapid screening of information to spot key 

data that tend to yield sound interpretation and choice. Far from failing in 

the face of complexity, cognition based on first glance can be of great value 

when people need to “make sense of a lot of new and confusing information in a very short time.” 

It is important to note, however, that this ability to judge and decide 

upon bits of key information, as Gladwell explains it, comes with longterm, repetitive experience, education, expertise, and discipline. Such 

shortcutting depends on familiarity with the sort of problem being faced. 
20 GOMPERT, LACHOW, AND PERKINS

Moreover, it can lead to mistakes, especially when one does not know 

whether to trust one’s instincts or be wary of them.10 In essence, it is possible to form reliable models of reality and draw on experience to solve 

complex problems, provided circumstances are not too new and strange.

Yet it is precisely because complex military-operational problems are 

often new and strange that they cry out for reasoning, however hard it may 

be in the circumstances.11 It can only help, time permitting, to sift through 

more information, apply logic, and perform analysis, if only to check first 

impressions and buttress intuition. After all, the main reason to rely on 

experiential intuition is urgency, not a belief that experience is unfailing 

or that added data and careful reasoning are superfluous. Yet confidence 

in experience, and thus intuition, must be tempered by the fact that the 

conditions and conduct of warfare have become anything but repetitive 

and familiar.12 What worked in the Gulf War did not much apply in Bosnia; the Kosovo campaign did not provide a template for Afghanistan; the 

way Baghdad was taken in 2003 offered few pointers for battling insurgents and terrorists in 2004; and block-to-block fighting in Fallujah will 

not prepare U.S. forces for a confrontation with the Chinese in the Taiwan 

Strait. Just as each contingency may be new and strange, so may specific 

predicaments in which troops find themselves. Being fired upon from the 

minaret of a mosque is something few if any U.S. Soldiers experienced 

before they arrived in Iraq. 

In the current fluid security environment, the odds are poor that 

a given soldier heading into a given military contingency will have had 

enough analogous experience to create a reliable mental model or rely 

solely on intuition. Of course, experience can be shared, in effect, through 

training. However, insofar as training is predicated on the set of problems 

that forces have faced in recent years, its value will be reduced if the next 

decade is unlike the last one—as it may well be. For this reason, new 

training methods are needed and are being tried to bolster decisionmaking—despite the unfamiliarity that comes from systemic and situational 

turbulence. 

Because it upsets intuition, change increases the importance of reasoning in warfare. But it hardly makes it easier. The quickening pace of 

warfare shortens the opportunity for reasoning. Champions of networking 

claim that speed and the ability to act faster than the opponent are critical 

to success and that networking is the key enabler of the battlespace awareness necessary for speed.13 While this is true, networking compresses time 

in warfare for both sides, not just the other side. In some circumstances, 

neither enough time nor enough data may be available to evaluate and 
 BATTLE-WISE 21

compare options before acting. So the same forces that make reasoning 

more crucial also make it harder—too hard to count on it exclusively. The 

challenge, then, is to improve both reasoning and intuition, for both are 

indispensable.14 The “co-operation” of reasoning and intuition is as important in warfare as the “co-operation” of the brain’s two sides is to effective 

thinking.

In combat, it may be crucial to think through whether subsequent 

options are being opened or closed by actions taken, and whether probabilistic outcomes are worth the cost. The combination of unstable security 

conditions, the predilection for irregular warfare among U.S. adversaries, 

and the quickening pace of military operations make it at once harder and 

more crucial to peer beyond the immediate. This puts a premium on the 

ability to identify not one future but a range of them and alternative ways 

of approaching or avoiding these futures as well as possible reactions by 

the adversary. Such complexity historically has challenged human thinking even under calm and peaceful conditions. It explains why persons 

who need to make hard but prompt decisions rely on intuition instead of 

analysis, and why they often grab the most obvious solution in their kit of 

experience instead of pondering the options. Such inherent bias offers all 

the more reason to strengthen and harmonize both the intuitive and the 

rational aspects of cognition in combat.

A metaphor for the cooperation between reasoning and intuition 

can be found in the story of two famous and successful generals, Dwight 

Eisenhower and George Patton. By all accounts, Eisenhower was the 

archetypical rational analyst, relying on attention to detail, logic, and objectivity. Patton was nearly the opposite: he was known for his ability to 

size up a situation with astounding speed, cut to the heart of a problem, 

and grasp the right course of action without weighing options. While the 

former strove for perfection in patient planning and consideration of multiple contingencies, the latter moved rapidly from problem to decision to 

action. According to historian Stephen Ambrose:

Patton . . . was given to . . . flashes of brilliant insight. [H]e was much 

taken by his own déjà vu and the sensation of having been somewhere 

before; he devoutly believed that he had fought with Alexander the 

Great and with Napoleon. . . . Eisenhower had a steady, orderly mind. 

When he looked at a problem, he would take everything into account, 

weigh possible alternatives, and deliberately decide on a course of 

action. Patton seldom arrived at a solution through an intellectual 
22 GOMPERT, LACHOW, AND PERKINS

process; rather, he felt that this or that was what he should do, and 

he did it.15

By knowing and valuing each other’s character—actually, the 

thoughtful Eisenhower regarded the intuitive Patton more highly than the 

other way around—the two generals made a potent duo that proved victorious in one of the most critical campaigns in history: the defeat of the 

Wehrmacht in France following the Normandy invasion.

Does the effectiveness of a strong rational decisionmaker working 

in tandem with a strong intuitive one mean that these important qualities 

can be distributed among two or more individuals who are then enabled 

to work together? If so, it may be easier to realize the cooperation of reasoning and intuition by the way people are teamed up and learn to benefit 

from one another’s cognitive gifts. After all, one of the chief benefits of 

networking is that it permits individuals of complementary capabilities 

to combine advantageously. Collective wisdom, operational teaming, and 

awareness of how colleagues think are all important aspects of cognitive 

enhancement. However, because the single, accountable decisionmaker is 

and will remain critical to combat performance, especially when time is 

short, the military must strive to find, develop, and use the individual—the 

“Ike Patton,” if you will—within whom reliable intuition and strong reasoning coexist and cooperate. 

The benefits of an Eisenhower-Patton combination are more apparent when compared with the legendary intuition of another famous 

figure, George Armstrong Custer. Renowned for his derring-do—unfairly, 

history paints him as immature, impulsive, not entirely under control, and 

even “half mad”—Custer was in reality an exceptionally effective intuitive decisionmaker. As a Union cavalry commander, he was “preeminent 

among his peers” and regarded as a gifted improviser who knew how to 

“feint, lure, fluster, and tire” his enemy. The so-called Boy General won 

battle after battle, as well as the confidence of his men. Being “quick in observation and clear in judgment” were especially important attributes for a 

cavalry officer, given the fluidity and unpredictability of operations.16

At the Battle of the Little Big Horn, however, intuition led Custer and 

his force to disaster. Custer was sure that splitting the 7th Cavalry into a 

hammer (under his command) and an anvil (under a subordinate) would 

crush the Sioux force in the middle. In fact, he was so confident that he did 

not consider what would happen or what his forces could do if the anvil 

failed to fix the Sioux so that the hammer could fall. While it is unknown, 

for obvious reasons, what went through Custer’s head before the end, 
 BATTLE-WISE 23

historians believe that he and his men lasted no more than 15 panic-filled 

minutes from the moment the plan failed. One rigorous analysis of the battlefield’s artifacts suggests not a valiant “last stand” against an overwhelming force but a risky offensive strategy leading to “sudden, unexpected, and 

irreversible collapse.”17 Ironically, it was not careful reasoning but failed 

intuition that left Custer short on time. Yet the lesson of Custer is not as 

simple as intuition-gone-awry. Rather, it is that exceptional intuition can 

deliver stunning success in challenging operations, but that the failure to 

enrich it with objective analysis can deliver just the opposite.

Make no mistake, intuitive decisionmaking can be invaluable in 

war. With occasional exceptions, such as Eisenhower, great commanders 

typically are blessed with great intuition. Intuition confers abilities to make 

quick decisions, size up risks, relate reality to experience, see patterns, 

sense the enemy’s perspective, seize opportunities and initiative, and win 

the confidence of subordinates. In screening, assigning, developing, and 

assessing individuals for command, weak intuition should be a red flag.

Our point is not that strong intuition is unnecessary but that it could 

be insufficient. Again, there are three reasons for this. First, networked 

information—more, better, faster—can best be exploited in structured 

cognition and decisionmaking. Second, in today’s fluid security and 

operational conditions, the need for speed, thus for intuition, must be 

balanced with the need for comprehension of the unfamiliar, thus for reasoning. Third, new methods of rapid-adaptive decisionmaking, like those 

suggested in this book, allow reasoning to complement intuition without 

sacrificing timeliness. The ability to use intuitive powers to make “good 

enough” provisional decisions, to gain both time and information, and to 

create space for reasoning, despite urgency, offers a way to capitalize on 

networked information and to confront change. Reasoning should not 

come at the expense of intuition, nor derogate from its importance. Rather, 

it can take advantage of good intuition. While the intuitive decisionmaker 

is still preferred, the intuitive decisionmaker who knows how to blend 

reasoning without losing time is better still.

The Role of Networking in Decisionmaking

In essence, then, the combination of the information and geopolitical 

revolutions has:

■ compounded the challenge of military-operational problem-solving
24 GOMPERT, LACHOW, AND PERKINS

provided tools—those of information networking—to surmount this

challenge

made intuition less reliable but not less important

increased the demand for reasoning under conditions that do not

favor it. 

The central question with which these effects leave us is whether networking offers an opportunity for sound and rapid reasoning and, thus, for 

better decisionmaking in war.

While networking provides many advantages, reducing the demands

on military personnel to make reasoned decisions is not one of them. 

Although IT does a good deal of the mental work previously demanded 

of humans—navigating, fusing data from multiple sensors, communicating among many and sundry stations, keeping track of forces, targets, and 

supplies, and computing fire-control solutions—it leaves hard decisions 

to people. While networked coalition forces quickly dispatched Saddam 

Hussein’s army in pitched battle, they subsequently faced more perplexing choices: Do they attack militants holed up in a Muslim holy site? Do 

they detain all young men in a neighborhood who look like they could be 

insurgents? Where will the terrorists strike next? Should an untested battalion of the new Iraqi army be depended on? 

The value of well-designed and readily accessible data networking is 

that it can increase the amount, promptness, reliability, and relevance of 

information, as well as the possibilities of collaborative reasoning available to the decisionmaker. While mental models may not be improved, 

networking can augment them by efficiently offering a more faithful, 

timely, and complete representation of reality, along with more options 

for action.18 

In warfare, if anything is as cherished as information, it is time (not 

counting ammunition, of course). Networked information cannot actually 

slow the passage of time. But it can enhance a quality we call time-information—essentially the product of time and information. In decisionmaking, 

time can be made more valuable if it is used to gather, evaluate, and exploit 

information.19 Conversely, the ready availability of credible and useful 

information can, in effect, make time more productive, compensate for a 

lack of it, or, in effect, make it last longer. As noted, the more complex and 

fluid the world security environment is, and the more unfamiliar militaryoperational conditions are, the greater the need to augment intuition with 

strong reasoning. Although the quickening tempo of warfare effectively 

can compress the time available for reasoning, information networking 

■

■

■
 BATTLE-WISE 25

can decompress time. This may increase the opportunity for, and improve 

the quality of, reasoning, thus improving operational performance. 

The quality of a decision improves as a function of both time and 

information. Time and information show a strong positive correlation: 

the more time, the greater the chance to acquire more information; the 

more information, the more effectively time can be used. Moving from 

past to present to future, the time available to military decisionmakers is 

declining, but the information available is increasing. More (or better) information can make up for a lack of time. Up to a point, information networking can compensate for a lack of time in that it can conserve or create 

time otherwise consumed by chasing, gathering, and sifting through data. 

Thus, the enhancement of time-information, thanks to networked information, could improve the quality of urgent decisions.

To illustrate, figure 2–2 shows the change in quality of decisionmaking as a function of time-information. An increase in time or information 

(from point A to point B) introduces reason into decisionmaking, which 

begins to improve quality. An increase in time and information favors 

reasoning and significantly improves decisionmaking (point C). This dramatic improvement in decisionmaking continues until a point is reached 

where additional increases in time and information provide only diminishing returns (point D). Many of the sorts of problems warfighters face 

in the age of networked warfare involve abundant information and scarce 

time. Networking, though, can help problem-solving by enhancing timeinformation to permit reasoning despite urgency.

Figure 2–2. Improving Cognition by Enhancing Time-Information
26 GOMPERT, LACHOW, AND PERKINS

In addition to helping the individual warfighter solve complex problems and make hard choices, information networking affords warfighters 

more opportunity to sense, think, and work collaboratively. Networking 

can not only provide collective awareness but also galvanize collective intelligence, or “group wisdom.”20 Moreover, as more individuals are given 

the chance to use their minds, dependence on a few minds at the top of the 

pyramid—bounded and fallible, for all their experience and rank—can be 

reduced. In the future, the term military genius may apply less to cerebral 

admirals and generals than to brilliant forces. 

While networking eases some of the cognitive challenges of military 

operations, it may magnify others. Plentiful information not only can improve situational awareness, but it also can add to the burden of judging the 

relevance, quality, and accuracy of so much data. By revealing complexity 

in greater detail, networking can make problems more intimidating. In 

addition, handling information systems can distract soldiers. Networked 

information may even lead to the mistaken belief that it spares people the 

need to make decisions. True, certain decision processes can be largely or 

entirely automated, such as when a pilot needs only to release a precisionguided weapon upon receipt of unambiguous data from a target-tracking 

sensor. But the tougher and graver the decision, the more irreplaceable the 

human. A crucial prerequisite of battle-wisdom is the willingness to take 

responsibility for solving a problem, as well as for the consequences of the 

solution. 

In the future, military power will depend on the connection between networking and thinking. It is at this nexus that more research, 

experimentation, and investment should be targeted. IT, the networking 

that employs the technology, and the information supplied by networking 

are only tools. They can leave the user better informed, but not smarter. 

Enhanced time-information only provides an opportunity to reason and 

thus to make better judgments. It takes the human mind to turn this into 

a gain in battle. 

Messiness, Ambiguity, and Stress 

A closer look at the changing international security landscape 

reinforces the need to move beyond networking in the quest for military 

advantage. Moving down the ladder of dangers, from a large and advanced 

strategic challenger to many devious and resourceful sub- and transnational 

enemies to chaotic civil wars and humanitarian calamities, conditions become both less familiar and less defined for the decisionmakers involved. 
 BATTLE-WISE 27

The post–Cold War experience, so far, implies a future with many different types of military contingencies, as well as the countless and unforeseeable twists and turns that each contingency can take. Network-enhanced 

cognition can help people grapple with such variability. 

Perhaps the greatest ambiguity is that war and peace are becoming 

less dichotomous. The boundary between them is both fuzzy and fluid—

shifting from one village to the next, from one day to the next, even from 

one observer to the next on the same day in the same village. Yesterday’s 

bystanders could be tomorrow’s enemies or allies. Soldiers must not only 

distinguish between conditions of war and peace but also make sound 

decisions in the treacherous gray area between them. This can introduce 

cognitive demands more taxing than in outright war—demands that fall 

mainly on soldiers in the field, who are face-to-face with the messiness of 

reality.

Ambiguity challenges both the intuitive and rational components

of cognition. In Iraq, warfare, terrorism, civil unrest, and crime occur 

simultaneously; failure to tell the difference and act accordingly can cause 

dreadful results, such as going too easy on terrorists or too hard on unruly but non-threatening citizens. Because military forces are increasingly 

involved in situations other than war, they must be able to judge whether 

an apparent opponent is an enemy to be destroyed, a criminal to be apprehended, an angry citizen to be pacified, or perhaps a desperate human 

to be helped. Doing what is right demands an understanding not only of 

the efficacy but also of the legitimacy, even the morality, of an action. Networking cannot do this. Warfighters must.

As discussed above, information from networking can save time 

to enable reasoning in every sort of contingency, from nonpermissive to 

semipermissive to permissive.21 But the more chaotic the operating circumstances, the less that information, however well collected, processed, 

and distributed, can substitute for judgment. To a degree, computers can 

indicate where and when to shoot an unambiguous enemy. However, the 

unforeseen contingencies and unfamiliar circumstances in which forces 

often find themselves in the new security environment demand more and 

better human judgment.

In general, the urgency, intensity, and ambiguity of warfare militate 

against considered reasoning in decisionmaking. Three other distinguishing characteristics of war can challenge judgment: the requirement to know 

right from wrong, the presence of an intelligent enemy with diametrically 

opposite aims, and the growing interdependence and collaboration among 

military units that are both distributed and integrated by networking. 
28 GOMPERT, LACHOW, AND PERKINS

More than most human endeavors, warfare is fraught with moral 

dilemmas and judgments. Our cause is right; the opponent’s is wrong. Killing enemy combatants in action is right; killing noncombatants is wrong; 

killing suspected combatants might be right or wrong. Ending violence 

is right under some conditions and wrong under others. Aggression is 

wrong; self-defense is right; preemption may be right if attack is likely 

and imminent. Courage is admirable; placing one’s troops unnecessarily 

in harm’s way is shameful. Ethics not only exceed the capability of any 

computer, thankfully, but also make rational military decisionmaking that 

much harder.

Locking horns with a determined and mortal enemy also separates

military decisionmaking from other cognitive challenges, except for law 

enforcement and particularly nasty competitive business markets.

22 The 

most formidable military opponents are those who are able to confuse and 

complicate the decisionmaking of one’s own forces. An adversary who is 

trying to seed confusion makes warfare a highly dynamic system, and far 

more complex than any mental model of reality a military decisionmaker 

can form. 

Interdependence demands that decisions take into account the activities, contributions, and needs of friendly forces, especially those involved 

in networked collaboration. It means, at a minimum, that warfighters 

who use the network, not just senior force commanders, must appreciate 

how their choices and actions will affect others and how the information 

they have could benefit others. Because networking permits integrated, 

cross-service operations, these interdependencies may be with units and 

people that are distant, diverse, and unfamiliar. While decentralization of 

authority and horizontal collaboration can improve the performance of 

a networked military force, they also multiply cause-and-effect connections and the potential for unintended and unforeseeable consequences. 

As networking pervades forces and operations, integration will deepen, 

interdependence—of information, people, and action—will increase, and 

decisionmaking will become even harder. 

Compared to traditional formations, a networked military unit depends more upon capabilities, such as sensors, supplies, and firepower, 

that are not under its control or necessarily in the same immediate chain of 

command or service. In turn, a unit may be depended on just as vitally by 

others to provide information, support, or reinforcement. The U.S. Special 

Operations Forces (SOF) operating in Afghanistan were feeding data to 

Air Force and Navy air planners and pilots and, in turn, relying on the re-
 BATTLE-WISE 29

sulting strikes to help them defeat enemy forces.23 Such links may change, 

perhaps suddenly and often, in the course of battle.

As if military problems were not hard enough, now they are interwoven. As a unit’s actions affect and are affected by others on the network, 

its decisionmakers must take these dependencies into account, adding 

to the complexity and pressure of war. The commander of air operations 

must integrate the use of land- and ship-based aircraft, respond to calls for 

support from multiple ground units, and take account of targets that can 

be destroyed by missiles, helicopter gunships, or SOF instead of airpower. 

Optimization of weapons-on-targets and other resource-allocation tasks 

can be aided by computers, but the decisions and responsibilities will continue to fall on human shoulders. 

This combination of moral dilemmas, intelligent opponents, and 

interdependence amplifies Simon’s warning that the dynamic systems of 

the real world may be too complex for the human mind to fathom and 

for mental models to accommodate. It underscores the importance and 

difficulty of improving both the reliability of intuition and the speed of 

reasoning. 

Granting Authority and Taking Responsibility

These special features of warfare point to yet another heavy demand 

on the warfighter: the willingness to take responsibility for decisions and 

be held accountable for the results. Our armed services have long believed 

and taught that this attribute, not hierarchical standing or career longevity, 

is a hallmark of true leadership. But the decentralization of decisionmaking authority, made possible by networking and made necessary by complexity, means that more people, and more junior people, will have to take 

responsibility. Far from making leadership less important, networking 

gives it a more expansive meaning and demands more of it. 

The attitude toward information and authority in the senior ranks is 

crucial, of course. It is senseless—battle-dumb, if you will—for top commanders to hoard information when networking allows them to share 

it.24 But authority can be hoarded, too. When it is, the value of distributed 

information can be drained by commanders who fail to grant subordinates 

in the field the authority to decide how to handle threats and opportunities 

within broad mission guidance. Before networking, commanders could 

have legitimate concerns about whether juniors had enough information 

to decide wisely. With networking, any lingering reluctance to diffuse 
30 GOMPERT, LACHOW, AND PERKINS

authority presumably stems from the doubts of seniors that juniors are 

sufficiently trained or experienced to be trusted. 

Such doubts are exacerbated by the fact that the messiness of military 

operations in the new security environment increases the potential for 

nasty and consequential mistakes, such as friendly fire or noncombatant 

deaths, any of which could be on Western or Arab television that same day. 

A good leader would prefer to be able to say that he or she, not a subordinate, made a costly misjudgment. With journalists embedded in combat 

units, the heightened visibility and sensitivity of what happens in the field 

militates against delegation of authority—exactly the opposite of what networking permits and conditions demand. The answer to this dilemma is 

not to deplete the value of networking by centralizing control but to invest 

in the cognitive, problem-solving skills of subordinates. 

Lately, the U.S. armed services have been recruiting more people, 

officers as well as enlisted, with higher education and giving people more 

education while they serve.25 This reflects the increasing sophistication 

of tasks—especially cognitive tasks—required of them. More than that, it 

reflects the fact that networking permits and rewards the distribution of 

responsibilities through and down the ranks, from senior to junior officers 

and from officers to noncommissioned officers (NCOs). Organizations 

that conform to networking principles and want to tap the talent of informed and enfranchised people expect more from each person. 

Distribution of information and problem-solving capacity will improve the performance of a force only if accompanied by readiness of senior leaders to share authority and of junior leaders to take responsibility. 

There are indications that many senior U.S. military leaders “get it.” For all 

the difficulties U.S. troops have faced in Iraq, examples abound of junior 

officers and NCOs being given the latitude to decide how to handle delicate and dangerous situations. Just as important, junior officers and NCOs 

are readily accepting the responsibility and showing initiative and wisdom. 

The New Yorker reports the case of a lieutenant colonel, faced with a mob 

of Iraqis “shrieking and frantic with rage,” who ordered his troops to “take 

a knee” and point their weapons to the ground. The situation was defused 

and a bloodbath averted.26 The urgency, messiness, and unpredictability 

inherent in coping with an elusive insurgency, professional terrorists, and 

a volatile citizenry leave little alternative to authority shared and responsibility taken. 

Because distributed information permits distributed decisionmaking, subordinate units should have both increased autonomy and correspondingly increased accountability. Loosely speaking, decisions once 
 BATTLE-WISE 31

made by major generals could be made by majors. This obviously will add 

to stress and strain on the average major (and perhaps to the anxiety of 

the average major general). But it also could save precious time—another 

example of how networking can, in effect, counter urgency and expand 

the opportunity for reasoning. Happening upon a terrorist stronghold, 

a company commander—analogous to the emergency first responder 

described earlier—should be able to call an instant submarine-launched 

cruise-missile strike, instead of going up his or her Army chain of command through a joint force commander and then back down the Navy 

chain of command. Failure to distribute authority can defeat the purposes 

of distributed information and forces and can rob a force of the gains in 

time-information offered by networking.

Meanwhile, the cognitive demands on the major are changing from

carrying out instructions and reporting the results vertically to interacting along horizontal and diagonal axes of a network, with both more 

decisionmaking authority and greater interdependence in a web of many 

decisionmakers. Because networked forces are better than hierarchical 

ones at shifting gears, directions, and configurations, the individual must 

be able to mix reason and intuition with greater flexibility and speed, not 

just in reaction to shifting orders but as a semi-autonomous actor in a 

shifting system. If this all sounds chaotic, imagine using deadly force in 

the midst of it, while taking fire. Military analysts who opine about the 

imperative of networked warfare should bear in mind the mental demands 

it places on the practitioners who are responsible for the consequences of 

real decisions.

An officer charged with leading an assault on a suspected insurgent 

hideout must be able to process conflicting intelligence reports from multiple sources as well as options for using his own troops, the availability 

of back-up firepower, different tactics the terrorists could use, the risks to 

bystanders, the aim of minimizing his unit’s casualties, and the danger of 

triggering antipathy among the population. This must all be done quickly 

enough to prevent the insurgents from being tipped off and escaping. 

Those who can make such decisions—from platoon commander to force 

commander—can expand the capabilities, performance, and survivability 

of their forces. 

 In sum, people in networked warfare must be able to think and 

willing to decide in strange and violent situations with greater speed, situational and contextual awareness, accountability, and interdependence with 

others, while being deluged with information of uneven importance and 

quality—all on top of the familiar pressures surrounding decisionmaking 
32 GOMPERT, LACHOW, AND PERKINS

in battle. They must overcome the basic difficulty humans have in grasping and solving complex problems, with IT both helping and complicating 

that task. 

Cracking the Urgency Problem with Battle-Wisdom

The analysis thus far suggests that the cognitive effectiveness of 

warfighters, forces, and decisionmaking must draw upon both reasoning 

and intuition, and that it must improve. This is a substantial challenge, 

given that reasoning requires time and intuition requires experience, both 

of which may be in short supply. The demands placed by urgency, unfamiliarity, and the importance of the interests at stake on military decisionmaking are depicted in figure 2–3:

the greater the urgency, the greater the reliance on intuition

the greater the unfamiliarity, the greater the demand for reasoning

the more important the stakes, the greater the demand for reasoning.

Of course, any given military-operational problem might fall anywhere in this box. Overall, however, 21st-century warfare regularly confronts its practitioners with problems of high degrees of difficulty in all 

three respects (the shaded box). This is true now more than ever. 

Figure 2–3. Problem Dimensions in 21st-Century Warfare

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 BATTLE-WISE 33

Nothing can be done to make military decisions less important. 

Similarly, not much can be done to make problems more repetitive and 

less strange in this turbulent security environment, though some training 

methods can help people cope with unfamiliarity. However, as already 

noted, there are ways to alleviate urgency. Doing so would expand the opportunity to reason and reduce reliance on pure intuition. Thus, a central 

question of this book is how to utilize networked information to ease the 

urgency problem. 

More than merely a combination of timely reasoning and reliable

intuition, 21st-century warfare demands the integration of these two 

components of cognition into the savvy-yet-methodical quality we call 

battle-wisdom. As we develop this concept in the chapters to come, we will 

see that battle-wisdom embodies particular cognitive abilities—namely, 

anticipation, decision speed, opportunism, and rapid adaptability—that 

can make a difference in networked warfare. For now, suffice it to say that 

battle-wise individuals, teams, and forces are able to create time-information advantages by making swift yet sound decisions using intuition and 

reasoning in the heat and fog of combat. 

The sine qua non of battle-wisdom is that warfighters have access 

to whatever information they need to have a full and clear picture of reality, inform their decisionmaking, collaborate with fellow forces, and gain 

advantage over the enemy. Soldiers cannot make more sense and better 

use of information they do not have. With present technology, the best 

way to share information through networks is by “post-and-smart-pull,” 

whereby providers make available potentially useful, often new information via the network, and users have the knowledge and technical means 

to extract and process what is useful for their situational needs.27 With few 

exceptions, this is how the World Wide Web works, and why it works so 

well. Just as the Web defers to inquisitive yet discriminating users, military 

networking works better when guided by the invisible hand of informed 

user-need. Among other things, being battle-wise includes knowing what 

information to pull. 

The alternative is for senders—headquarters and intelligence 

sources—to bombard all users with all information or else to decide specifically what information each user should get. The former is a recipe 

for information glut; the latter, apart from consuming precious time, 

overlooks the fact that the user usually knows his or her own needs better 

than the sender does. As Google, Yahoo, and others have shown, finding information is done by powerful and efficient search engines with, 

at most, modest regard for the relative utility, refinement, and priority of 
34 GOMPERT, LACHOW, AND PERKINS

the data they retrieve. The network software that enables users to search 

effortlessly and instantly for every morsel of potentially interesting information is arguably the most important new invention since the advent of 

the Internet.

In contrast, pulling and processing the right information requires a 

sharp sense of utility and priority (or curiosity plus leisure time)—thus the 

term smart pull. Military headquarters staffs and network managers are 

not well enough informed to know what each user needs at every point 

in time. It is more fruitful to improve the ability of each user to know 

what information he or she needs and can obtain than to try to make 

headquarters omniscient. In time, the smart user will be aided by “smartpush” technologies and a related facility known as “content staging,” which 

embed in the network knowledge of the user’s needs and interests. Even 

then, the aim of satisfying the warfighter’s decisionmaking needs will be 

paramount.

Potentially helpful information comes not just from headquarters 

but from anyone on the network. For example, two U.S. Army company 

commanders (without seeking Army approval or support) created a Web 

site known as Companycommand.org and, later, one called Platoonleader.

org.28 Although these sites are not part of any combat-operational network, warfighters in Iraq have found them very helpful in coping with 

strange and hazardous situations. Of course, those who post potentially 

useful information on such sites are virtually clueless about the specific 

information needs of any given user at any given moment. The same can 

be said for operational networks. In this sense, some form of smart pull 

(preferably assisted by the network) is and will remain fundamental to 

enabling battle-wisdom.

In addition to what they pull from networks, battle-wise warfighters 

must be good at sensing local, immediate circumstances, as soldiers have 

throughout history. After all, there is no reason why networking would reduce the value of that which can be seen, heard, and felt. On the contrary, 

thanks to networking, first-hand information can be of benefit not only to 

the individual and his or her unit but also to others and to the whole force, 

which will be more agile and adaptable if every element is good at sensing 

and posting. Therefore, each individual has an obligation to report all he 

or she sees that might be significant so that it may be added to the rest of 

the network’s information to the benefit of all. 

At the same time, humans are far from perfect in communicating 

what they observe. They possess tacit knowledge—that which defies articulation and communication to others, and may even be subconscious—or 
 BATTLE-WISE 35

they may be too busy or embattled to make timely reporting their highest 

priority at all times.29 Because of such tacit knowledge, local personnel are 

at an advantage over remote ones, including top command, in possessing 

both whatever relevant information is posted on the network (assuming 

they know to pull it) and their latest, grainiest, if subconscious, sense of 

intermediate circumstances. 

To illustrate, the leader of a small unit engaged in fighting an urban 

insurgency can use all relevant information available on the network and 

can observe subtle differences between enemy fighters and their rowdy but 

not dangerous sympathizers—and synthesize these two perspectives. Assuming that no potentially helpful information is withheld from the unit 

in the field because of security policy or network limitations, no headquarters can match this level of awareness. 

One of the benefits of networking forces is that they can be more 

dispersed, as well as lighter and fleeter, than pre-networking forces, making each unit a potential scout, extending the coverage of surveillance, and 

gathering more information for others on the network. Yet because not all 

local information is communicated, there exists some significant amount 

of “dark information” that is known but is not on the network. Consequently, although the force headquarters may be able to see a common 

operating picture, it can never see a complete operating picture. The fluid 

conditions and wily enemies of the contingencies of today and tomorrow 

are best handled by local leaders and initiative based on an operating picture that is as complete as can be at that level. 

The combination of tacit knowledge and information smart-pulled

from networks should give the warfighter the ability to use reasoning to 

augment, check, and take advantage of intuition. Broadly speaking, tacit 

knowledge may be most important for intuition, while explicit networked 

information is more valuable in reasoning. It follows that the greater the 

quantity, quality, and timeliness of networked information, the greater the 

potential for reasoning—and thus the possibility of meeting the combined 

demands of urgency, importance, and unfamiliarity that define the warfare 

box of figure 2–3.

In sum, as table 2–1 shows, the battle-wise warrior can integrate 

timely reasoning and reliable intuition to make hard decisions and solve 

complex problems using a combination of local and networked information, despite a lack of time.

This is the basic battle-wise formula for meeting the cognitive demands of operating in an era shaped by dual revolutions. It is the key to 
36 GOMPERT, LACHOW, AND PERKINS

unlocking the time-information treasure on which success in networked 

warfare will depend.

Table 2–1. The Combination of Reasoning and Intuition

Notes1

 Herbert A. Simon, Models of Bounded Rationality, vol. I and II (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 

1962). 2

 John Sterman, Business Dynamics: Systems Thinking and Modeling for a Computer World

(New York: McGraw-Hill, 2000). 3

 National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, The 9-11 Commission Report: Final Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, Authorized 

Edition (New York: W. W. Norton, 2004). 

4

 It is moot whether this advantage will vanish in the foreseeable future with the advent of 

artificial intelligence. The information age, so far, suggests that the domain of the human mind is 

expanded rather than diminished by better, faster, networked computers. 5

 Witness the exceptionally strong and long rise in U.S. labor productivity in the past 10 years 

as a consequence of investment in IT. 6

 Examples of how conceptualizing the individual at the center of the network is now helping 

systems analysis include military recruitment, transportation planning, health and insurance planning, welfare reform, criminal justice options, and education policy. 7

 Such information is often unprocessed and unrefined, in the sense that its quality has not 

been enhanced or manipulated by anyone on the network. This is bad news and good news for the 

user—arguably more good than bad for the smart user. 8

 Herbert A. Simon, Administrative Behavior, 2d edition (New York: Macmillan, 1957). 9

 When we refer to experience, we mean training as well as participation in actual operations. 10 Malcolm Gladwell, Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking (Boston: Little, Brown 

and Company, 2005), 14–15. 11 Reasoning is defined as the power of comprehending, inferring, or thinking, especially in 

orderly, rational ways.

Reasoning Intuition

Needed for importance and 

complexity

Needed for urgency

Smart pull of information to 

support analysis

Instant cognition and tacit knowledge

Universal to the network Unique to the individual

Depends on intelligence and 

education

Depends on recognition and 

experience

Ponder Sense

The individual local to the situation is in the best position 

to combine reasoning and intuition.
 BATTLE-WISE 37

12 We do not discount the school of thought that pattern recognition can be valuable. Rather, 

our point is that when each contingency differs significantly from previous ones and is itself continuously changing, recognition can be severely challenged and cannot be counted upon. 13 Office of the Secretary of Defense, Network-Centric Warfare: Creating a Decisive Warfighting 

Advantage (Washington, DC: Department of Defense, 2004). 14 Another problem with relying on intuition is that it is completely idiosyncratic and thus not 

repeatable—each person’s perceptions, experiences, and thought processes are different. This makes 

it difficult to rely on intuition for planning or to create a common understanding of a given situation, 

since each person may see a similar situation differently. For this reason, a more formal decisionmaking process is better suited to developing plans and ensuring that command intent can be understood 

across multiple actors. This is especially true when one considers multinational or coalition operations. 15 Stephen E. Ambrose, Americans at War (Jackson: University of Mississippi Press, 1997). 16 Gregory J.W. Urwin, Custer Victorious: The Little Bighorn Reexamined (Lincoln: University 

of Nebraska Press, 1990). 17 Richard Allan Fox, Archaeology, History and Custer’s Last Battle: The Civil War Battles of 

General George Armstrong Custer (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1988). 18 Because networks also may confuse by providing a glut of information, we must look to 

improvements in information management to help ensure, through filters, displays, and other techniques, that more data truly informs. In addition, the principle of smart pull should reduce unwanted 

and unhelpful information. By aligning information management with the demands of the smart user, 

networks themselves can be made smarter in the sense of being designed and operated to be more 

discriminating and useful regarding what and how information is made available. 19 More deeply, the fungibility of time and information could reflect that time is, in essence, the 

receipt of more, new information. Is time meaningful absent new information? Can new information 

appear with the passage of time? Of course, time has value other than in providing more information, 

such as in allowing troops to move across distance to surprise, reinforce, or escape. Nonetheless, it 

seems that time-information is a valid expression of a quality of increasing importance in warfare. 20 James Surowiecki, The Wisdom of Crowds: Why the Many are Smarter than the Few and How 

Collective Wisdom Shapes Business, Economies, Societies, and Nations (New York: Doubleday, 2004). 21 David C. Gompert et al., Stretching the Network: Using Transformed Forces in Demanding 

Contingencies Other Than War (Santa Monica, CA: RAND, 2004). 22 Business can foment fierce competition, and when competitors become dedicated to each 

other’s annihilation they have, in effect, created conflict conditions, making decisionmaking that 

much more military-like and stressful, but business competition does not approximate the ferocity 

and stakes of combat. 23 The ease with which U.S. SOF were able to draw upon and help other forces in Afghanistan, 

although encouraging, is no cause for complacency over the challenge of integrated joint operations. 

SOF have been conditioned for a generation or more to work with any and every service and to ignore 

organizational seams in the way they think and carry out their missions. They offer a good example, 

but one not easily followed. In Operation Anaconda, there were problems with the way SOF movements were not relayed to all battle forces. 24 One legitimate reason for commanders to withhold information is concern for its security. 

With secure networks, as well as security-conscious junior officers, cases in which information is kept 

from tactical commanders on security grounds should be rare. 25 For example, the U.S. Navy increased the percentage of new recruits with college experience 

by 60 percent from 2003 to 2004 and has a goal of 15 percent of recruits with college experience in 

2005. 26 Dan Baum, “Battle Lessons: What the Generals Don’t Know,” The New Yorker, January 17, 

2005, 42–48.
38 GOMPERT, LACHOW, AND PERKINS

27 David S. Alberts and Richard E. Hayes, Power to the Edge: Command and Control in the 

Information Age (Vienna, VA: CCRP, 2004). 28 Baum. 29 See Gary Klein, The Power of Intuition: How to Use Your Gut Feelings to Make Better Decisions

at Work (New York: Random House, 2004).
 BATTLE-WISE 39

39

Chapter Three

Beyond the 

Networking Advantage

The Networking Advantage

In fits and starts, the United States is transforming its military forces 

based on networking principles. Despite a burst of political enthusiasm for 

force transformation following the 2001 al Qaeda attacks on New York and 

Washington and the ensuing U.S. intervention in Afghanistan, the process 

continues to be retarded by industrial inertia, sluggish organizational reform, and tenacious parochialism. After all, networking means discarding 

traditional operating doctrines, canceling investments that do not fit the 

new paradigm, and demolishing barriers among military services. Moreover, with much of the U.S. Army and Marine Corps bogged down in Iraq, 

a countertransformation camp has formed, calling for more soldiers and 

less technology.1

Nonetheless, because information networking is so potent, military 

transformation will prove irresistible, irreversible, and pervasive, as it has 

proven to be in most nonmilitary enterprises. Although it could take a 

decade or more before networking completely redefines U.S. forces and 

operations, we already know from operations in Afghanistan and Iraq that 

networking existing forces can vastly improve performance. In the coming years, as new forces like the U.S. Army’s Future Combat System and 

the Navy’s Sea Basing are specifically designed to exploit networking, the 

advantages over older forms of mechanized forces will become even more 

pronounced.

Preliminary evidence and research, while sketchy, indicate that networking can improve the performance of forces along the entire spectrum 

of military operations, not just in all-out combat. In peacekeeping and 

nonpermissive humanitarian interventions, networking can give small, 

light, fast forces awareness, flexibility, precision, and the option to call for 

rapid help when threatened.2 Networking allows forces to be tailored for 
40 GOMPERT, LACHOW, AND PERKINS

an assortment of contingencies and missions, thus increasing their versatility and the policy options they offer. In time, multilateral forces sponsored by the international community may be able to defeat genocidal 

campaigns—as the international community failed to do in Rwanda and 

in Sudan—with less risk of casualties and greater certainty of success.3

Strategic Significance of Improved Cognitive Capabilities

While important throughout history, how individuals are prepared, 

motivated, and organized to think in combat will become matters of high 

strategy because of information networking. Countries and groups that 

understand this and invest in improving the cognitive abilities of their 

forces will have a fighting edge. Al Qaeda has already made such investments in its variant of networked warfare.

Comparing U.S. forces with those of potential enemies on paper is 

less meaningful than gauging whether they can meet current and future 

military-operational challenges—challenges that flow from the heavy and 

fluid demands facing the United States as the chief provider of security 

in a disorderly world during a turbulent age. While others cannot match 

America in IT, or in the military platforms, weapons, and sensors being 

networked, they can exploit the same basic technology and apply the same 

networking principles to raise the costs and risks to U.S. forces in given 

missions and situations—perhaps to politically unsupportable levels. 

Networking can be used in various ways by various enemies and rivals, 

from terrorists operating in scattered and temporary urban cells to rising 

powers like China, which can make it more dangerous and difficult for the 

U.S. fleet to maintain stability in the Western Pacific. 

As we write this, the conflict in Iraq reveals vividly the problems 

posed by adversaries with even the most rudimentary networking. The 

distributed structure yet coordinated pattern of attacks being carried out 

by a coalition of religious-fanatical terrorists and Saddamist killers has 

made the perpetrators difficult to isolate and defeat militarily, especially 

when they have international links and backers. Neither the terrorists 

nor the Saddamists have a stationary center of gravity, the destruction of 

which would incapacitate them. Like more advanced forces, they can disperse yet be coherent and effective—the more dispersed, the less vulnerable and more lethal, dangerous, and effective in terrorizing law-abiding 

Iraqis. Even networked U.S. forces, awash in information, cannot destroy 

such webbed organizations. Indeed, the failure to make full, timely sense 

and use of information handicaps otherwise formidable U.S. forces. 
 BATTLE-WISE 41

The looming question is this: How will networked forces perform

when opposed by networked forces, even technologically inferior ones? 

Paradoxically, two forces, both of which can observe each other and be 

dispersed while concentrating their fire, are at once more and less vulnerable to each other. Some speculative analysis suggests that even dispersed 

forces can become vulnerable once illuminated by networked sensors and 

targeted by precision weapons of an opposing force, negating to some 

extent the value of networking forces.4 If this is so, those who depend on 

military networking, like U.S. forces, may be unpleasantly surprised unless 

they excel on the higher cognitive plane. 

Apart from the ability of U.S. forces to operate successfully against 

this or that adversary, the heavy human and fiscal burdens on the United 

States of serving as the chief provider of global security are becoming 

painfully clear. The insurmountable military lead of the United States has 

not spared it from casualties, such as the 2,000 soldiers killed in Iraq, or 

from hundreds of billions of dollars in war costs, along with doubts and 

finger-pointing at home. Transforming U.S. forces according to networking principles will not guarantee affordable operational success, especially 

as unfriendly actors embrace the same technologies and practices. Unless 

the United States is prepared to forsake its global security role—with grave 

implications for American and international security—it must put more 

into and get more out of the cognitive domain of military affairs.

The Monopoly Will Not Last

The military benefits of networking—increased flexibility, responsiveness, precision, deployment speed, maneuvering speed, and survivability—are now widely known and accepted. The chief reservation about 

relying on networks is that their links or nodes may be vulnerable to 

electronic attack, potentially leaving forces worse off for having become 

interdependent. But so far, thanks to information-warfare defenses, the 

advantages of networking seem to outweigh this peril. In any case, more 

and more military establishments have begun incorporating such technology. The British, Australian, Canadian, Dutch, Swedish, French, and Finnish militaries, among others, have made networking the leitmotif of force 

planning and operating doctrine. NATO also has embraced the theme and 

is developing a Network Enabled Capability via its new Allied Command 

Transformation program.5

Will military networking be a walled, privileged community consisting only of the United States and its technologically elite democratic 
42 GOMPERT, LACHOW, AND PERKINS

friends? Not likely. As al Qaeda has shown, any number of other states 

and even sub-state groups, some hostile, now use and will continue to 

tailor networking technologies and concepts to their advantage. The recent 

mutations of both al Qaeda and the Iraqi insurgency indicate that this is 

already happening. Precisely because information networking is so flexible, powerful, and accessible, U.S. complacency would be negligent.

The two classic conditions for the breakdown of a monopoly are 

that lucrative returns attract competitors and that barriers to their market 

entry are low. Where networked warfare is concerned, the first condition clearly exists. If the success of recent U.S. combat operations has not 

caught the eye of potential adversaries, the extraordinary impact of information networking in other endeavors surely has. The crucial question is 

whether countries and groups without the technology and resources of the 

United States and its close friends can break the monopoly and enter the 

business of networked warfare. 

Barriers to entry are lower than before. The rapid and extensive penetration of networked personal computers throughout the world shows 

that proficient use of information networking does not depend on technological prowess.6 The spread of the Internet suggests that it is unnecessary 

to invent, make, operate, or own information systems and networks to use 

them gainfully and strategically. Companies that are adept at using IT are 

sometimes ignorant about and uninterested in the details behind the software and hardware they use. Most modern offices abound with talented 

network users who have no clue how computer networks work, let alone 

how they are built. 

The spread of accessible IT, infrastructure, and services will continue apace. Steadily declining prices, reflecting declining production 

costs and fierce competition, have sustained an IT buyer’s market and 

sped the diffusion of IT. As standardized information products become 

commodities and information services become utilities, affordability will 

remain a nonproblem. Powerful economic incentives, integrated global 

markets, and software’s gossamer quality will defeat any attempt to stop 

this technology’s spread.

At the foundation level, the United States and its affluent, democratic friends have a military-technological lead that should remain insurmountable for the foreseeable future.7 Their free politico-economic 

systems, open societies, and vibrant markets excel in all aspects of IT, from 

scientific discovery to invention to application to use, and this phenomenon is spreading from civilian sectors into the military. While this lead in 

creation and initial application is generally safe, it does not mean adversar-
 BATTLE-WISE 43

ies that reject such freedoms are unable to employ information networks 

selectively to cause serious military and security difficulties for the United 

States. Indeed, as China shows, good reasons abound to think they can.8

 Meanwhile, Western firms that invent IT, far from hoarding it, are 

actively distributing it to gain competitive advantages from market access 

and labor-cost reduction. The knowledge of how to build IT hardware and 

write software is being diffused from North America, Northeast Asia, and 

Western Europe into Eastern Europe, India, and China. The purchase by 

the Chinese of the IBM personal computer line of business suggests that 

important segments of the IT industry will follow in the footsteps of other 

manufacturing industries attracted by lower labor costs. The creation of 

new IT, at which the United States and its allies are sure to remain superior, 

can barely keep up with the spread of its production, let alone its use. 

This process is aided by the Internet itself, which attracts and 

teaches new users. This is a technology that spreads itself by distributing 

know-how. The brevity between IT discovery and widespread use is unprecedented.9 Also, the demand for broadband communications within 

and among multinational firms and markets has required and paid for 

global network capacity, with hubs and spurs in every continent.

10 Use 

of IT infrastructure is even harder to control than is the diffusion of the 

technology. 

An entity, be it a household, company, nation-state, or outlawed 

group, does not have to be large or wealthy to exploit the global information infrastructure effectively. Indeed, smaller, simpler organizations can 

be more adept because they can more readily modify their structures, 

operations, and decisionmaking processes. Without need for research, 

development, or capital investment, and unencumbered by the baggage of 

extant systems and traditional practices, they are able to exploit networking applications that may have been designed for big customers. Instead 

of imitating larger leaders, small groups shape and use networks for their 

own needs. Under such conditions, they can quickly surpass ponderous 

users in the ability to apply IT and use networks advantageously.

The same rules apply to international actors that have military missions or ambitions. With access to networking technology and infrastructure becoming easier, affordability is not the obstacle it is with ordinary 

military equipment, like high-performance combat aircraft. The most 

important factors in exploiting networking are the imagination of leaders, 

ingenuity of planners, and aptitude of users—talents hardly restricted to 

the advanced democratic societies that invent the technology. If learning 

requisite skills requires spending time in the United States or Europe, ar-
44 GOMPERT, LACHOW, AND PERKINS

rangements for studies can be made.11 If markets are already proliferating 

networking technology and the skill to apply it, gaining expertise for those 

determined to do so for strategic reasons is surprisingly easy and can be 

done without attracting notice. 

The Advantages of Following

As with most technologies, follower-ship in IT can have advantages, 

whether the intended use is civilian or military. Potential enemies watch 

how the United States is networking its forces. They read the literature, 

much of which (like this volume) is unclassified. They check out the Web 

sites. They know which commercial-off-the-shelf systems and services are 

adequate for their purposes. They need not venture into the scientific unknown, with all the costs, risks, mistakes, dead-ends, and financial losses 

inherent in research. In the grand cycles to which technologies tend to 

conform, being late or absent at the creative front-end does not preclude 

success as the technology is productized, commercialized, copied, and 

distributed. Just as Germany turned the tank against its French inventors 

in 1940, a determined follower can turn information networking against 

the United States. Because the technology is now proven, the advantages of 

following are growing. Because it is ubiquitous, followers abound. 

Of course, real and potential adversaries of the United States are not 

all small and technologically backward. It is possible that the United States 

will find itself facing a large adversary with talent in IT and sufficiently free 

markets to foster both the creation and application of the technology and 

networking. The most interesting potential candidate is China.12 As the 

Chinese themselves have stated:

Informationalization has become the key factor in enhancing the

warfighting capability of the armed forces. . . . [The Peoples Liberation Army will make] full use of various information resources and 

focus on increasing system interoperability and information-sharing 

capability.13

Of course, it is not necessary for potential adversaries, large or small, 

to match or mimic the way the United States is using networking to present military challenges. Unburdened by the global security responsibilities 

or full-spectrum military requirements of the United States, they can apply 

networking concepts and capabilities to niche missions. A good example is 
 BATTLE-WISE 45

the way information networking can integrate multiple layers of surfaceto-air missile batteries and air-defense radars, making it easier to track and 

shoot down penetrating aircraft by concentrating on “leakers.” Another 

is the option of synchronizing surface-to-surface missile salvos and other 

attacks to stun and disrupt the campaign of a superior foe. Either one can 

cause serious danger to U.S. forces.

The use of networking enables adversaries of varying levels of sophistication to distribute their forces into small, swift units that can swarm 

and then scatter. Irregular forces involved in insurgencies or terrorism 

can become harder to defeat when decentralized and dispersed, thanks to 

communications networks, including the Internet and cellular telephony. 

At a minimum, the technology can be used to coordinate and publicize, 

both being critical functions among irregular forces. Such networking in 

otherwise primitive forces and movements has been used in the past and 

likely will continue. 

A decade ago, the impoverished Chiapas Indians in Southern Mexico 

relied on a network of sympathetic nongovernmental organizations to 

reinforce their uprising and call attention to the brutal reaction of government security forces.14 The rash of kidnappings and televised executions 

committed by terrorist groups in the Middle East demonstrates the advantages such groups have by networking: they can strike almost anywhere, 

despite their small numbers; they are hard to find yet able to expose their 

grisly crimes to the entire world. Many states and international organizations are deterred from joining, or have left, the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq 

for fear of this murderous web.

American defense planners may be too fixated on the adoption of

networking for U.S. forces and operations to notice that others are taking 

essentially the same path—on smaller scales and with less technological 

sophistication perhaps, but with cunning, determination, and potentially 

spectacular results. It is high time to take notice. 

Networked Adversaries, Potential and Real

To analyze why, how, and with what effects adversaries can exploit 

networking, it is helpful to distinguish three cases: mega-states, middlesized states, and nonstates, such as terrorists groups or drug rings. The first 

case can be thought of as posing a strategic (global or regional) international challenge, the second a local international challenge, and the third a 

transnational but potentially global challenge. We will look at China as an 

example of the first case, Iran the second, and al Qaeda the third, in each 
46 GOMPERT, LACHOW, AND PERKINS

case examining how the use of networking could affect the outcomes of 

military confrontations with the United States and its friends.

Generally speaking, as countries such as China and Iran and terrorist 

groups such as al Qaeda exploit IT and network their forces and fighters, 

they will become less vulnerable to and more capable of locating and striking U.S. forces, even though the latter remain much stronger and better 

networked. While the United States can respond by attacking the computers and networks of its adversaries, the adversaries can gain considerable 

protection by using generally available infrastructure and services, especially if these are anonymous or undetectable. How and how well such 

adversaries exploit networking may depend less on their level of technical 

sophistication and more on their aims, strategies, and resourcefulness. 

When it comes to warfare, there is no “digital divide” between those that 

are able to use information networking and those that are not. 

China

China has considerable and growing capabilities in information and 

networking technology, owing largely to foreign technology transfer into 

the country for the purpose of gaining access to China’s cheap manufacturing labor and vast markets. The Beijing regime itself has been ambivalent about the use of IT in the country, fearing it could stir up and spread 

dissent. However, while the government continues to try to prevent what 

it considers seditious Web sites, it will not, and largely cannot, block the 

technology from spilling into and throughout the country.15 In addition, 

the Chinese have shown interest in acquiring commercial networks that 

extend throughout the region.16 They seem to have made the acquisition 

and exploitation of IT a matter of national strategy, despite the political 

pitfalls. While this undoubtedly has economic motivations, they also have 

shown signs of interest in adapting IT and networking for military use.17 

Interservice blockages, a culture of deference to hierarchy, and the 

reluctance to decentralize command and control will impede Chinese 

military exploitation of IT. However, a new generation of Chinese military 

officers, like millions of young Chinese businesspeople, understands and 

will want to harness the power of information.18 We must assume that the 

Chinese will apply networking increasingly, if selectively, in operational 

and force planning. They already are investing in extended-range intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance systems, including space-based 

global positioning systems (their own limited one as well as Europe’s 

Galileo) for navigation and guidance. Since sensor information has to be 

fed to Chinese forces to be useful, the Chinese will need to create data net-
 BATTLE-WISE 47

works to do this. Indeed, China’s investments in extended-range missiles 

and submarines would make no sense without networking. As the Chinese 

put it, “the informationalization of missiles and supporting equipment for 

command, communications, and reconnaissance” will “markedly increase 

power and efficiency.”19 

One does not need to ascribe aggressive intentions to China to explain “informationalization.” In essence, China is not content with the 

status quo in East Asia. Its goals include the reunification of Taiwan with 

China and the loosening of U.S. control in the Western Pacific, which is 

China’s gateway to the region and the world. China’s intention to develop 

the capability to take Taiwan, even if only to strengthen its negotiating 

hand, has focused its military modernization on neutralizing U.S. capabilities to come to Taiwan’s rescue. Specifically, the Chinese want to disrupt, 

degrade, and delay U.S. naval and air forces long enough to take action to 

“stop the Taiwan independence forces from splitting the country.”20

Beyond Taiwan, Beijing likely will find increasingly intolerable U.S. 

policies and forces meant to constrict China’s littoral military activities 

and preserve unrivalled U.S. freedom of action and influence. The Chinese 

also may feel compelled to stretch their military reach sufficiently to protect sea lines and choke-points in Southeast Asia, through which increasingly vital oil imports are shipped. Relying on the U.S. fleet to police those 

waters hardly will be acceptable to China in the future. 

Because of their strong economy, the Chinese can invest heavily in 

capabilities to break the American strategic grip. As they do, the United 

States increasingly will have to turn to networked forces. Networked 

maritime and air platforms and intelligence sensors will enable the United 

States to observe and target Chinese forces venturing beyond the mainland, yet they will be dispersed and distant enough to survive Chinese attack. The vitality of East Asia, the tension between U.S. and Chinese aims, 

and the growing reliance of the United States on networked capabilities to 

assure its military advantage, make China’s response to U.S. force transformation a critical issue.

While the Chinese have several strategic options, including nuclear 

build-up and irregular warfare (new forms of Mao’s “people’s war”), turning to military networking must look appealing. Such a strategy would fit 

with China’s growing general interest in IT and would respond in kind to 

U.S. force transformation. The Chinese will do it in their own way (“with 

Chinese characteristics”), with the intent to create capabilities for “active defense” via “leapfrog development” and “going with the tide of the 

world’s military development” toward “informationalization.”21
48 GOMPERT, LACHOW, AND PERKINS

To paraphrase a recent RAND study on China’s military networking 

options: the Chinese version of network-centric warfare is likely to reflect 

China’s emphases on operational security, operational control, the stratagem of surprise, and massed rocketry. China is unlikely to try to duplicate 

U.S. air power or develop a doctrine of highly decentralized operations. 

The major operational challenge for China vis-à-vis the United States is 

defeating U.S. strike power, notably by finding and targeting aircraft carriers. Networked sensors and weapons may be one way to solve this problem, though China’s weakness in systems integration and reluctance to 

loosen control could stand in the way. Regardless of whether the Chinese 

embark on a wholesale transformation of their forces and operating concepts around networking principles, it is likely that they will enhance their 

investment in extended-range sensors and precision weapons.22

In turn, the United States must be prepared to deter and if need be 

defeat Chinese forces that employ IT and networking principles. This, as 

shall be shown, will depend increasingly on superior thinking and decisionmaking by warfighters.

The importance of people—how they think and decide, how they are 

prepared, and how they are organized—has not been lost on the Chinese. 

They intend to compress command chains, reduce staffs, and stream-line 

structures. Training will be interdisciplinary and joint, and informationalization will be achieved “by leaps and bounds” by “valuing talented 

personnel.” The Chinese have adopted a “Strategic Project for Talented 

People” aimed at building a “contingent of command officers capable 

of directing informationalized wars and of building informationalized 

armed forces.”23 (It is worth noting that no such project is to be found in 

the U.S. military establishment!)

Iran

A potential local aggressor, such as Iran, is unlikely to embrace military networking as comprehensively as China. Nor can it begin to match 

China’s sophistication in information networking, let alone America’s. 

Then again, Iran would not need to do so because its military strategy 

vis-à-vis the United States would be quite different and more limited than 

China’s. Whereas the United States would not likely intervene on the Chinese mainland in a war with China, it does seek to maintain the ability to 

intervene on the ground against lesser adversaries as a way of policing or 

altering their behavior, if not their regimes. Consequently, U.S. forces must 

be able to engage in land-expeditionary operations, including occupation, 
 BATTLE-WISE 49

while also maintaining the skills needed, as in the case of China, to defend 

against an opponent’s military initiatives by sea and air. 

For an adversary like Iran, being on the defensive and trying to deny 

U.S. forces a low-cost conquest translate into lower standards—easier 

requirements—in military networking. Iran could raise the risks to a U.S. 

intervention significantly by networking its forces, integrating its otherwise leaky air defense, dispersing its ground forces, swarming against U.S. 

naval assets in the Persian Gulf, improving its awareness of the location 

and movements of U.S. forces, and targeting its missiles against U.S. forces 

for maximum harm. 

Conceit or ignorance could cause the United States to assume that 

the Iranians are incapable of devising and utilizing ways to link their forces 

using largely commercial data networking products and services. Given 

their relatively simple needs, the Iranians could exploit available information infrastructure and services without having to invest nearly as much 

as they have invested in weapons-grade nuclear fuel. Because they may 

not be able to field large numbers of sophisticated sensors and precision 

weapons, they may not be able to make U.S. forces much more vulnerable 

than they are today. But they can spread out and connect their own forces, 

making it harder for the United States to defeat them. Networking of 

Iranian forces could turn a quick and decisive U.S. operation into a long, 

costly, and uncertain one.

Should the United States ever put forces on the ground inside Iran 

to effect and enforce regime-change, as it did in Afghanistan and Iraq, the 

Iranians could wage dispersed yet coordinated irregular warfare much 

more effectively than the rag-tag Iraqi insurgent forces that U.S. forces 

have had such difficulty defeating. Finally, with their penchant for supporting international terrorism, the Iranians could exploit the global 

network infrastructure to direct retaliatory attacks on U.S. forces, allies, 

and interests outside Iran or on U.S. soil. U.S. intervention against Iran is 

already a chancy proposition, at best; Iranian use of even technologically 

unsophisticated networking could make the costs and risks prohibitively 

high—again, with strategic implications in one of the world’s most vital 

locations.

Al Qaeda

Al Qaeda differs markedly from traditional terrorist organizations 

and is prototypical of the new terrorism. “It is neither a single group nor a 

coalition of groups; it comprises . . . core bases . . . and satellite cells worldwide, a conglomerate of Islamist political parties, and other largely inde-
50 GOMPERT, LACHOW, AND PERKINS

pendent terrorist groups that it draws on for offensive actions and other 

responsibilities.”24 Al Qaeda has no tanks, fighter aircraft, air defense, or 

frigates—no forces to be destroyed the way Saddam Hussein’s were and 

China’s could be. Nor does it have overhead sensors capable of tracking 

U.S. forces. It represents a new type of strategic threat—one that taxes U.S. 

capabilities and cognitive performance. 

Since U.S. forces pulverized its strongholds in Afghanistan and

Osama bin Laden escaped from Tora Bora, al Qaeda has shunned reliance on large, fixed concentrations. It relies instead on cells and networks 

of people. And people are extremely hard to find and positively identify 

without using other people as infiltrators or informants, which is not easy 

against wary terrorists.25 While finding terrorists in remote areas is different from locating them in urban neighborhoods, both present difficult 

challenges. Since they disperse both to strike and to survive, international 

terrorists must use networks to operate. Thus, while U.S. forces saunter 

toward network-centric warfare, al Qaeda already has implemented a very 

different but effective form of distributed violence.

It appears from the post-9/11 activities of al Qaeda and its affiliates, 

including their operations in occupied Iraq, that they are successfully 

using U.S. networks to suit their strategies. Networking enables al Qaeda 

to be more fluid, resourceful, elusive, and flexible. Al Qaeda is to low-capital networking what the U.S. military is to high-capital networking. Its 

“global information grid” is the Internet. And al Qaeda may be culturally 

and institutionally more able than the U.S. military, with its ponderous 

procedures for allocating resources and acquiring new capabilities, to 

adapt swiftly to changes in the forces and obstacles arrayed against them.

Al Qaeda takes a sophisticated strategic approach to information. 

“[Its] use of the Internet and videotapes demonstrates that ‘perception 

management’ is central to the conduct of its war with the West.”26 It does 

not require dedicated information-network infrastructure or expensive 

custom services. Al Qaeda makes use of the Internet for propaganda, recruitment, and training—its own version of distance learning—as well as 

fundraising, communications, and targeting.

Al Qaeda’s use of the Internet through web sites, email, message 

boards, and chat rooms allows dispersed members to stay in touch 

constantly, while maintaining the operational security and compartmentalization demanded by their work, under cover of the Internet’s 

anonymity. . . . Islamic jihad groups also use the Internet to dissemi-
 BATTLE-WISE 51

nate training materials, either for those who cannot attend the training camps, or to get new recruits and sympathizers excited about what 

they could learn.27

Being both widely dispersed and relentlessly hunted, al Qaeda takes 

communications security very seriously and trains its operatives accordingly.28 It is careful to use nondetectable electronic and human forms of 

communication. For example, al Qaeda used an anonymous commercial 

fax network for command and control in the late 1990s.29 Recently, as 

the Internet and other public systems have become key components of al 

Qaeda’s global network, encrypted and anonymous communications have 

become easier. Al Qaeda agents use encryption to communicate from Internet cafes.30 All this makes detection of and eavesdropping on their conversations difficult.31 It enables al Qaeda to operate as a highly distributed 

organization, reducing its vulnerability to counterterrorist attacks, especially to a single knock-out punch. The Internet helps al Qaeda both hide 

and kill—masking the identities and changing the electronic and physical 

locations of its people while improving their effectiveness.32 

Unless al Qaeda terrorists are caught in large concentrations, as they 

were in Afghanistan, they cannot be eliminated by conventional military 

means and methods. Indeed, military combat operations against al Qaeda 

may be increasingly rare because the group has become more dispersed. 

For the United States and its counterterrorism partners, success will require sophisticated measures and networking of exceptional intelligence 

and investigative capabilities, infiltration, speed, stealth, and skilled police 

or Special Operations Forces to track, apprehend, and eliminate them. 

Even then, al Qaeda’s structure is so slippery that it takes a combination of 

good luck and very specific real-time information to eliminate its members even in small numbers. 

Al Qaeda knows that people are its most valuable assets, and it targets 

its resources at recruiting people with technological expertise and aptitude 

who are then given internal training or sent to public schools, often for 

education in computer science, engineering, and electronics. “Recruitment and training for high-tech assignments [are] done very carefully, 

similar to how a military organization would assess both the intelligence 

and physical condition of volunteers for special operations units.”33 In 

addition to its own stable of information experts, al Qaeda can access the 

talents of sympathizers anywhere. 
52 GOMPERT, LACHOW, AND PERKINS

Networking provides a way for al Qaeda and other terrorist groups, 

as well as states, to form temporary alliances of convenience. Shifting connections among Abu Musab al Zarqawi’s splinter group, other al Qaeda 

affiliates, Ansar Al Islam, Saddamist killers, and at times even the Shi’ite 

militants of the Mahdi Army—some of them ordinarily mortal enemies—

have contributed to the violence in Iraq and the difficulty of stopping 

it. Indeed, networking permits such organizational and operational flux 

among groups that it is not clear at any moment who, what, and where the 

enemy is. The Washingon Post, referring to Abu Maysara al Iraqi, electronic 

spokesman for Zarqawi, stated, “he’s a master at being everywhere and 

nowhere . . . There’s no way of stopping [al Qaeda] anymore.”34

Al Qaeda is not adopting networking as traditional military forces 

do. While the evidence is sketchy, it seems that al Qaeda has not yet evolved 

into the sort of peer-to-peer networking that facilitates horizontal collaboration and synchronized attacks without central command. Rather, 

its form has been cellular, under central direction, and with the cells not 

connected with or necessarily aware of each other. However, as it metastasizes and its original leaders loosen control, al Qaeda could become a 

distributed, fluid, and self-organizing ideological mass of planners, fighters, financiers, and propagandists—some networked, some not—under 

one brand name.35

Al Qaeda is meticulous in collecting information, alert to opportunity, and shrewd in the timing of its strikes. What it lacks in physical capabilities it makes up with awareness, analysis, patience, quickness, learning, 

and adaptability. Al Qaeda and its agents seem to possess and stress the 

cognitive abilities that make a difference in networked warfare, including 

a mix of intuition and reasoning. Precisely because al Qaeda and the forces 

fighting it are so asymmetrical, al Qaeda must use and enlarge its time-information edge to survive while threatening the survival of its targets. Any 

counterterrorism strategy of the United States and its partners that ignores 

the nexus of terror, networking, and cognition will fail. 

The al Qaeda threat, while critical in its own right, spotlights a 

general point: the shrewdness, focus, and determination with which 

a state or group exploits networking are as important as technical 

infrastructure and scientific depth. The key to exploiting networking is to develop and empower human beings to solve complex problems—or, in the case of terrorists, to create complex problems. It 

matters less how adversaries measure against U.S. networking 

concepts and capabilities than whether they are becoming harder

to defeat.
 BATTLE-WISE 53

This look at how various types of U.S. adversaries might exploit networking suggests the following conclusions:

Networked forces with advanced sensors, weapons, and information systems could be within China’s reach over the coming decade, 

though organizational and doctrinal obstacles must be overcome.

While still categorically superior, U.S. networked forces could become 

less effective and more vulnerable against such forces than against 

China’s current non-networked forces. This could raise the costs and 

risks of protecting Taiwan and defending against Chinese powerprojection in the Western Pacific and cause strategic instability.

Middle-sized states will be able to use networking selectively for 

both regular and irregular forces. Even without advanced sensors and 

precision weapons, the forces could be made harder to destroy, thus 

denying the United States the option of low-cost intervention. U.S. 

failure to defeat terrorists and insurgents in Iraq reveals the problems 

and pain of post-intervention occupation.

Determined or desperate nonstate actors will find it possible, advantageous, and even imperative to network and thus to avoid vulnerable centers of gravity while improving lethality. Such groups network 

people, making them harder to target and more dangerous. Because 

of its focus on people, al Qaeda is arguably already further into and 

moving faster up its learning curve of networked operations than U.S. 

forces are along theirs.

U.S. Strategic Options for Responding to Networked Adversaries

These conclusions are unsettling, and their implication is clear: U.S. 

forces must be prepared for a wide variety of adversaries that exploit IT 

and networking principles in different ways. The United States cannot assume that networking its forces, though necessary, will assure enduring, 

decisive operational advantages. The loss of monopoly in networked warfare could drive up the costs and difficulties of U.S. armed intervention, on 

which American security interests and responsibilities could depend. The 

United States will therefore have to be ambitious, creative, and flexible in 

how it networks and uses its forces. Even then, the networking of enemy 

forces, especially their ability to disperse and to find and strike American 

targets, will demand that U.S. strategy look at options based on but beyond networking. 

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54 GOMPERT, LACHOW, AND PERKINS

To say that the United States could be disadvantaged as potential 

adversaries network their forces is not to say that pursuit of superiority 

on the cognitive plane is the only path U.S. forces can take. To retain its 

operational and strategic advantages, the United States has several available options. It could:

improve the volume and discrimination of intelligence-gathering

capabilities with more, sharper, stealthier, and tinier sensors 

intensify development of information-warfare (IW) tools to attack 

computers and communications links to cripple enemy forces that 

rely on networking 

open up a new front for waging war with space-based weaponry to

attack sensing and communications satellites or earthly targets

build better weapons and platforms to increase the scale and precision of the destruction they can deliver. 

It is not our intent to reject such alternatives; indeed, some or all may 

be necessary. But as strategic options, they all have shortcomings. Improving sensors is certainly commendable, especially for finding, tracking, and 

targeting enemy weapons platforms. However, the economics of detection 

do not always favor sensors over their targets. The ability of adversaries 

to proliferate and disperse ever-smaller platforms, thanks to networks, 

could lead to diminishing returns on investment in sensors. Indeed, barring some breakthrough, perhaps in biometrics, investment in sensors is 

already yielding poor returns when it comes to finding particular people

dispersed among other people—as is common for terrorists and other irregular forces—instead of finding things. 

It is not clear how U.S. security interests will fare if military competition and hostilities are introduced into space or cyberspace. Full militarization of space has not yet occurred. Ultimately, further development 

could harm those who rely most heavily on space, such as the United 

States. Militarization of space also raises philosophical questions about 

whether that domain should be preserved as a peaceful and available realm 

for all humanity. 

Similarly, warfare in cyberspace may seem a tempting course if one 

ignores that open, advanced, democratic societies depend most on information systems and thus are most vulnerable to attacks on them. Offensive IW will almost certainly be part of the U.S. strategy to neutralize and 

defeat networked adversaries. But it will not suffice and could backfire. At 

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most, IW could be developed in tandem with, or as an aspect of, the effort 

to gain and use network-based cognitive advantages. 

Lastly, the United States can, should, and undoubtedly will continue 

to invest in transformational military capabilities, such as weapons accuracy and range, platform speed and survivability, and transport range 

and flexibility. It will develop capable vertical/short-takeoff-and-landing 

aircraft, as well as drones for land, sea, air, and undersea surveillance, 

and strike. It will exploit networking to enable ground forces to become 

smaller, lighter, speedier, and more easily deployed, and air forces to hit 

moving targets. Its sensors will become smaller and capable of loitering 

and penetrating concealment. And, of course, its networks will become 

faster, more integrated, more secure, and global, as foreshadowed by the 

Pentagon’s development of the Global Information Grid. 

This book’s thrust should not be interpreted as opposition to such 

investments. However, one of its core arguments is that transformation, 

as just described, will prove to be insufficient, given the demands on U.S. 

forces and the move toward networking among the forces they may face. 

If the United States had modest international security responsibilities, 

it could make do by protecting its commanding lead in networked platforms, precision weapons, and high-performance sensors. But, as noted, 

the challenge for the United States, as the chief provider of global security, 

is to retain decisive operational military advantages, not just superiority 

in capabilities. With the arrival of networked warfare, that will take investments in battle-wisdom.

Investments in proven technologies tend to yield diminishing returns. Partly this is because, in general, returns are highest when leverage is 

greatest relative to conventional ways of doing things, and in part because 

competitors eventually emulate the investment or craft countermeasures. 

For instance, greater weapon accuracy may not make enough of a difference to justify the cost of improving upon existing precision weapons.36

As increments of added operational capability per dollar spent get smaller 

and the breakthroughs of yesterday become the commodities of today, it is 

time to look for ways to unlock value at a higher level. 

Thus, use of networking by adversaries, potential and real, from 

China to al Qaeda, demands a search for increasing returns on investment. 

The point of departure for the quest for increasing returns is networking 

itself—not the machines that are linked by it but the people who conceive, 

form, and use it to gain awareness and collaborate. Taking a page from al 

Qaeda, and with an eye on China, the United States must give greater attention to the thinking and problem-solving by which its people exploit 
56 GOMPERT, LACHOW, AND PERKINS

IT in strategy and operations. Investment in minds can pay handsomely.37

The fullness of history shows that brainpower pays increasing returns on 

investment, in part because of the fertility of human inventiveness. This 

is truer than ever in the age of information, and it is truer than ever in 

warfare. 

In sum, if networking makes it possible to improve the thinking

and decisionmaking of U.S. forces, and the messy new landscape makes it 

important to do so, the growing exploitation of networking by opposing 

forces makes it imperative. 

Notes1 Tom Donnelly, “Rumsfeld the Radical,” The Weekly Standard 7, no. 48 (September 9, 2002). 2 David C. Gompert et al., Stretching the Network: Using Transformed Forces in Demanding 

Contingencies Other Than War (Santa Monica, CA: RAND, 2004). 3 Clifford H. Bernath and David C. Gompert, The Power to Protect—Using New Military Capabilities to Stop Mass Killings (Washington, DC: Refugees International, 2003). 4 James C. Mulvenon et al., Chinese Response to U.S. Military Transformation and Implications 

for the Department of Defense (Santa Monica, CA: RAND, 2006). 5 North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Information Superiority & Network-Enabled Capability

(Norfolk, VA: Supreme Allied Commander Transformation Public Information Office, 2004). 6 For more details, see Internet World Stats Web site, available at <www.internetworldstats.

com/stats.html>. 7 David C. Gompert, Right Makes Might: Freedom and Power in the Information Age, McNair 

Paper 59 (Washington, DC: National Defense University Press, 1998). 8 Michael S. Chase and James C. Mulvenon, You’ve Got Dissent: Chinese Dissident Use of the 

Internet and Beijing’s Counter-Strategies (Santa Monica, CA: RAND, 2002), and Robert C. Fonow, 

Beyond the Mainland: Chinese Telecommunications Expansion, Defense Horizons 29 (Washington, DC: 

National Defense University Press, July 2003). Both titles indicate that the Chinese are able to exploit 

IT despite a lack of openness. 9 According to Gilder’s Law, bandwidth capacity doubles every 12 months; this is significantly 

faster than the 18 months it takes to double processor speed (Moore’s Law). 10 Martin C. Libicki, Who Runs What in the Global Information Grid: Ways to Share Local and 

Global Responsibility (Santa Monica, CA: RAND, 2000). 11 The ease with which foreign students can enter and stay in the United States is being reduced 

by stricter visa requirements and enforcement in response to the al Qaeda threat. Still, it would seem 

that the chance of stopping people from studying IT in the United States or elsewhere is about as poor 

as the chance of stopping the technology’s global spread. 12 India, the other rising star in IT, is less likely to challenge U.S. interests or the international 

status quo. 13 State Council Information Office, China’s National Defense in 2004 (Beijing: State Council 

Information Office Press, 2004). 14 John Arquilla and David Ronfeldt, eds., In Athena’s Camp: Preparing for Conflict in the Information Age (Santa Monica, CA: RAND, 1997). 15 Chase and Mulvenon.

16 Fonow.

17 Mulvenon et al.

18 Ibid.
 BATTLE-WISE 57

19 State Council Information Office. 20 Ibid.

21 Ibid.

22 Mulvenon et al. 

23 State Council Information Office. 24 Rohan Gunaratna, Inside Al Qaeda: Global Network of Terror (New York: Columbia University Press, 2002), 54. 25 George Friedman, America’s Secret War: Inside the Hidden Worldwide Struggle between 

America and its Enemies (New York: Doubleday, 2004). 26 The Institute for Security Technology Studies, Examining the Cyber Capabilities of Islamic 

Terrorist Groups, March 2004, slide 47, available at <https://www.ists.dartmouth.edu/TAG/ITB/ITB_

032004.pdf>. 27 Ibid., slides 10, 11, 18.

28 Gunaratna, 80. 29 Ibid., 76.

30 Hamas is known to have used email and chat rooms in the United States to coordinate attacks in the Middle East. 31 Dan Verton, Black Ice: The Invisible Threat of Cyber-Terrorism (New York: McGraw-Hill/Osborne, 2003). 32 Ariana Eunjung Cha, “From a Virtual Shadow, Messages of Terror,” The Washington Post, 

October 2, 2004, A1. 33 Verton, 86.

34 Cha.

35 Lawrence Wright, “The Terror Web,” The New Yorker, August 2, 2004, available at <www.

newyorker.com/fact/content/?040802fa_fact>. 36 The accuracy achieved by U.S. precision-guided weapons during Operation Iraqi Freedom

was good enough to destroy all fixed targets of interest with such precision that buildings across the 

street were unscathed. 37 This is why some companies treat training and education as an investment, no less than 

research and development.
58 GOMPERT, LACHOW, AND PERKINS
 BATTLE-WISE 59

59

Chapter Four

Defeating Networked 

Adversaries

Creating Room to Reason

In crafting a strategy to improve military decisionmaking, a logical 

starting point is to catalog cognitive abilities that could be useful in the 

intensity, complexity, danger, and urgency of war:

perceiving reality objectively

diagnosing complex problems

knowing what information to seek

differentiating between good information and bad information or noise

absorbing and recalling critical information

interpreting the behavior of others

anticipating the behavior of others

perceiving how the enemy senses and thinks

forming a coherent view of unfamiliar and unfolding situations

weighing diverse, competing, subjective values and interests

setting achievable goals and metrics

establishing priorities

imagining feasible ways of accomplishing goals

perceiving opportunities

foreseeing the consequences of different courses of action

analyzing the practicality, costs, and benefits of multiple options

understanding and managing risks

deciding provisionally despite information gaps

admitting and remedying mistakes 

rethinking goals and adapting strategy.

Of course, what force commander would not want subordinate decisionmakers with such abilities? But the question immediately prompted 

by such a long list is how to identify those abilities that offer the greatest 

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leverage in achieving military success in plausible operational situations. 

To this end, it is helpful to recall the military-operational conditions and 

challenges of the security environment shaped by the information revolution, the geopolitical revolution, and the access of adversaries to information-network technology. The salient features of this environment are: 

more and better information

strategic and operational messiness

networked, if asymmetrical, opposition forces. 

In a landscape with such features, the value of being able to make 

good sense and use of information is self-evident. So, too, is the ability 

to use information to supplement mental models—in effect, to make 

complex reality more comprehensible when solving problems and making decisions. Yet while these abilities are worthy, they do not help much 

in pin-pointing priorities for improved cognitive effectiveness. For that, a 

deeper analysis of the dynamics of military operations is needed. 

Again, blending intuition with reasoning is crucial in the environment described above: intuition, because of urgency; reasoning, because 

of change (unfamiliarity) and the high stakes of warfare. Enhancing timeinformation is crucial to creating room to reason, the better to solve complex problems and make difficult decisions urgently, which in turn can 

produce success in battles and wars. Thus, the ability to use information to 

reason despite lack of time—to buy time and to make better use of time—can 

be of pivotal importance when time is scarce and information is bountiful. 

Being able to turn an information advantage into a time advantage has 

even greater utility when growing complexity makes time more precious 

and reasoning more essential, as is true of the new security era. 

This may be thought of as gaining a time-information edge over 

the opponent. Yet as adversaries incorporate IT and apply networking 

principles, gaining such an edge will not be easy. Those who understand 

the promise and principles of networking will seek their own time-information edge. Arguably, current operations in Iraq show that the terrorists 

and insurgents have a time-information edge, even though coalition and 

Iraqi government forces have better information-network technology, not 

to mention better firepower, at their disposal.1

It follows that special priority should be placed on those particular 

cognitive abilities that can produce a time-information edge against networked opponents who are themselves aware of the value of such an edge. If 

time can be turned consistently against enemy forces, an asymmetry in the 

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opportunity to think can be achieved, which means an advantage in decisionmaking in the confusion and intensity of combat. In turn, superiority 

in decisionmaking can provide an edge in networked warfare. Therefore, 

those cognitive abilities that enhance time-information—that use information to turn time into an ally—deserve special attention. 

This is not unlike the ways especially agile companies anticipate and 

affect the timing and speed of market changes, such as in introducing new 

products, putting competitors on the defensive, or forcing them to act 

in haste without adequate information, comprehension, or preparation. 

This ability is of greatest value in fast-moving, dynamic systems, such as 

IT markets. Those with cognitive time-information superiority can determine the rules of a constantly changing game.2 While one associates such 

abilities with small and supple firms, bigger companies, such as Microsoft, 

also have exhibited such traits, dwarfing the competition. The challenge 

for the U.S. military is to“be like Microsoft”—big and powerful, but also a 

step ahead in understanding, shaping, and excelling in the cognitive realm 

of competition.

What are the cognitive abilities that matter most in networked warfare? One way to answer the question is to consider operations against 

networked forces. Apt examples can be found by looking again at China 

and al Qaeda.

Engaging Adversaries with Networked Forces

How could hostilities between U.S. and Chinese forces be affected 

as China employs IT, such as better, extended-range information, surveillance, reconnaissance (ISR) and networking concepts? While it is highly 

likely that U.S. forces will remain more advanced than Chinese forces 

for a decade or more the operational effects of networked forces that are 

up against other networked forces do not directly translate to force supremacy. 

Networking provides three core benefits: enhanced awareness, thanks 

to the ability to acquire, fuse, and disseminate useful data from arrays of 

networked sensors; greater precision in weapons effects, thanks to targetlocation enabled GPS and other weapon-guidance information available 

via the network; and the ability to integrate dispersed units, platforms, 

and other force elements while managing them as a coherent force and 

concentrating their fires, thanks to broadband communications. Simply 
62 GOMPERT, LACHOW, AND PERKINS

stated, networked forces are good at finding and destroying opposing, 

non-networked, forces while remaining safe from them. 

But what about networked warfare, where the forces of both sides are 

networked? If two opposing forces possess all three networking benefits in 

some measure, the ability of each to operate safely while dispersed would 

be offset by the ability of the other to find and destroy its forces. Generally 

speaking, the ability to find and destroy forces (unless hidden) should prevail over the ability to make them survivable by dispersing them.3 If this 

is so, the end result would be that both networked forces would be more 

vulnerable than if opposed by non-networked forces. The stronger, better 

networked force would, of course, be less vulnerable than and better able 

to find and destroy the inferior one. But that superior force would be more 

vulnerable and less effective than if it were opposed by a non-networked 

force, all else being equal.

In a hypothetical Sino-American conflict, networked and information-rich Chinese forces could well be less vulnerable to U.S. forces 

than they are now and also pose a greater threat. These are precisely the 

conditions the Chinese are striving to create. As they would be the first 

to admit, this would not mean parity in vulnerability, for Chinese forces 

would remain much less survivable than U.S. forces. But it would mean a 

convergence in vulnerability. 

This is not some theoretical possibility of an imaginary future. As 

noted in the preceding chapter, China is now concentrating investment 

in the capabilities to increase the vulnerability of U.S. maritime power, 

which is the backbone of U.S. military power in the Western Pacific. While 

this would not necessarily make Chinese expansionism or Sino-American 

conflict likely, it could alter the power-political balance in the Western 

Pacific—a shift with potential strategic implications in one of the world’s 

most vital regions. As China deploys and networks more and better sensors and precision weapons, and as it acquires the means and doctrines to 

operate dispersed forces, the efficacy of U.S. intervention against Chinese 

forces declines, while the risks rise.4 

Under conditions of convergent vulnerability, each side would seek a 

decisive operational edge by tipping the force-vulnerability balance in its 

favor, even while trying to avoid dangerous escalation, particularly into the 

nuclear realm. As one RAND study notes:

The more visible the battlefield, and the more that visibility is tantamount to destruction, the more difficult it will be to go to war with 
 BATTLE-WISE 63

platforms. . . . [Consequently,] exposure time must be short. . . . Ironically, a confrontation between two advanced, net-centric militaries 

will likely reduce the importance of technology in favor of people and 

their ability to make rapid but accurate decisions with incomplete or 

overwhelming amounts of information.5 

Time-information superiority is crucial to victory in networked warfare, and the key to gaining it lies in battle-wise thinking and decisionmaking. “Victory, if not inherent in the balance of forces or unique attributes 

of geography, falls to whoever has the best combination of surprise, error 

control, fortune, and highly trained people.”6 In the case of any future 

Sino-American conflict, the geographic disadvantage of U.S. forces could 

be aggravated by a loss of U.S. networking supremacy. 

Being increasingly vulnerable to networked Chinese sensors and precision weapons, U.S. decisionmakers would need to startle and stun Chinese counterparts by catching them flat-footed, striking from surprising 

directions and distances, maneuvering in surprising ways, reacting quickly, 

doing the unexpected, shunning the expected, and expecting the unexpected. They would need to anticipate Chinese moves intended to increase 

or exploit the vulnerability of U.S. forces, lure Chinese forces into actions 

and engagements that increase their vulnerability, operate in changing 

configurations, and display uncommon tactical flexibility—all by virtue of 

superior networked decisionmaking. U.S. decisionmakers would need to 

be several moves ahead of Chinese decisionmakers. To maximize sudden 

opportunities, U.S. commanders would have to encourage local initiatives 

and enable deployed field grade officers to make decisions on the spot. The 

resulting operational advantages could be significant, particularly if Chinese officers must call Beijing for instructions. Throughout any operation, 

U.S. forces and decisionmakers would seek to get time on their side—as 

would the Chinese, presumably.

Unlike the case of gradually convergent Sino-American military vulnerability, the main challenge in direct military or other operations against 

al Qaeda is to increase the terrorists’ current relatively low vulnerability 

and the advantages that go with it. The time between spotting and raiding 

a terrorist cell must be shrunk to less than the time it takes the terrorists 

to flee once they become suspicious. Delay is more likely to be the result 

of human indecision or inability to make sense of information than of 

slow physical movement of forces. Cognition and decisionmaking can be 

sped up to some extent by standardizing operating procedures and tactics. 
64 GOMPERT, LACHOW, AND PERKINS

On the other hand, predictability can be as fatal as tardiness in combating 

terrorists. 

Al Qaeda's forces are arrayed asymmetrically against its opponents. 

Besides its gross inferiority in firepower, al Qaeda does not even possess its 

own IT, relying instead on generally available sources of information and 

communications infrastructure. It cannot begin to challenge the information superiority of U.S. and other Western security forces. Yet it is capable 

of time-superiority advantages, from its ability to wait and plan patiently 

before striking to its agents’ ability to slip away quickly with little warning 

from forces seeking to subdue them. Whether deliberate, opportunistic, 

or quick, al Qaeda’s ability to use time as an ally is inherent in its modus 

operandi. Moreover, its decisionmaking may be simpler than that of its enemies. All things considered, al Qaeda may now hold a time-information 

edge, which reduces its vulnerability compared to that of its targets.

With the cases of China and al Qaeda in mind, what may happen is 

illustrated, in a purely notional fashion, in figure 4–1. All else being equal, 

forces that are networked can dominate those that are not, as shown in 

lower-right and upper-left corners. For example, the highly networked 

U.S. forces in Afghanistan and Iraq were initially able to dominate their 

minimally networked opponents (A). However, as opposing forces become 

more networked, the invulnerability and thus operational dominance of 

U.S. forces could erode (B). This would create a convergence of enemy 

and U.S. vulnerability, even though U.S. forces would remain stronger 

and superior in their use of networking. Both China and al Qaeda could 

minimize U.S. dominance and increase U.S. vulnerability by networking, 

leaving U.S. forces (and security) worse off in the future than they are at 

present.

Despite the differences between the al Qaeda and China cases, the 

operational centrality and sensitivity of time, timing, timeliness, and timeinformation stand out. The cognitive abilities to act first, react quickly, 

choose the right time to act, catch the enemy off guard, learn and adjust 

quickly, and deprive the enemy of time to learn and adjust will be increasingly valuable as vulnerabilities converge. The exploitation and manipulation of time can tip the vulnerability balance significantly, if momentarily. 

With effective cognition, networked information can be used to find and 

use time. 
 BATTLE-WISE 65

Some of the same time-sensitive abilities that matter in the China 

case are important in military or law-enforcement operations against terrorist networks: anticipating the enemy’s next tactic, weapon, and target; 

surprising the opposition; doing and expecting the unexpected; executing 

swift decision and reaction times; and missing no opportunity. In all cases, 

the side that is superior at translating information into time-information advantage can gain critical operational advantages under conditions 

of convergent vulnerability. This is the purpose and payoff of battlewisdom. 

Being battle-wise means using information to master the urgency

of war. By expanding and exploiting the opportunity to reason, battlewisdom can turn time into the enemy of one’s enemy. In the case of China, 

it could mean tipping the balance of vulnerability between Chinese and 

U.S. forces by leaving Chinese forces exposed or paralyzed at critical moments. In the case of al Qaeda, it could mean shortening, just enough, the 

time lapsed between receiving word of the terrorists’ whereabouts and 

launching a strike or raid against them.

Critical Cognitive Abilities in Networked Warfare

This glance at operations in conditions of convergent vulnerability 

allows us to spotlight four critical abilities that could separate winners 

Figure 4–1. The Shift toward Convergent Vulnerability
66 GOMPERT, LACHOW, AND PERKINS

from losers in networked warfare: anticipation, decision speed, opportunism, and rapid adaptability. All four optimize cognition and time:

Anticipation can provide initial advantage and set conditions 

for success. 

Speed in making and executing decisions can exploit these conditions.

Opportunism can yield sudden, nonlinear advances and advantages.

Rapid—or real-time—adaptability can improve performance in the 

light of information gleaned from the current battle. 

These particular abilities depend on the synergy of reliable intuition 

and timely reasoning and may be employed to increase the exposure time 

of enemy forces and reduce that of one’s own—a key factor in tipping the 

balance of vulnerability to one’s advantage. Each involves using information to gain time-information advantages. Together, they can provide a 

mental and operational edge from the commencement to the conclusion of hostilities. They are closely akin to the abilities of the superlative 

basketball player whose “court sense” and speed of mind and foot leave 

the opposing team playing in what looks like slow motion while elevating his own team. Such cognitive abilities provide an edge when physical 

attributes may not. They define the type of superior decisionmaking that 

yields superior performance during intense and urgent conflict against a 

capable opponent. 

A force with people—individuals and teams—who have these key 

abilities and are able to use them to gain time-information advantage can 

cause less battle-wise opposing forces to seem, in effect, more “mechanized.” For U.S. forces, superiority in these cognitive abilities would have 

the effect of depriving adversaries of the benefits of networking (see figure 

4–1). Viewed strategically, the loss of a monopoly in military networking 

would be offset by the ability of U.S. forces to attain time-information 

primacy with these key cognitive abilities—thus getting the most out of 

their own networking and negating that of enemy forces.

Yet the China and al Qaeda cases suggest that such cognitive abilities 

may be possessed by both the United States and its adversaries. While the 

United States is fortunate to have many military advantages—not only in 

technology but also in the general intelligence, education, training, and 

discipline of the men and women in its armed forces—it is unclear that its 

soldiers have unassailable superiority in their anticipation, decision speed, 

opportunism, and rapid adaptability. Therefore, the strategic goal should 

be not just improved battle-wisdom but superior battle-wisdom. 

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To illustrate the importance of these cognitive abilities, imagine SOF 

inserted into a remote ungovernable region of Central Asia that has become a terrorist haven. The SOF are networked with precision sensor- and 

weapon-bearing drone aircraft and other intelligence and strike capabilities, and they have hired local scouts and informers. They are seasoned, 

disciplined, and skilled fighters, and they can move quickly. The terrorists 

are poor in technical sensors but have better human sensors than the SOF. 

They are dispersed yet able to communicate with one another, though at 

some risk of discovery. Learning they are up against SOF, the terrorists’ 

aims are to survive and kill another day, not to stand and fight. 

The SOF, in this case, rely heavily on experience, for example Afghanistan, in which the terrorists fought first and then fled. Anticipating this 

same pattern, SOF commanders concentrate on preparing for combat and 

closing with the enemy. Consequently, they miss a fleeting opportunity to 

cut off the terrorists’ escape routes. Instead of adapting swiftly upon the 

first hint that reality is at odds with their intuition, SOF commanders deliberate while waiting for conclusive data from their remote sensors. The 

time it takes them to gather and analyze information and then adjust their 

plan is just enough for the terrorists to melt into the wilderness and tribal 

populations, to wait and plan new terror. Because of cognitive failure, 

superior and better networked SOF lose the time-information advantage 

and, therefore, the bloodless battle. 

A complete definition of battle-wisdom thus can now be considered: 

the melding of reliable intuition and efficient reasoning to improve anticipation, fast reaction, opportunism, and quick adaptability for time-information superiority in complex, intense, and possibly confusing networked 

warfare—more simply, creating time to think and decide wisely in the 

midst of violence.

Operationally, the aim of developing battle-wise forces is to foster 

these four key abilities as a way of gaining and holding a warfighting edge 

even in conditions of convergent vulnerability. Strategically, it is to ensure 

that the United States can use force as its security interests and responsibilities warrant, despite the loss of its monopoly in networked warfare. While 

having battle-wise forces and people does not guarantee the achievement 

of these objectives—many other factors are involved in warfare in this new 

era—it can improve the odds.

To some extent, such battle-wise abilities were in evidence during the 

opening intense combat phase of the conflict in Iraq. The opening moves 

of U.S. and coalition forces involved operational initiative and surprise, 
68 GOMPERT, LACHOW, AND PERKINS

even though no one doubted an invasion was imminent. Still the forces 

came from many directions, not only the expected one. When splinters of 

Iraqi forces waged rear-guard actions, coalition forces quickly adapted by 

carefully dividing attention between extinguishing this unexpected threat 

and taking the capital. Coalition forces approached Baghdad cautiously, 

but then acted quickly when a foray into the city revealed the opportunity 

for a coup de grace. The only ability not evident was anticipation, in that 

U.S. and coalition forces expected a “regular” defense by Iraqi divisions but 

encountered a mix of regular and irregular forces and tactics.

After the initial phase, however, irregular insurgent forces, joined by 

foreign terrorists, scattered and hid among the population to minimize 

their own vulnerability and ambush U.S. forces. The foreigners, while few 

in number, are key, for they add the cognitive talents of al Qaeda to a collection of Saddamist killers with no experience in networking and no record of mental acuity or agility. Against this mutating threat, the same U.S. 

forces generally have not reacted with the anticipation, decision speed, opportunism, and rapid adaptability they showed earlier against much larger 

but hierarchical Iraqi forces. Yet these are precisely the battle-wise abilities 

U.S. forces need to prevail against such threats. 

Can there be any doubt which side showed better cognitive skills and 

had a time-information advantage in the first phase—or the second? This 

suggests several points. First, U.S. forces can exploit networking much better when up against non-networked forces than networked ones. Second, 

even the remnants of the slow and bloated armies of Saddam Hussein can 

gain advantages by dispersing and networking. Third, the introduction of 

elements with strong cognitive abilities—foreign terrorists, in this case—

created a more formidable opponent for U.S. forces. Fourth, cognitive superiority is difficult but, if anything, more critical when facing networked 

adversaries, however inferior they may be by traditional measures. 

Complexity and Simplicity

The value of being able to use information to gain time at the 

adversary’s expense is related to another factor in this analysis: complexity. As Herbert Simon observed, human problem-solving suffers when the 

complexity of causes and effects of real-world dynamic systems increases. 

Because reasoning takes time, the greater the complexity of a situation, the 

more precious time becomes and the shorter it may seem—in effect, the 

shorter it is. Therefore, as complexity increases, it becomes more essential 

to use information to gain time and to use that time economically to rea-
 BATTLE-WISE 69

son. It is hard to think of a human activity in which this is more relevant 

than warfare.

Battle-wise warfighters not only can handle this nexus of complexity, time, and reasoning, but they can also exploit it. Confronting enemy 

decisionmakers with added complexity can, in effect, starve them of time, 

undermine their reasoning, and degrade their decisionmaking. The abilities to anticipate, decide quickly, see and seize opportunities, and adapt 

rapidly can have this effect. Because cognitive effectiveness is of such 

importance in networked warfare, battles could be won by complicating 

the adversary’s reality. Of course, increasing the complexity facing the 

adversary has even greater leverage if done while reducing the complexity 

facing oneself. 

Once more, the China case provides a fitting example. Quick and unexpected actions, anticipation of or prompt response to Chinese actions, 

or shifts in the tactics of U.S. forces, could overload the ability of the Chinese to comprehend what is happening and thus make sound decisions. 

This could shrink Chinese time-information, expand U.S. time-information, and help tip the balance of vulnerability more sharply in favor of 

American forces. 

Such measures might be considered psychological operations 

(PSYOP) or information operations (IO). It is no coincidence that PSYOP 

in particular and IO in general are becoming increasingly popular as information and cognition figure more importantly in warfare. However, 

whereas PSYOP and IO are auxiliary tools used to complement the operations of forces, battle-wisdom governs how the forces themselves are 

used. It would be one thing to confuse Chinese commanders by infecting 

their computers and quite another to confuse them by suddenly changing the nature of strike operations or catching their forces at their most 

vulnerable. In any case, as Chinese forces incorporate IT and networking, 

battle-wisdom, PSYOP, and IO all will become increasingly critical for U.S. 

forces. 

Al Qaeda is already acting in ways intended to complicate U.S. decisionmaking and, in effect, compound the time-information problem facing American military and other counterterrorism forces. The ingenuity of 

the 9/11 attacks, and the fact that U.S. decisionmakers were baffled by such 

a complex, unfamiliar, and urgent threat, show the potential leverage to 

be gained by using unconventional means, in this case commercial jets, as 

weapons. The terrorists’ use of surprise not only as to the timing but also 

as to the method of strike yielded a decisive time-information edge. And, 

of course, no experience or mental model was of much use to U.S. lead-
70 GOMPERT, LACHOW, AND PERKINS

ers. Since 9/11 and the ensuing U.S. action in Afghanistan, al Qaeda has 

augmented its cognitive arsenal with the use of false information designed 

to overwhelm U.S. counterterrorism efforts.7

Gaining a time-information advantage over al Qaeda will not be 

easy, given its distributed form, skill at concealment, and utter lack of 

inhibition in regard to targets and weapons. The question is whether and 

how the United States and its antiterrorist allies can add to the operational 

complexity faced by al Qaeda and its agents. 

At this point it may be useful to return to the case of the SOF unit 

that failed to capture the terrorists in Central Asia—this time changing 

the thinking of the SOF. What if the SOF distrusted the relevance of their 

experience and the reliability of their intuition enough to be alert to any 

indication that these particular terrorists might choose to flee instead of 

fight? By anticipating and adapting without delay, the SOF may move to 

cut off every escape route—which SOF can do in very small, quick, networked units. At this point, the problem facing the terrorists can become 

mind-boggling, if not hopeless. Should they attempt to escape by attacking 

smaller SOF units, fight in place, split up, hide, surrender, seek more information—or perhaps just keep thinking and waste critical time? Moreover, 

having bought time, the SOF could gather more information from sensors 

and scouts to learn what the terrorists were plotting and then analyze 

whether and how to engage or ensnare them. This information would, in 

turn, allow the SOF to control the timing and conditions of engagement. 

The SOF could think and act based on a clearer view of reality, while the 

terrorists could be confounded by conflicting reports from their agents 

about SOF actions. Hence complexity would increase for the terrorists and 

decrease for the SOF. 

Of course, the technical ability of the SOF to network with each 

other, with sensors, and with back-up strike forces is what makes such an 

operation possible. Why not make the most of it by gaining an edge at the 

cognitive level as well? Networking is necessary but not sufficient for the 

SOF in this illustration. The deciding factor is battle-wise exploitation of 

information. 

Battle-wisdom goes deeper than reliable intuition, timely reasoning, 

and the cognitive abilities suggested here. Character matters. Soldiers are 

more likely to be battle-wise if they are willing to learn and take responsibility for the effects of their decisions. Recognizing these prized traits—to 

learn and to lead—is crucial in finding, developing, and using battle-wise 

decisionmakers, regardless of rank. Just as lieutenants must be willing and 

able to lead, lieutenant generals must be willing and able to learn. 
 BATTLE-WISE 71

The Race Is On

In the age of networked warfare, learning in action is as important 

strategically as it is operationally and tactically. The long lag-times before institutions take full advantage of information networking are well 

known. This is so in part because overhauling operational processes and 

organizational structures takes time. In contrast, people can adapt to new 

information devices and programs very quickly. Yet people within institutions, such as the armed services, need more time to change the way they 

think and act after having mastered the technology itself. We are accustomed to steep curves of improvement over time in the performance of IT, 

but the curve that describes the rate at which the technology yields higher 

levels of human performance can be much flatter.8

 The implication of this 

is that the lead of U.S. forces in incorporating IT and adopting networking 

principles may not translate into a substantial and lasting operational lead 

over adversaries that also embrace networking.

In its own way, and relative to its own purposes, al Qaeda may already 

be ahead of the security forces the democracies have arrayed against it. It 

has patterned itself according to networking principles, is comparatively 

invulnerable, is working intensely on its own version of battle-wisdom, 

and mutates as needed. While it has not recently mounted an operation 

as spectacular as 9/11, al Qaeda has created havoc in Iraq, attacked power 

centers of the Saudi monarchy, spawned affiliates, inspired copy cats, and 

branded itself the model of new terrorism. Even while commandeering 

global information technology, infrastructure, and mass distribution for 

its purposes, al Qaeda appears to understand, at least implicitly, that how 

its agents think—fanatical yet disciplined, rational yet intuitive—is key. 

Figure 4–2. Battle-Wise Learning Curves
72 GOMPERT, LACHOW, AND PERKINS

Figure 4–2 depicts notionally the rate at which U.S. forces, Chinese 

forces, and al Qaeda may be exploiting the potential of networking to gain 

operational advantages relative to their own ends and strategies. (No direct 

comparisons are implied—or, for that matter, really meaningful.) Not 

long ago, al Qaeda faced a steeper curve than U.S. forces in learning how 

to exploit networking to its ends, but it may now be—it is of course hard 

to know—climbing its curve faster than the U.S. military establishment is 

climbing its own. In its own way, al Qaeda has gained ground by exploiting its particular form of networking with its type of battle-wise people. 

China, while moving slowly, could begin accelerating any time. 

Of course, there is no way of accurately measuring the distance between or the slope of these curves today, much less projecting them into 

the future. We suggest them only to provoke thought and bring attention 

to the potential for adversaries to exploit IT and networks for cognitive 

gains. One important message is that the rate of learning how to exploit 

the technologies is more or less independent of the ability to invent them 

and the resources to build them. Another is that gains in the abilities of 

adversaries to think, decide, and act—thanks to networking principles and 

capabilities—must be viewed not only in relation to U.S. abilities to do so 

but also to the purposes and strategies of those adversaries.

This chapter will close with two chilling quotations—one about al 

Qaeda by a renowned expert on security in the information age, the other 

about China from the most recent official statement of Chinese 

military strategy:

While al Qaeda may look amorphous (i.e., shapeless), the deeper

reality may be that it is . . . deliberately shifting its shape and style 

to suit changing circumstances, including the addition of new semiautonomous affiliates to the broader network. . . . Al Qaeda is using 

the information age to revitalize and project ancient patterns of tribalism on a global scale.9

Based on the transformation of modern warfare . . . the PLA develops 

its military theories in an innovative spirit and explores . . . conducting operations under the condition of informationalization. In accordance with the principle of making the troops smaller and better, as 

well as more integrated and efficient, and with emphasis on adjusting 

organizational structure and reforming the command system, the 
 BATTLE-WISE 73

PLA works to build and further improve the military structure and 

organization to make them . . . flexible and swift in command.10

It would be a capital mistake for the United States to assume that 

an insurmountable lead in the theory, science, technology, production, 

and use of IT and networking guarantees a lead in battle-wisdom and the 

operational advantages that come with it. 

Notes1 The main reason U.S. troops in Iraq suffer from a time-information disadvantage is the difficulty in getting information about the insurgents from the Iraqi people. 2 We note the work of Stanford University economist Brian Arthur in understanding and 

explaining how cognition of dynamic market-competitive conditions can be and has been exploited, 

especially in the fast-moving IT markets. 3 Of course, it is possible to think of many exceptions to this generalization, for example, by 

shifting maritime fire-power to subsurface vessels, by moving dispersed forces at speeds high enough 

to frustrate detection and destruction, and by multiplying possible weapons platforms to present too 

many targets. 4 The fielding of long-range surveillance capabilities may be the “long pole” for the Chinese 

because without these capabilities, their forces, however well networked, will be blind to U.S. forces 

beyond coastal waters. The Chinese know this and are investing in space-based and other sensors. 5 James C. Mulvenon et al., Chinese Response to U.S. Military Transformation and Implications 

for the Department of Defense (Santa Monica, CA: RAND, 2006). 6 Ibid.

7 George Friedman, America’s Secret War: Inside the Hidden Worldwide Struggle between 

America and its Enemies (New York: Doubleday, 2004). 8 Compare the 12–18 months it takes for microprocessor performance to improve by 100 

percent to the decade or more before investments in this technology produced noticeable increases in 

economic performance and productivity. 9 David Ronfeldt, “Al Qaeda and Its Affiliates: A Global Tribe Waging Segmental Warfare?” First 

Monday 10, no. 3 (March 2005), available at <www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue10_3/ronfledt/index.

html>. 10 State Council Information Office, China’s National Defense in 2004 (Beijing: State Council 

Information Office Press, 2004). 
74 GOMPERT, LACHOW, AND PERKINS
 BATTLE-WISE 75

75

Chapter Five

Integrating Intuition and 

Reasoning in Action

A thread that connects key cognitive abilities is the capacity to learn 

in action. Because of its intensity and tempo, warfare generates 

information rapidly, and networking accelerates it. Combined with 

the messiness and ambiguity of combat, this rapid flow of information can 

cause confusion or, in military vernacular, fog. At the same time, being 

able to think, decide, and act quickly has obvious advantages. Again, timeinformation shows its significance. Deferring decisions until all useful information is available and analyzed can make a force too slow. Yet making 

irretrievable judgments with deficient information can lead to casualties 

and calamities. Decisionmaking depends heavily on the balancing and 

management of time and information. Battle-wisdom must apply not only 

to people but also to how those people make decisions. 

In networked warfare, decisionmaking should be based on:

knowing what can and must be decided, and when 

making provisional decisions pending more information

using provisional decisions to gain time and information 

revisiting decisions as more information is harvested. 

Such an approach can be at once expeditious and thoughtful. Done 

right, it can master the urgency of war without compromising performance 

by either haste or delay. It can expand the room for reasoning—relying 

mainly on intuition when a challenge suddenly arises, but then shifting 

toward reasoning as time and information are gained by provisional decisions and actions. With battle-wise decisionmaking, the warfighter times 

and tailors choices to take account of the need and opportunity to learn in 

action. While learning occurs, the warfighter can confirm, improve, alter, 

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76 GOMPERT, LACHOW, AND PERKINS

or even reverse provisional decisions. Just as the ability to adapt rapidly is a 

key strength of the battle-wise warfighter, the practice of learning in action 

is a key feature of battle-wise decisionmaking.

While learning under pressure may sound straightforward, learning while fighting is exceedingly hard and potentially hazardous. Warfare 

and reflection are uneasy companions. Yet battle has no substitute when 

it comes to the opportunity to learn about both the opposing force and 

one’s own force. As coaches and players do during an American football 

game—also dynamic, messy, violent, and networked—the battle-wise 

decisionmaker starts with a flexible plan based on prior experience and 

analysis and, as the situation unfolds, decides what “plays” to execute based 

on what is learned from the action. Neither a rigid plan nor pure intuition 

will do. Just as battle plans may not survive beyond initial contact with the 

enemy, learning lessons need not await the end of hostilities.

In recent years, researchers at the Santa Fe Institute, the RAND Corporation, and elsewhere have formulated important precepts and championed useful planning methods based on the belief that complexity and 

uncertainty are best addressed by adaptive strategies for the long-term future.1

 The underlying idea is to understand what one must and can decide, 

depending on urgency and available information, while playing for time 

and seeking more information to improve the quality of decisions. The 

same approach, drastically compressed in time, should underpin battlewise decisionmaking. Mastering it could provide stunning operational and 

enduring strategic advantages. 

Again, both intuition and reasoning are indispensable in overcoming 

the pressure, urgency, and messiness of warfare in the information age. 

Sensing a threat or an opportunity, initial action may be based on what 

experience says ought to work, but should also aim to gain both information and time. As this action clarifies conditions and buys time, structured 

reasoning becomes more possible, leading to a refined or revised course 

of action after examination of options. Along the way, the decisionmaker 

looks for signs that should appear if preceding assumptions and judgments 

were correct. Not seeing these signs may signal that a course correction is 

needed. Meanwhile, information can be used to refine understanding and 

adjust accordingly. Eventually, with time and information now on the 

decisionmaker’s side, sound and superior reasoning can lead to success. 

This decisionmaking process is depicted in figure 5–1, which illustrates the increase in confidence with the passage of time. The four 

distinct conditions shown are somewhat artificial; in reality, the process 

is more continuous and fluid. At any point in the process battle-wise 
 BATTLE-WISE 77

One of the keys to integrating intuition with reasoning is the selfawareness of the decisionmaker.2

 Knowledge of the origins, assumptions, 

biases, and limits of one’s mental models and experiences can help answer 

the question: Does my intuition apply to the situation I face? If the answer 

is yes, intuition may be a reliable basis for deciding at least provisionally. 

But if there is no suitable mental model or body of relevant experience, 

more information should be sought and analyzed before making a decision. Even then, intuition may be helpful to borrow some time.

Because people who must act with little time naturally favor intuition 

over reasoning, a conscious intervention—verbalizing the applicability 

question—may be needed to avert mistakes when intuition is inadequate 

or misleading. The individual must be able to determine dispassionately 

whether stored models apply. Such disciplined and objective self-awareness is hard for most people, but it can be cultivated. 

decisionmaking should offer major advantages, all else being equal, over 

opposing forces that are guided by decisions dictated by either haste or 

undue caution. 

Figure 5–1. Battle-Wise Decisionmaking Process 
78 GOMPERT, LACHOW, AND PERKINS

Battle-Wisdom in Practice

In warfare, the ability to make sense of information is already critical 

and will become more so.3

 Networking provides rich but also potentially 

confusing information. To some extent, the richness can be exploited and 

the confusion reduced by technologies that sort, distribute, and display 

data. Although this may serve up better information, it does not assure its 

effective use. This is why one of the prerequisites of battle-wise decisionmaking is the practical implementation of smart pull.

In practice, it is far more difficult to satisfy via the smart-pull method 

the information needs of a warfighter than those of the average Internet 

user. In the first place, knowing what information to post on a military 

network implies knowing all facets of all predicaments and opportunities 

a warfighter—for that matter, all warfighters—may face and thus what information might be helpful. Even then, the warfighter will not know of all 

the relevant information that could be pulled. The image of the unit commander under surprise attack having to browse the operations network 

for useful data, as one would look for cheap flights or long-lost classmates, 

is hardly comforting. So the expectation that a local decisionmaker will, 

in fact, have all useful information requires a great deal of faith, or else 

investment in network development aimed at providing decisionmakers 

with useful information in a usable form at the right time. 

Although network development to this end is beyond this volume’s 

scope, it is obviously important and, for military networking, hardly 

straightforward. Even smart users trying to pull information from networks are hindered by chaotic, messy conditions and time constraints. To 

be effective in operations, the design and operation of networks must take 

account of the predilections, culture, habits, nomenclature, and contingent needs of myriad users under myriad conditions. Even then, the value 

of data can be undermined without the situational context of a problem, 

which in military operations may be unforeseeable. Finally, the requirements and efficacy of network capabilities vary with the decisionmaker’s 

experience. Experienced individuals know what information to select, 

have a more coherent mental organization of information, recognize what 

information is missing, and are able to adjust decisions to compensate 

for incomplete information. Yet no condition could be less amenable to 

the orderly use of networking than combat. A warfighter engaged with an 

enemy is not, and probably could never be regarded as, the equivalent of 

an ordinary Internet user. 
 BATTLE-WISE 79

Under current conditions, senior commanders can have remarkably

comprehensive information displayed in exquisite detail before them. But 

whether they have the necessary confidence in subordinates to delegate 

authority and the self-discipline to resist micromanagement, despite these 

seductive displays, remain important open questions. Of course, confidence must be earned. The subordinate must be not only battle-wise but 

also willing to take responsibility for the consequences of his or her decisions—to be a leader-in-action, if not in pecking order. 

Until enough tactical-level officers are sufficiently battle-wise to 

make good use of the information from the network, senior commanders 

will understandably be reluctant to delegate and tempted to micromanage. 

For tough decisions, a good leader would rather risk making a mistake 

and taking the fall than having a subordinate do so. While other military 

cultures have long stressed decentralized operational decisionmaking, U.S. 

senior officers likely will set the bar high for battle-wise juniors to earn 

such authority.

In theory, battle-wisdom demands the integration of intuition and 

reasoning, self-awareness, the abilities to anticipate, decide quickly, seize 

opportunities, and adapt in action, and the willingness to lead and learn. 

In practice, it also depends on implementation of the smart-pull principle, 

good information management (IM), and delegation of authority. 

An Illustration

An example may illustrate these factors at work: imagine that a motorized column of peacekeepers is ambushed as it moves through a remote 

province of an African country engulfed in tribal violence. Imagine that 

this unit is networked with nearby patrols, sensor-carrying drone aircraft, 

an attack-helicopter unit, a provincial operations coordination center, 

force headquarters, and an intelligence fusion facility. Now visualize the 

major in command of the ambushed column being not at the network’s 

edge but at its center. Assume that good IM is in place and that this battlewise officer is trained to know what information to pull from the network, 

including intelligence about the threat, the latest data on the noncombatants to be rescued, weather reports, and information about the availability 

of backup forces. 

Senior officers up the chain of command feel the major has earned 

their confidence, and they appreciate that he has a fuller immediate view 

than they, thanks to his tacit knowledge, of unfolding events. Therefore, 

within the unit’s stated mission and rules of engagement, the major has 
80 GOMPERT, LACHOW, AND PERKINS

the authority to decide how to respond and what support to request. If it 

were possible that a wrong decision by the major could jeopardize not only 

his own unit and mission but also the larger operation or other units, an 

overriding decision by higher command might be indicated.4

 This often 

will be the case, given the ease and speed with which word of the unit’s 

fate is shared with the outside world. But in this example, the assumption 

will be that the major’s chosen course of action, whether right or wrong, 

will not have major ramifications beyond his unit and its results. He is thus 

inside his envelope of discretion.

Depending on what the major senses and summons from experience, his initial choice may be simply to hunker down or pull back. His 

intuition may tell him that the option of attacking the ambushing forces 

is a poor one because his experience and mental model suggest that an 

inferior force would not have attacked him. Once he has more data via his 

network about the threat, the presence of innocent civilians, and the time 

it will take to be reinforced, the major can weigh and decide among several 

options: to engage in a firefight; wait for reinforcement before engaging; 

retreat; or attempt to slip the ambush and proceed with the original assignment. While he may get advice from headquarters, the major is best 

placed to determine what is happening, what information and help is 

needed, what options are available, and what risks exist. The critical question then becomes how, and how well, he selects the best course of action. 

While vital, intuition will get the officer only so far before he must analyze 

all available information and weigh his options.

The major’s self-awareness establishes that his intuition is reliable 

enough to tell him not to attack, but only that. Identifying, weighing, and 

selecting among options beyond “don’t attack” require more information 

and more time, which he gains by holding his ground. Thus, his intuition 

can be trusted to give a good-enough initial response as well as secure 

him time to pull information from the network to aid in making a more 

reasoned decision. 

The illustration shows, again, that the most precious commodities in 

situations of urgency and complexity, like warfare, are time and information. Yet the case reminds us that time and information often work against 

one another: The greater the haste, the less chance one has to process data 

and to reason, thus forfeiting the benefit of information technology. Lack 

of time means lack of information, and lack of information means dependence on experience and mental models, which may not be appropriate or 

sufficient to the unfamiliar problem at hand. However tolerable in routine 

problem-solving, this time-information problem must, and increasingly 
 BATTLE-WISE 81

can, be overcome when lives depend on solving complex and unfamiliar 

problems.

Summing Up Battle-Wisdom

Now that we have examined the need for battle-wise people and decisionmaking, in strategic as well as operational terms, and before looking 

at how to foster these abilities, it is useful to tie together the concepts at 

play. Figure 5–2 presents a schematic of battle-wisdom at work, from the 

operational conditions that demand it, the abilities it comprises, the traits 

and conditions that foster it, and its payoff in networked warfare. 

Figure 5–2. The Battle-Wise Process

Note that once enemy forces are able to achieve networking and 

make U.S. forces vulnerable, U.S. forces are not guaranteed advantages 

in cognitive qualities, the ability to gain time-information advantage, the 

specific capabilities that may determine operational success or failure, the 

blending of intuition and reasoning, rapid adaptive decisionmaking, or 

the distribution of authority to go with the distribution of information. 

More generally stated, once two competitors have both crossed a certain 

threshold of networking, their comparative ability to achieve better cognition 

and decisionmaking is not determined by their economic, technological, or 

military resources. Shrewd, adaptable, and strongly motivated adversaries, 
82 GOMPERT, LACHOW, AND PERKINS

whether technologically sophisticated or not, could be competitive with 

the United States in each of these elements.

This implies that the United States must fashion and follow a strategy 

that does not presuppose battle-wisdom superiority. To mix athletic metaphors, cognitive competition in the military domain is a new ball game 

on a level playing field. Therefore, the U.S. strategy must not be a mere 

extension of efforts already under way to create network-centric forces 

but instead an explicit and comprehensive plan to compete and win at the 

next, higher level.

Has the U.S. Military Grasped the Need for a Strategy?

Sound thinking and decisionmaking are more than mere loose ends

of network-centric warfare. Moreover, success in competition on the 

military cognitive plane will not necessarily follow success on the technological plane. Therefore, what is needed is a coherent strategy to build 

battle-wise forces. Do the makings of such a strategy now exist? 

Readings of the latest National Military Strategy of the United States 

of America suggest that the answer is a qualified no. Here are germane 

excerpts from that document:

Decision superiority—“the process of making decisions better and 

faster than an Adversary”—is essential to executing a strategy based 

on speed and flexibility. Decision superiority requires new ways of 

thinking about acquiring, integrating, using and sharing information. 

It necessitates new ideas for developing architectures for command, 

control, communications and computers (C4) as well as the intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance assets that provide knowledge 

of adversaries. Decision superiority requires precise information of 

enemy and friendly dispositions, capabilities, and activities, as well 

as other data relevant to successful campaigns. Battlespace awareness, 

combined with responsive command and control systems, supports 

dynamic decisionmaking and turns information superiority into a

competitive advantage adversaries cannot match.

Persistent surveillance, ISR management, collaborative analysis and 

on-demand dissemination facilitate battlespace awareness. Developing the intelligence products to support this level of awareness 
 BATTLE-WISE 83

requires collection systems and assured access to air, land, sea and 

space-based sensors. 

Decisions to apply force in multiple, widely dispersed locations require highly flexible and adaptive joint command and control processes. Commanders must communicate decisions to subordinates, 

rapidly develop alternative courses of action, generate required effects, assess results and conduct appropriate follow-on operations. 

A decision superior joint force must employ decisionmaking processes that allow commanders to attack time-sensitive and time-critical targets. Dynamic decisionmaking brings together organizations, 

planning processes, technical systems and commensurate authorities 

that support informed decisions. Such decisions require networked 

command and control capabilities and a tailored common operating 

picture of the battlespace.5

These passages tell us there is a general awareness of the growing 

operational and strategic importance of something called “decision superiority,” which has some but not all of the elements of the superiority 

in cognitive capacity and performance that we call battle-wisdom. It 

also tells us that responsive command and control systems, collaborative 

analysis, and on-demand dissemination of information are important to 

decision superiority. This is encouraging.

However, this official explanation of what is required for decision superiority fails to stress human cognition—how people think and how well 

they decide. It is as if battle-wisdom—the capacity to integrate reliable intuition and rapid reasoning and the abilities to anticipate, decide quickly, 

seize opportunities, and learn in action—is assumed, needing only better 

intelligence sensors, information networks, and processes to succeed. It 

calls for commanders to communicate their decisions to subordinates, 

without recognizing that the subordinates may well be better informed 

than their superiors to decide what to do. After all, the great virtue of 

networking is not that it enables commanders to promulgate orders but 

that it informs those “on the edge” and permits them to collaborate, accept 

responsibility, and take initiative. 

The key to decision superiority lies not in the information network 

behind the screen but in the human brain behind the eyes looking at the 
84 GOMPERT, LACHOW, AND PERKINS

screen. If the United States expects to lead on the cognitive plane the way 

it has led on the technological plane, it would do well to begin with a basic 

understanding of the difference between the two.

Notes1

 We draw loosely from a growing body of work on adaptive planning. See Robert J. Lempert, 

Steven Popper, and Steven C. Bankes, Shaping the Next One Hundred Years: New Methods for Quantitative, Long-Term Policy Analysis (Santa Monica, CA: RAND, 2003). Whereas their work deals with longterm planning and decisionmaking, we advance the proposition that this way of solving problems may 

be compressed into operational time-frames. 2 Self-awareness is defined as consciousness of one’s own individuality, including the strengths, 

weaknesses, range, and limits of one’s cognitive abilities. 3

 Dennis K. Leedom, Sensemaking Symposium Report, with the Command and Control Research Program, Vienna, VA, 2001, available at <www.dodccrp.org/events/2001/sensemaking_symposium/docs/FinalReport/Sensemaking_Final_Report.pdf>. 4

 In traditional terms, it may be helpful to think of the major’s decision domain as being at the 

tactical level, whereas his superiors are responsible for the operational and strategic levels. While the 

value of these distinctions is being eroded by complexity and networking, they still adequately connote 

the levels at which decisions should be made. 5

 Joint Chiefs of Staff, The National Military Strategy of the United States of America: A Strategy 

for Today; A Vision for Tomorrow (Washington, DC: Department of Defense, 2004).
 BATTLE-WISE 85

85

Chapter Six

From Networking Power to 

Cognitive Power

The spread of IT and networking concepts and the changing nature

of warfare argue for giving more attention and resources to the

improvement of human problem-solving. The significance of the 

human in networked warfare can be seen in two contrasting ways. The first 

is to regard people as the weak nodes of any networked system: unable to 

cope when deluged with information; notoriously bad at solving complex 

problems rationally—an impediment to technology fulfilling its potential. 

The other perspective is to view people as the strong nodes of a networked 

system; the network merely absorbs, processes, and moves data, leaving 

people to do what information systems cannot—make hard and responsible choices. We obviously subscribe to the latter view. But either way, the 

capability to distribute information has brought the question of cognitive 

power to the fore. Improving decisionmaking—creating battle-wise superiority—deserves attention not as a peripheral detail or afterthought of 

networked warfare but as its ultimate differentiator. 

Improving cognitive effectiveness for networked warfare is not a sufficiently high U.S. defense priority. Apart from investment in information 

networks themselves, most effort is being directed at technologies and 

techniques to manipulate information to make it more useful to humans. 

Managing military information—collecting, fusing, filtering, processing, 

packaging, sharing, and displaying it—is important and challenging and 

merits the heightened attention it is getting. However, managing information is not the same as strengthening cognition; it happens outside 

the brain, not within it. Information management can help minds work 

but cannot do the work that minds must do and are best equipped to do. 

Unless this distinction is clearly made, we will confuse work on better displays, video-teleconferencing, and chatrooms with a strategy to improve 

thinking and decisionmaking.
86 GOMPERT, LACHOW, AND PERKINS

What, then, are the elements of a strategy to gain cognitive advantage 

in networked warfare? As a starting point, a network can be thought of 

in three ways:

as a distributor of information to individual minds

as a mobilizer of many minds

as a venue for collective thinking.

Accordingly, there are three ways to enhance cognitive contributions to 

military success: 

improving the ability of individuals to make use of distributed information in thinking and deciding

empowering more individuals to make decisions by distributing 

authority along with information through the network

fostering and harnessing the power of shared awareness and thinking.

In our parlance, this means developing battle-wise decisionmaking; 

organizing command and control to make good use of more battle-wise 

decisionmakers; and building battle-wise teams. As figure 6–1 suggests, 

progress along any and all of these three axes can help a force meet the 

cognitive challenges of warfare. 

Figure 6–1. Increasing Battle-Wisdom in Networked Warfare

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 BATTLE-WISE 87

The Individual

Warfighters are expected to make sound and prompt decisions on 

matters of life and death, perhaps even war and peace, despite confusion, 

stress, and danger. The urgency and difficulty of making a decision may 

peak at inopportune times, such as under fire, when an enemy is in the 

target sights, or when well-laid plans go awry. Because of the wide variety 

of adversaries and contingencies associated with the new international security environment, warfighters have to make such decisions in unfamiliar 

and unpredictable circumstances. They must meld technical, operational, 

political, psychological, and moral factors. Moreover, because of networking, their decisionmaking must cope with more information and take into 

account interdependencies with other units and decisionmakers. 

If one accepts Herbert Simon’s observation about the difficulty

of rational problem-solving, humans may not be up to such a complex 

challenge. However, our premise is that more, better, and shared information, because of networking, creates an unprecedented opportunity for 

warfighters to make better decisions. People can be better decisionmakers—more capable of anticipation, reaction speed, opportunism, and fast 

adaptation—provided that efforts are made to develop battle-wisdom in 

them and in how they make decisions.

If we are right that the ability to exploit networking will affect the 

course of future military competition and conflicts, the profile of the 

individual who can excel in wartime problem-solving, from seaman to 

admiral, is a matter of importance to national security. The mind of the 

networked individual must be good at receiving, assessing, and using information; analyzing data; deciding despite uncertainty; tolerating ambiguity; and sizing up unfamiliar situations. In short, the modern warfighter 

must be receptive, objective, and imaginative. 

Such a description is not meant as an all-purpose personnel profile, 

applicable to all occupations with the military services. Functions such as 

supply, finance, training, and planning are as important as ever and can 

all benefit from IT, networking, and cognitive development. But these 

functions and the abilities needed to perform them are similar to those 

found in many knowledge-based enterprises. What is exceptional about 

the military realm is not the business side but the warfighting side—the 

requirement to reach urgent judgments in the midst of confusion and violence. We doubt that the need for battle-wise warfighters can be satisfied 

simply by recruiting, developing, and assigning well-rounded people of 

high but generic intelligence and ability. Rather, some fraction of military 
88 GOMPERT, LACHOW, AND PERKINS

personnel should be optimized for battle-wise abilities, traits, and decisionmaking—much as the military selects certain types of individuals for 

special operations forces (SOF). In addition, because networking provides 

more and better information in flatter organizations, the performance of 

networked forces will depend on having as many battle-wise people as 

possible. 

With growing volumes of networked information available to support complex, high-pressure problem-solving in many nonmilitary sectors 

and markets, competition will be fierce to find and retain people with 

mental abilities analogous to those encompassed by battle-wisdom. In the 

world of military networking, from superpower to second-tier powers to 

terrorist groups, those that value, find, develop, and effectively use such 

people will have an advantage over those that do not.

Networks help by ingesting, screening, sorting, posting, and feeding 

information. But it falls to humans to react to whatever information is 

furnished and make decisions only they can or should make. How can the 

individual, with the power of the network at his or her disposal, excel as 

decisionmaker to the point that the network creates operational and, in 

turn, strategic advantages? Simply stated, by knowing and deciding.

First, the individual should know what he or she is in the best position to decide. In principle, by having all significant and relevant information available on the network (assuming none is denied) plus tacit 

knowledge from local observation, the individual should understand his 

or her circumstances better than anyone else. Endowed with this information advantage, along with the requisite authority, he or she is in the best 

position to solve whatever problems surface. If the person is leader enough 

to take responsibility for the decision, and assuming a wrong decision will 

not endanger other units or their missions, little is to be gained and much 

potentially lost—notably, time—by referring the problem up the chain of 

command. 

Second, once the network has done its part in preparing and presenting information, the individual must know how to use pulled information and blend it with tacit knowledge to solve complex problems with 

intuition and reasoning. Typically, this is a matter of identifying options 

and choosing among them—in the simplest case, choosing between doing 

nothing and doing whatever one can to avoid the penalty of doing nothing. Under intense time pressure, the tendency is to choose the path that 

intuition signals is good enough, or least unlikely to lead to disaster—not 

necessarily maximizing the chances of a favorable result, but at least reducing the chances of a regrettable one. 
 BATTLE-WISE 89

The cognitive abilities of particular value in networked warfare—

anticipation, reaction speed, opportunism, and rapid adaptability—suggest a decision stream rather than a set of discrete choices. Anticipation is 

more likely to pay off if follow-up is quick. At the same time, the ability 

to decide and react quickly may give the warfighter more time to get and 

consider more information without losing the initiative. Opportunities 

can be created by anticipation and quick reaction, which place one in a 

position to see and seize unexpected chances for advantage. If the battle 

is not unfolding as hoped, the ability to adapt rapidly could be indispensable. Indeed, whatever perils are involved or mistakes made in anticipating, reacting quickly, and seizing opportunities can be remedied by rapid 

adaptability, thus reducing risk. This is the way the battle-wise warfighter 

thinks.

After reaching a decision, the individual must be willing and able to 

learn objectively from the consequences, good or bad, of choices and actions. The capacity to learn, thanks to both information from the network 

and the cognitive abilities of the battle-wise individual, is vital for the 

battle-wise decision method. A rapid learning-reasoning-acting-learning 

cycle can be hard to achieve under the best of circumstances. Under the 

dangerous and disorderly conditions of warfare, the cognitive challenge is 

immense. Adaptive decisionmaking in combat conditions, when time is 

scarce and bullets are flying, takes self-awareness, aptitude, training, and 

practice.

The ability of individuals to reason in networked warfare can be improved in three ways: raising the level of battle-wise abilities in the entire 

pool from which individuals are drawn; being more selective in finding 

and favoring individuals who have battle-wise abilities; and honing the 

abilities of those individuals.

Raising the level of battle-wisdom in the pool requires rethinking 

general military recruitment standards, screening, and priorities with 

an eye toward the mental abilities known to be important in solving 

complex problems in battle. Identifying people in the armed services 

with these qualities and getting them into warfighting positions could 

require changes or improvements in sorting, selection, promotion, assignment, and retention policies. Developing the problem-solving abilities of 

people in the force requires fine-tuning education, training, and career 

development programs to stress these abilities. All of this is explored in 

chapter eight. 
90 GOMPERT, LACHOW, AND PERKINS

Decentralizing to Involve More People in Decisionmaking

A network can mobilize individuals, each contributing to solving the 

problems and meeting the challenges facing a force during operations. The 

more people who are enabled and empowered to take advantage of network information to make informed local decisions, the more likely it is 

that the operation will succeed. In simple arithmetic terms, accompanying 

the distribution of information with the distribution of authority multiplies the number of effective problem-solvers. Depending on the average 

span of control, the combination of distributed information and authority 

can increase dramatically the amount of brainpower actively engaged. If 

that brainpower is battle-wise, and if clear but flexible rules govern who 

decides what, a force can gain marked operational advantages, especially 

in complex warfare. 

In addition, the specific cognitive abilities that are crucial to operational success—anticipation, reaction speed, opportunism, and rapid 

adaptation—all strongly correlate with decentralization of authority. Precisely because combat success may depend on making time an ally—

enhancing time-information—the case for decentralization is compelling. Yet distributing decision authority is counter to military tradition, in 

which authority drops off steeply the further down the pyramid of command (and rank) one goes. To gain strategic benefits from network technology and principles, military tradition will have to yield to progress. 

Broadly speaking, the information and geopolitical revolutions are 

accelerating a trend toward decentralization and democratization of decisionmaking. From the time of ancient Greece, philosophers have debated 

whether to entrust authority to an enlightened few—perhaps to an omniscient one—or instead rely on the minds of the many. 1

 The past halfcentury or so has tipped this debate decidedly in favor of the many. The 

failure and collapse of fascist and communist dictatorships in the 20th century and the corresponding supremacy and spread of liberal democracy 

have proven the fallacy of relying on the few to the exclusion of the many. 

Similarly in business, the advantage of empowering employees has gone 

from fad to fact of life. Under most conditions, common sense argues 

against counting on a chief executive officer or commander to be so brilliant that the reasoning of the well-informed many can be disregarded. 

True, hierarchies still have certain indispensable functions: investing 

and allocating scarce resources; clarifying responsibilities; making strategic 

decisions; establishing standards, procedures, and policies; and providing 

insurance, checks, and balances against poor performance. When it comes 
 BATTLE-WISE 91

to operations, however, creating options for decentralized decisionmaking 

is the key to agility, adaptability, and success in most enterprises.

Decentralization enables the best use of talent. In one sector after 

another, hierarchies have given way to horizontal trails of responsibility, 

decentralized decision processes, and democratic cultures. In most endeavors, it is more productive to allow individuals to use their talents to 

the fullest within broad guidance and flexible boundaries and encourage 

natural teams and networks to form than to rely on rigid job descriptions, 

a climate of strict dos and don’ts, and compartmentalized specialization. 

Especially in information-rich enterprises, the loss from constricting people usually exceeds any gain from preventing their mistakes. In any sphere, 

eschewing micromanagement in favor of distributed decisionmaking is a 

logical corollary of networking principles and a prerequisite of cognitive 

superiority. 

The potential of networking in warfare cannot be realized unless and 

until command and control is reformed. There is burgeoning interest in 

how to fashion command and control systems for better results, given the 

demands imposed by the new security era and the opportunity presented 

by networking and the information that networks carry. Some have said 

that new command and control systems, as well as the forces they manage, 

should be resilient, flexible, responsive, innovative, and adaptive.2

 Amen. 

Decentralized command and control systems capitalize on cognition in 

information-rich networks and add flexibility in fluid situations.

For all the attention given lately to the advantages of flattening organizations, empowering subordinates, and jettisoning inflexible hierarchies, 

the U.S. military has some distance to go, whether compared to nonmilitary 

organizations or some non-American military organizations. The British, 

Canadians, and Australians, for example, have traditions of relying heavily 

on the judgment and initiative of junior officers, which they are now starting to draw on to exploit networking.3

 German military doctrine, even in 

the Nazi Wehrmacht, has followed the principle of issuing broad guidance 

and counting on officers in the field to make the right decisions.4

 To some 

extent, this is happening in the U.S. armed services—with seniors giving 

juniors the authority to make decisions, and juniors accepting and excelling with that authority.5

 Yet evidence abounds—many anecdotes coming 

from junior officers and cases witnessed by the authors—that senior U.S. 

combat commanders regard their newfound ability to observe the entire 

battlespace in detail as an irresistible opportunity to micro-manage. 

At the same time, historical and current examples of decentralized 

authority exist and are well entrenched within the U.S. military. The suc-
92 GOMPERT, LACHOW, AND PERKINS

cess of U.S. forces in World War II has been attributed in part to the trust 

placed in subordinates.6

 The U.S. Navy, like all navies, could not function 

if ship captains were denied more or less full authority over what occurs 

onboard. As a result, delegation and individual accountability feature 

more prominently in naval culture than in army culture, where counting on buddies may be a higher value. Of course, the naval practice of 

delegating authority is motivated not by networking but by the autonomy 

of individual ships and the historical difficulty of communicating on the 

high seas. Still, with less reliance on hierarchy when operating, naval units 

and officers may find it easier to network—at least with other naval elements and with the Marines—than those of more centralized services. An 

even more striking example of autonomy and networking are SOF, who 

have been trained to collaborate at tactical levels with any unit of any service. Small SOF units led by junior officers or NCOs often are inserted or 

tasked to remote places. SOF are as battle-wise as any existing forces and 

accustomed to delegation of authority.

Compared to networked warfare, historical set-piece mechanized 

campaigns and battles required fewer and more discrete decisions; consequently, centralized decisionmaking was tolerable. Increasingly, fluid 

conditions and distributed enemies demand rapid and flexible operations 

and decisionmaking, which argue for locating authority “near the guns.” 

Decentralization is especially important in contingencies where ambiguous and unfamiliar situations increase the value of tacit local knowledge. 

At the same time, those at the top of a force must specialize and 

excel in what they are in the best position to ponder and decide, namely, 

the formulation and adaptation of strategy. Forces, networked or not, 

will perform poorly if, all else being equal, senior commanders fail to 

read overall patterns and express their intent accordingly. In addition to 

underutilizing the power of networking, commanders who succumb to 

the micromanagement temptation may give insufficient attention to strategic patterns, analyses, and choices. The aim is not so much to shift all 

problem-solving responsibility from seniors to juniors but to ensure that 

each tier is engaged in solving the sorts of problems it is best prepared and 

informed to solve.

The danger of micromanagement is aggravated by the fact that, in 

the U.S. military, joint command and control is shallow—it is mostly 

found at the joint task force command level and, to some extent, with land, 

sea, and air component commanders. Technically, networking enables 

operational integration as deep as communications permit, and integration can provide enormous leverage. In practice, however, the absence of 
 BATTLE-WISE 93

deeper joint command and control will mean that force and component 

commanders will be overly involved in small operations. This will deny the 

full benefits of networking and retard progress toward integration. Pushing joint command and control down deeper into the force—the details 

of which are immensely complex and beyond our scope—is an important 

task in the strategy to build and field battle-wise forces.7

Engaging the battle-wise decisionmaking talent of more individuals 

in a networked force is not just a matter of devising command and control 

architectures to shift authority and initiative downward and outward. As 

noted earlier, networking not only informs individuals and units but also 

makes them interdependent. New command and control arrangements

should facilitate peer-to-peer collaboration so that units throughout the 

network can support and be supported by one another regardless of geography, service identity, and formal operational command boundaries. 

Decentralization to involve many in local problem-solving may weaken 

vertical control but strengthen horizontal and diagonal links, which are 

far harder to fit with rank and rigid structure. Even if top commanders share much of their authority, they have a role in facilitating such 

links and mediating interdependencies—all the more reason to eschew 

micrmanagement.

Figure 6–2. Warrior-Centric Network
94 GOMPERT, LACHOW, AND PERKINS

 The power of distributing information and authority argues for a 

conceptual shift from network-centric warfare to warrior-centric network, 

as depicted in figure 6–2. This, after all, is the way the Internet and other 

networks work, and it is the way warfighters and the Armed Forces should 

think of their operating networks. In the words of the U.S. Chief of Naval 

Operations, “The sailor is in the center of the combat system and not an 

appendage.” It is not hyperbole to say that all warfare becomes local when 

a relevant operating picture can be constituted at any location. In the 

mind’s eye, the junior decisionmaker, having migrated from the bottom 

to the edge of the force, must now move from the edge to the center of his 

or her network.

Figure 6–2 underscores the principle that the truest measure of any 

network’s worth is the level of satisfaction of the needs of its user. It also 

implies that flexible collaboration among warriors is an option of growing importance, not available when communications could only conform 

to and reinforce vertical command and control. Figure 6–2 makes explicit 

that the highest power of information is the enablement of the person 

and, thus, illustrates why the cognitive abilities of every user are crucial. It 

reminds us that data should move by the force of smart pull. 

One of the chief reasons that the cognitive abilities of small-unit 

leaders are becoming so important is that networking permits forces to be 

distributed in small but connected units, which is advantageous for maneuverability, survivability, and effectiveness. This means that more junior 

officers and NCOs must be wise enough to make decisions that people of 

their rank were rarely called on to make in the past. It also means that the 

intuitive component of problem-solving may be less reliable, since people 

in the rank-and-file are less experienced than those at the top. More individuals will require better cognitive abilities to solve more and different 

types of problems, with less ability to draw on past experience because 

military operations are diverse and changing. 

Collective Intelligence

In the military and other fields, decisions are seldom crisp choices 

made by “lonely” individuals at the top. Indeed, by mobilizing the many, 

networking works against single-point decisionmaking. In wired organizations, decisions can and often do reflect shared analysis and judgment. 

Think of corporations whose success can be attributed to their collective 

wisdom. Google has become legendary for pooling the intelligence of its 

people. The resurgence of General Electric during the information age 

can be attributed as much to the learning-sharing-thinking power of the 
 BATTLE-WISE 95

entire culture as to its incandescent ex-chairman, “Neutron Jack” Welch.8

The genius of Wal-Mart, a favorite of business school case studies, lies in 

how its logistics processes are managed and improved by smart teams, not 

by individual wizards. 

In The Wisdom of Crowds, James Surowiecki explains how and why 

groups consistently produce decisions and solutions superior to those 

produced by all but a few of the individuals in the group. The most consistently accurate way to guess the number of jelly beans in a jar is to ask a 

large number of people their estimates and then take the average. The best 

way to set odds on a football game is to let a large population of bettors do 

it. The fairest way to decide the fate of an accused is by jury.

The reason for this, simply put, is that the errors of individuals tend 

to cancel out one another as numbers increase, leaving the average to be 

that much better. But such collective wisdom only works if there is ample 

diversity and independence of views among the participants. That way, 

the full range of experiences, perspectives, and information of the many 

are in play, resulting in a better answer than if the solution is based on the 

experience, perspectives, and information of only a few, even if they are 

of above average intelligence. Absent diversity and independence, “groupthink”—the foe of reason—may emerge.

Enhancing collective intelligence in the military is bound to be more 

difficult and perilous than in less disciplined organizations and less dangerous domains. Translating Surowiecki’s requirement for diversity and 

independence into military forces and operations would, to say the least, 

require a great deal of consideration and care.9

 Urgency and violence 

tend to lead to single-point (though not necessarily centralized) decisionmaking, and rightly so. Moreover, military units are highly structured; 

decisionmaking tends to conform to structure; and structure impedes 

collective thinking. Military organizations also are no longer fixed once 

operations begin; instead, they undergo continuous change in response to 

conditions, especially in joint operations. A frigate may begin as part of a 

carrier battlegroup, move to providing firepower to an amphibious strike 

force, go on to link up with SOF searching for an enemy command center, 

and later join other frigates to patrol a coast. This obviously complicates 

the applicability and realization of collective battle-wisdom.

Yet because networking opens horizontal paths for collaboration, 

individuals must be able to reason together, from pairs to small teams to 

entire forces. Shared awareness allows for the possibility of shared problem-solving. We all know that solving problems by committee can be 

frustrating, time-consuming, and fruitless. Moreover, groupthink—the 
96 GOMPERT, LACHOW, AND PERKINS

opposite of diversity and independence—is especially strong in military 

cultures and can hurt instead of help performance. 

As networking facilitates integrated operations, large traditional 

military structures—corps and divisions, air wings, carrier battlegroups—

begin to lose their utility and integrity. In time, networks themselves could 

become operating structures—though ever-changing ones. According to 

networking theory, more or less confirmed by practice, ad hoc teams will 

self-organize to deal with common problems, enabling a force as a whole 

continuously to optimize its resources despite uncertainty and change. 

Such fluid organizations will work only if awareness, common intent, and 

opportunity for collaboration are shared, which networking can provide. 

A commander soliciting the independent and diverse opinions of 

staff or subordinate commanders before making a decision is not a novel 

concept. Yet the commander will determine what weight to place on the 

views of others as well as his or her own—and may be wrong. An interesting twist, being tried in some corporations, is to go with the consensus 

whether the commander sees it the same way or not. Apart from the obvious time-consuming drawback of this method, commanders are taught, 

for good reason, that they must take ultimate responsibility for failure and 

cannot do so if the decision is collective. Of course, the commander with 

confidence in the wisdom of subordinates may elect to take responsibility 

for the method and the consequences of team decisionmaking.

While collaboration is better than solo problem-solving in theory, it 

may not be that simple in practice. A balance must be found between the 

speed and agility provided by single-point decisionmaking and the quality 

of decisions based on the independent and diverse views of many. When 

considering what kind of problem-solving is best to maximize battle-wise 

performance—anticipation, reaction speed, opportunism, and fast adaptation—the answer must be: it depends.

Notes1

 A treatment of this debate in Athens is found in I.F. Stone, The Trial of Socrates (New York: 

Random House, 1989). 2

 David S. Alberts and Richard E. Hayes, Power to the Edge: Command and Control in the Information Age (Vienna, VA: CCRP, 2004). 3

 The British military prefers to speak of “network-enhanced capabilities” instead of “networkcentric warfare” because the latter connotes the centrality of the network instead of its users. 4

 Alberts and Hayes.

5

 Dan Baum, “Battle Lessons,” The New Yorker, January 17, 2005, 42–48. 6

 Stephen E. Ambrose argues in Citizen Soldiers: The U.S. Army from the Normandy Beaches to 

the Bulge to the Surrender of Germany, June 7, 1944–May 7, 1945 (New York: Simon and Shuster, 1997) 

that one of the reasons that U.S. Soldiers performed so well in World War II is that subordinates easily 
 BATTLE-WISE 97

took the place of leaders who were hurt or killed in combat. Thus, there was little loss in leadership, 

continuity, or effectiveness when those in charge were knocked out of action. In contrast, German 

soldiers had a much harder time fighting effectively when their leaders were lost. 7

 For more details, see Alberts and Hayes, Power to the Edge, and David S. Alberts, Understanding Information Age Warfare (Washington, DC: CCRP, 2001). 8

 The clearest accounts of this metamorphosis of General Electric come from Welch himself, 

who explains how his role changed from commander to enabler as the company became a more networked, learning organization. John A. Byrne, “How Jack Welch Runs GE: A Close-Up Look at How 

America’s #1 Manager Runs GE,” Business Week Online, June 8, 1998, available at <www.businessweek.

com/1998/23/b3581001.htm>. 9

 James Surowiecki does not call for the application of collective decisionmaking to the military 

field or even address the matter in The Wisdom of Crowds: Why the Many are Smarter than the Few 

and How Collective Wisdom Shapes Business, Economies, Societies, and Nations (New York: Random 

House, 2004).
98 GOMPERT, LACHOW, AND PERKINS
 BATTLE-WISE 99

99

Chapter Seven

An Excursion beyond 

the Military 

Why Observe Broader Research and Experience?

Although U.S. Armed Forces are already made up of intelligent, 

dedicated, and skilled men and women, imagine a force of warfighters 

finely tuned specifically to excel in networked warfare—conditioned to 

think and decide using a blend of reliable intuition and quick reasoning 

and unmatched in their ability to anticipate, decide promptly, capitalize 

on opportunities, and learn in action. In addition, the soldiers of such 

a battle-wise force would know when and how to leverage the collective 

intelligence of operating teams and how to pull information from their 

networks to enhance decisionmaking when their own mental models and 

experience fall short. 

Achieving this vision will take a purposeful strategy. To treat the 

pursuit of advantage on the cognitive plane as just another facet of developing network-centric capabilities—as the U.S. defense establishment is 

doing—is to underestimate the special nature of the challenge. Although 

the military has unique mission structures and needs, it should, as part of 

designing such a strategy, explore a wide range of research, including that 

which is not aimed at the Armed Forces and warfare. It also should study 

how other sectors and institutions are trying to develop, organize, and use 

individuals and teams with comparable abilities and traits. As with other 

facets of exploiting and adjusting to IT and networking, other organizations have been struggling with similar cognitive and personnel challenges 

longer than the military, forced to do so by their recognition that how and 

how well people think affect the bottom line in the information age more 

than ever.

Of particular interest is research and experience outside the military 

sector in relation to the use of key cognitive abilities for operating in urgent, high-stakes, complex, fluid, and information-rich situations. While 
100 GOMPERT, LACHOW, AND PERKINS

keeping the unique aspects of military duty in mind, much can be learned 

from companies that have successfully implemented such practices as 

rigorous hiring of top talents, self-directed learning systems, leveraging of 

collective intelligence through encouraging decentralized decisionmaking, 

using cross-boundary teams, cross-training, inducing artificial disruption 

in a system’s operations, and fostering collaborative decisionmaking. 

The Individual and Intuition

What is known about intuition comes from observations of decisionmaking in a wide variety of settings. Modern research, of which the 

work of Gary Klein stands out for its clarity and practicality, removes some 

of the mystery about intuition.1

 Klein’s work is based on a person’s experiences and subsequent understanding of complex situations drawn from 

repeatedly seeing patterns, making decisions, and receiving timely feedback from those decisions. Intuition is essentially educated anticipation of 

how a situation will unfold. Intuitive decisionmaking comes naturally to 

the experienced warrior, businessperson, athlete, or first responder. Rarely 

do these decisionmakers attribute their decisions in urgent situations to 

the weighing of options or to rational deduction involving the assessment 

of a problem using a deliberate process or scientific method. About 90 

percent of the time, in fact, people rely on an intuition-based process to 

make urgent, important decisions in fields as diverse as nursing, athletics, 

firefighting, weather forecasting, and business.2

 The standard answer to 

urgency is to size up the situation, set a direction, and act.3

Intuition enables such a quick cognitive response based on a combination of immediate, largely tacit knowledge and preexisting mental 

models. We hold beliefs about how certain processes and phenomena 

work, and we form models based on those beliefs. Expert firefighters know 

how fires spread, the flammability and reaction of different materials to 

heat and flame, and the behavior of different types of fires in different 

conditions. Nurses have an understanding of how infections start and 

spread, what a healthy person looks like, and what symptoms imply what 

diseases. Coaches comprehend the nuances of the sport, communication 

techniques for motivating players, and the skills needed for different positions. Such understanding of the critical elements in a field becomes a 

filter through which to interpret new information, unconsciously predict 

the outcome of a course of action, and decide. 

Experienced firefighters or emergency rescue workers, for example, 

have well-developed mental models after seeing a plethora of scenarios 
 BATTLE-WISE 101

played out in the course of their work. Rarely do they analyze and compare 

multiple options when under time pressure. Rather, they project mental 

simulations of what might happen with a particular course of action because they know how similar situations have unfolded in the past. If their 

initial response to a stimulus is incorrect, they often have the objectivity, 

flexibility, and experience to correct their course accordingly in a rapid 

and iterative manner. 

Firefighting is one field where intuitive decisions are regularly made 

under the extreme time pressure of putting out a dynamic and dangerous 

fire. Veteran firefighters can recognize situational patterns rapidly and 

usually develop a plan of attack within moments. In one instance, a fire 

chief fighting a house fire made a quick decision to leave a house after 

several failed attempts to fight flare-ups in the first floor kitchen. The chief 

attributed his decision to extrasensory perception, but in-depth interviewing later revealed that he perceived a subtle difference in the sound and 

heat intensity of the fire. He had seen, heard, and felt so many fires in his 

life that he was able to recognize immediately that something was missing 

from the usual patterns—even though he did not consciously understand 

exactly what was missing at the time. His intuition told him something 

was different, and he made the call to exit the house moments before the 

floor collapsed and revealed a raging fire in the basement below the living 

room where, moments before, his crew had stood. The chief had enough 

understanding of fire behavior to recognize an anomaly, and he correctly 

assessed that the situation was more dangerous than normal.4

Because intuition is not an analytical function, we may not need 

complete information, logic, or reasoning to recognize patterns and make 

good enough decisions in a complex situation—assuming we have seen 

a similar situation before and our mental models enable recognition of 

at least some of the situational patterns. As Malcolm Gladwell suggests 

in Blink, seasoned people in many occupations are able to “thin-slice” 

information—scanning, consciously or unconsciously, for a few key indicators or predictors instead of trying to absorb myriad information, as 

less practiced people must do before reaching a judgment. To those who 

know what nuggets to look for, the time required to survey a “thick slice”of 

information is not worth it. Conversely, when time is not available, the 

ability to thin-slice may be invaluable.

Expert rock climbers do not necessarily know how to negotiate a

section of rock face until they are actually within a few feet of it and can 

see details, such as pitch, handholds, cracks, and anchoring points. With a 

fairly quick look from the ground, however, they can judge their ability to 
102 GOMPERT, LACHOW, AND PERKINS

climb the entire route, and decide on a general direction to go. They then 

project mental simulations of each move as they climb upward, with each 

step revealing the next. They respond to problems as they encounter them, 

one move at a time, relying on their intuition without having to reason. 

Because they have a memory full of experience, they recognize patterns in 

rock faces that they have not climbed before and they can respond intuitively with appropriate moves as they go.

An expert gymnast, despite sharing some physical and mental traits 

with a rock climber—flexibility, strength, balance, muscle control, focus, 

and determination—may not have the mental models to climb a challenging rock face without training in the disciplines of rock-climbing. Intuitive 

decisionmaking is different from random or lucky guessing because the 

decisionmaker has a higher probability of making a correct choice than 

one who may have never faced a certain type of situation. A life spent 

training for soccer does not prepare an athlete to excel at American football without practicing the techniques and patterns specific to the game. 

Although an athlete from one sport might master another more quickly 

than a non-athlete, immediate cognition is a skill that goes beyond guessing. An individual must learn the types of patterns in a particular field of 

operations to sustain successful results.

 Reliance on intuition does not mean acting impulsively without 

regard for fresh information. Indeed, one must be open and sensitive to 

information that quickly reveals patterns in a dynamic environment. At 

the same time, applying immediate knowledge without a relevant mental 

model might be unreliable and even dangerous in situations with high 

stakes, urgency, and complexity. It also helps to know the limits of one’s 

experience, as well as when to seek additional information or advice when 

mental models are irrelevant to the problem at hand. 

Relying exclusively on intuitive decisionmaking might be adequate 

when the stakes are not so high, the problems are repetitive, or a lack of 

time leaves no alternative. Whether in military or nonmilitary activities, 

however, intuition alone will not suffice when circumstances and problems 

are complex, fluid, and unfamiliar. Moreover, networking technologies, 

structures, and tools provide an unprecedented opportunity to strengthen 

the reasoning component of decisionmaking, even when time is scarce. 

Individuals and organizations now can fill in the gaps where intuition falls 

short, and replace, verify, or change intuitive leanings.
 BATTLE-WISE 103

 Combining Intuition with Reasoning in Practice

Again, decisionmakers must understand the bounds of their mental 

models if they are to utilize intuition and reasoning synergistically. In addition, they must have a high degree of objectivity in assessing a situation 

to determine if their mental models are applicable. Situational complexity is a function of the number of parameters involved in the scenario at 

hand.5

 The greater the number of parameters in a scenario, the greater the 

number of outcomes possible, and the less intuition applies. 

Albert Einstein once said, “Our theories determine what we measure.” 

Likewise, our mental models—cognitive constructs that translate into beliefs, assumptions, rules of thumb, biases, and theories as to how the world 

operates—determine the way in which we see or diagnose a problem. Two 

individuals may look at the same reality but see two different combinations of issues because of differing mental models and experiences. A perfect appreciation of one’s mental models would require greater objectivity 

and detachment than most of us have. However, individuals with a higher 

degree of self-awareness and facility with reasoning under pressure will 

have an advantage in making intelligent decisions when it counts.

Neonatal intensive care and the forecasting of violent weather stand 

out as two fields in which decisionmakers have been able to combine their 

intuitive abilities with analysis, tools, and reasoning to enhance their decisions.

In intensive-care wards for premature babies, experienced nurses 

know how to detect the presence of an infection called sepsis that premature babies can develop. If not detected immediately, sepsis can lead to a 

rapid death. Diagnosing sepsis involves a combination of factors, including visual cues that instrumentation or nurses who have never witnessed 

the symptoms cannot easily detect without understanding the whole 

picture. Any one of the indicators, such as change in skin hue, elevated 

temperature, lethargy, and swelling might appear on its own without 

much consequence; these symptoms occur frequently in both healthy and 

premature newborns. However, the combination of all the symptoms at 

the same time is what one must recognize through developing appropriate 

mental models.6

In one instance, a newly hired nurse on duty failed to notice the 

combination of cues indicating sepsis in one of the babies in her ward. 

Fortunately, her supervisor happened to walk by and noticed that something “didn’t look good” about the baby— without ever before having seen 

that particular baby. The supervisor suspected sepsis. She quickly used 
104 GOMPERT, LACHOW, AND PERKINS

available information from various instruments to check her intuition. 

The baby was treated with antibiotics and then given a blood-culture test 

to confirm the visual diagnosis. The blood-culture test proved the nurse’s 

intuition correct 24 hours later. 

The veteran nurse knew she had to act promptly and on the basis of 

incomplete information. She also knew that if her intuition and initial action proved wrong, the alternative causes of the symptoms would not have 

led to rapid death. In contrast, the new nurse was relying on instrument 

information alone.7

 Self-aware decisionmakers in urgent situations often 

rely on their intuition first, and then confirm or correct their intuitive response with available data as time permits. The less familiar they are with 

the problem they face, the more they must rely on analysis of all relevant 

information—pulled from information systems and networks—before

acting. 

Intuition and analysis also combine in the forecasting of violent, 

sudden weather, another field where problems can be urgent, complex, 

and destructive. The best weather forecasters tend to rely on their intuition 

first before using instruments or turning to the analysis of others. They 

check the dew on the handrails as they walk out the door in the morning, 

notice the impact of their footprints in the grass, feel the temperature of 

the air, and, of course, look at the sky. They assess the whole picture and 

then build mental models from their accumulated understanding of patterns and correlations of different factors. When they arrive at work, they 

then check the most recent raw data themselves rather than relying on 

the interpretation of others. This enables them to see trends, patterns, key 

indicators, and anomalies in the data—somewhat like the way the firefighter noticed differences in sound and heat that cued him to leave the 

burning building. Weather forecasters know how to look for more data 

where needed, build mental simulations of what might be unfolding in the 

weather, develop a story with the patterns they are seeing, compare their 

intuitive findings with the data, adapt as necessary, and make a judgment 

when they feel they understand current reality.8

With the advent of networking, human beings have an opportunity to 

leverage IT for enhancing and verifying intuition, as well as supplementing 

intuition when additional information and reasoning are needed to make 

a good decision. If the firefighter mentioned above had waited for analysis 

to confirm his intuition, he may not have gotten his crew out before the 

floor collapsed. On the other hand, if the firefighter had had access to a 

networked sensor or camera in the basement of the burning building, he 

might have been able to make a better decision on where to attack the fire 
 BATTLE-WISE 105

and have avoided the risk altogether. If the neonatal intensive care nurse 

had waited 24 hours for test results to confirm her hunch about sepsis, the 

baby’s infection might have been fatal. However, if the monitoring equipment had not confirmed the independent symptoms of sepsis, the nurse 

might not have been as confident in her immediate response. 

It seems that decisionmaking in high-stakes, urgent, complex situations where sensors and networks of information are available will require 

a blend of well-developed and relevant intuitive abilities, awareness of the 

boundaries of mental models, and the ability to analyze data and reason 

quickly. 

Demands of the marketplace also are becoming more urgent, fluid, 

and unfamiliar as information technologies change the dynamics and 

pace of reality. Those same technologies, especially when networked, can 

provide information that can check and buttress intuition, strengthen reasoning, and combine intuition and reasoning in improved decisionmaking. Finding and developing individuals who can excel at the intersection 

of abundant data and turmoil—akin to the information and geostrategic 

revolutions described earlier—will become increasingly important for an 

organization’s advantage. Where and how are such people found? 

Recruiting Intelligent Decisionmakers

A study of 11 companies that have consistently outperformed the

market for 15 years found that their managers tend to emphasize hiring 

the right people, even before corporate strategy, vision, or technology. By 

hiring focused, intelligent, versatile people, they create a culture of discipline, learning, flexibility, and adaptability—all of which are necessary to 

thrive in a complex and dynamic environment.9

Google aims to hire the top software people in the world. The company operates in a highly competitive and dynamic environment where 

technology changes rapidly and competitors are fighting for a foothold 

in a saturated market. Google selects people who not only are superlative 

software engineers but also have the entrepreneurial spirit needed to take 

risks, to “fail early” before a decision goes too far down the wrong path, 

and to troubleshoot on the fly. Despite its size, Google is extremely selective: it hires roughly 1 out of 1,000 applicants.10 Lately, it has managed to 

hire a majority of the best available search-engine people in the world. 

Such high standards and rigorous discipline in hiring give the company an 

enormous amount of trust in its employees, enough for them to authorize 

and encourage distributed problem-solving without approval from on 
106 GOMPERT, LACHOW, AND PERKINS

high. Consequently, decisions are made more quickly when responding to 

problems.11 As testament to its approach, Google recently went public and 

raised $1.7 billion—one of the largest technology initial public offerings 

ever.12

Wells Fargo is another company that emphasizes people above all

else. With a hunch that big changes were coming to the banking industry 

in the late 1970s, the chief executive officer of Wells Fargo hired some of 

the most talented management teams in the industry. Rather than trying 

to predict what the changes would be and gamble on a strategy, he focused 

on building a team of the best minds he could find. As a result, Wells Fargo 

survived the banking deregulation and shakeout of the 1980s. It outperformed the stock market by a factor of three, while the banking sector as 

a whole fell way behind.13

Other evidence points to the fact that hiring people with appropriate 

qualities for a job is of utmost importance. From a poll of about 80,000 

managers from 400 companies, Gallup concluded that each human’s

nature and talents are unique and that people do not really change their 

behavior that much.14 For the most part, corporate education and training 

or a sweeping cultural change are unlikely to change or set people’s attitudes, talents, or motivation levels. Like a good National Football League 

football coach choosing new players, the best managers draft for talent and 

attitude, and then assign people responsibilities where they can become 

more and more of who they already are.15

A good example of this can be seen at Southwest Airlines, the most 

profitable airline in the last 20 years. The Southwest philosophy is to hire 

people who are innovative, self-confident, and fearless about finding better 

ways to solve problems. Southwest hires people who have an attitude that 

will fit its culture and then trains them to develop the skills for particular 

jobs.16 Because Southwest is clear about its values and purpose, it does 

not waste time trying to alter attitudes that do not fit. Abbot, Circuit City, 

Fannie Mae, Gillette, Kimberly-Clark, Kroger, Nucor, Philip Morris, Pitney Bowes, Walgreens, and Wells Fargo—all of which have outdone their 

respective markets for 15 consecutive years—practice a similar philosophy 

and make hiring people that share their values and purpose a priority.17

Although the exact qualities for which such people-first companies 

hire may differ, some common traits are necessary for operating in an increasingly complex and dynamic marketplace. The list includes creativity 

or unorthodox thinking; the ability to thrive in ambiguity, complexity, and 

pressure; willingness to learn and change in action; advanced reasoning 

capabilities, both intuitive and analytical development; self-awareness and 
 BATTLE-WISE 107

objectivity; measured confidence; and a willingness to take responsibility 

and be accountable for the consequences of decisions.18 In short, organizations want people who are willing and able to make intelligent decisions 

with incomplete information and under pressure. 

Despite the glitz of IT, and because of the ubiquity of information, 

differentiation among organizations will come down to the people who 

know how to exploit information. High-tech companies like Google do 

not want good engineers, but rather great engineers who also can innovate 

and initiate. As the complexity and speed of markets increase, the companies that win in their markets and in stock markets will be those full of 

people who not only know how to use the tools of their trade but also are 

capable of knowing how to blend reasoning and intuition when making 

decisions. Companies with a proven record will find it is easier to compete 

for such people, with both compensation and reputation. However, attracting and hiring talented people requires that the highest priority be 

placed on finding and keeping such people.

In sum, a sampling of strong companies reveals that they all believe 

that people are of unsurpassed importance; that cognitive abilities and the 

inclination to innovate, initiate, and take responsibility in fluid markets, 

utilizing the power of information, are essential attributes; and that the 

key to having such people is to find and hire them from the start. We will 

consider later whether this formula is right for the Armed Forces.

Improving Decisionmaking

In both civilian and military domains, we have observed that because 

intuition springs from experience it can be less reliable as rapid change 

occurs and problems become less repetitive and familiar. Mental models 

are less likely to aid in comprehension if reality is fluid, messy, and unpredictable. Yet developing intuition is possible. Moreover, because it is 

normally the initial response in urgent situations, it should get attention 

in improving decisionmaking. 

Years of seasoning and repetition traditionally have been essential in 

building reliable intuition in veteran firefighters, nurses, weather forecasters, and the like. But understanding how intuition works and consciously 

practicing decisionmaking can offset inexperience to some degree. Understanding and practice can have two positive effects: shortening the time 

it takes to develop good intuitive tools and bolstering the reliability of 

intuition in unfamiliar circumstances through developing more attuned 

self-awareness. 
108 GOMPERT, LACHOW, AND PERKINS

Intuition training programs already have been adopted by fire departments, the National Fire Academy, business executive training programs, and parts of the Armed Forces. The method is straightforward: 

isolate the sorts of decisions (as distinct from specific decisions) that one 

could come across in certain types of situations (as distinct from specific 

situations) given the job and the environment; practice those decisions repeatedly through real-life situations or simulations; and review the results 

of the decisions to learn and adjust. This is a much more active approach 

than the occasional training seminars or certification testing that many 

companies already do. It treats a job as a discipline and is similar to the 

approach an athlete or musician might take in training.19

A corporate executive has to make many critical decisions, such as 

setting budgets, selecting contractors, identifying opportunities for investment, hiring and promotion, and assessing the viability of a project.20 A 

soccer player might identify and practice such decisions as passing or dribbling, shooting the ball or passing when in front of the goal, playing zone 

or man-to-man defense, positioning on the field in relation to the ball, or 

even how hard to kick the ball based on field conditions. A commercial 

airline pilot might actively practice decisions, such as when to climb out 

of turbulence, or even how to recognize extremely dangerous weather 

scenarios, and when to change course. A police officer might practice decisions such as how to recognize when the use of force is justified and when 

it might be necessary to call for backup. 

Analyzing the types of decisions an individual makes in a job can 

reveal a better awareness of mental models. Such analysis can indicate 

what makes decisions difficult, cases where mental models do not apply, 

and potential pitfalls or habits that might lead to failure when it counts. As 

a novice, some decisions—as in the case of a junior business executive or 

pilot—might require more analysis of data. By repeatedly exercising representative decisions and assessing their results, intuition should become 

both deeper and more reliable, and the requirement for time-consuming 

deliberation and analysis can be reduced.

Accelerating the rate at which experience and sound mental models 

are developed should improve the intuitive component of decisionmaking. However, training cannot and should not try to anticipate in detail the 

variety and ambiguities of dynamic markets. Therefore, development of 

reasoning skills is critically important for making good decisions. Methods 

of improving reasoning skills are not that different from the intuitionbuilding processes just described. The major difference is that rational 

decisionmaking is more structured—that is to say, one should follow more 
 BATTLE-WISE 109

or less standard conscious steps, such as defining the problem, gathering 

and screening information, clarifying objectives, disaggregating the problem for analysis, and identifying the best options.21

Once a problem is defined, three modes of reasoning are useful for 

decisionmakers: inductive, deductive, and abductive. Inductive reasoning 

involves the inference of a hypotheses based on the gathering of evidence; 

it moves from a level of specificity to a more general conclusion. Deductive reasoning seeks to identify data that confirms the truth of a hypothesis, moving from a general assumption to particular evidence. Abductive 

reasoning involves the use of analogy, whereby alternative or creative 

hypotheses are applied where scant evidence may exist.22 All three types 

of reasoning should be understood and developed for solving problems. 

The crucial first step in any reasoning process—problem definition—will, 

in large part, determine what type of reasoning is used. Efforts to sharpen 

rational decisionmaking follow more or less the same pattern as intuitiondevelopment: identify what types of decisions one is likely to face, practice 

making them, receive feedback, learn, and repeat. 

Whether trying to improve intuitive or rational decisionmaking,

choosing what types of decisions to practice is vitally important. For many 

professions, creating a potent mixture of urgency, stakes, complexity, and 

flux is more important than guessing the specifics of real situations that 

may be encountered. In such circumstances, training should tax and build 

intuition, reasoning, and the self-awareness to blend the two. Again, this 

is the approach demanded by the combination of unfamiliar problems, 

abundant information, lack of time, and severe penalties for being either 

wrong or too slow.

Imagine a young wilderness fire commander—not dissimilar to the

major of the ambushed peacekeeping unit discussed in chapter five—facing a situation out of his realm of experience. A powerful windstorm is 

moving in and will blow a wildfire dangerously close to some homes. The 

crew is on the opposite side of the fire from the endangered homes, and 

it is impossible for the entire crew to mobilize in time to protect them. 

In desperation and for lack of experience, the commander begins calling 

around to more experienced commanders to ask for advice. He has an assistant quickly assess the likelihood of mobilizing to arrive at the houses in 

time given the speed of the approaching storm. He has another assistant 

monitor the weather. Another assistant is making calls to headquarters to 

coordinate an evacuation using local volunteer and media networks. 

Several recommendations are made by other fire commanders, and 

the local commander runs them by his assistants. One suggestion seems 
110 GOMPERT, LACHOW, AND PERKINS

particularly interesting—to light another fire on the side where the crew 

is and use the power of the wind to create a backdraft that will suck the 

oxygen from the current blaze. The commander quickly does a network 

search and finds several articles written about backdraft attempts. He does 

a text-search for key words, such as success, probability, and conditions 

and is able to see that the conditions seem favorable for this technique 

and confirm the advice given by the other commander. He calls a few of 

the other commanders to ask their advice on this line of reasoning and 

although one disagrees, the other three think it is the best option and offer 

insight on problems that might arise. 

Meanwhile, calculations are done to assess the probability of the 

backdraft technique, using velocity of windspeed and other factors, such 

as the chance that the wind might change direction and turn on the crew 

or spread to a group of homes to the south instead. Because the approaching storm is intense, the decision is made to dispatch half of the crew to 

mobilize volunteer firemen and homeowners to dig firelines and set up 

defenses for the homes. Finally, the commander takes a step back and 

considers the cost-benefit of saving the homes versus the risk to the lives 

of his crew and others in the direct line of the quickly spreading fire. Assuming the commander has an awareness of his mental models, is adept 

at defining problems, has the ability to communicate with others and seek 

diverse opinions, and has access to a network of pertinent information and 

the ability to run relevant analysis, this entire process would probably take 

less time and perhaps be of less consequence than choosing a faulty path 

based on a hasty decision outside the realm of his expertise. 

The role of time and information and the importance of time-information in this hypothetical case are worth noting. The fire commander 

tries not merely to optimize the tradeoff between time and information 

but to expand time-information—using time to gain critical information 

that in turn permits a decision that is both timely and sound. Lacking 

experience, and therefore appropriately doubtful of his intuition, the 

commander borrows intuition from more experienced colleagues on the 

network and combines this with time-efficient analysis. What the young 

commander lacks in background he makes up for in self-awareness—as 

well as a good mix of humility and confidence.

The development of measured confidence to reason under pressure

is important for decisionmakers in complex situations. This requires a 

degree of self-reliance, which can be developed through, among other 

practices, self-directed learning.
 BATTLE-WISE 111

Self-Directed Learning

In addition to selecting the right people and rigorously training 

intuition and reasoning, organizations can provide the climate and tools 

to promote individual learning to improve the use of information and 

decisionmaking. Self-directed learning encourages and equips individuals 

who are able and willing to take initiative, adapt continuously, and make 

decisions without close supervision. Some of the most successful organizations in today’s increasingly complex and dynamic world and markets 

are those whose people learn on their own, without asking permission 

or being directed to do so.23 In effect, people smart-pull the training they 

need as they need it from distributed learning networks. 

Southwest Airlines regards its support of employee learning to be 

an essential component of its competitive advantage. “Employees who 

embrace learning as a life-long pursuit are more alert, better informed, 

and more creative. This translates into new ways to simplify operations 

and cut costs, and new ways to better serve customers.”24 Research suggests 

that a distributed and self-managed learning model is more effective than 

traditional learning models for an organization facing an unstable environment. By nature and work, self-directed learners take prudent risks, 

are confident yet humble, are self-reflective yet careful listeners, have voracious appetites for information and ideas, and are open to criticism and 

change. The more unstable the environment, the more important it is for 

such attributes. Empirically, self-directed learning and high performance 

in jobs that involve a lot of change show a correlation.25

The self-directed, or smart-pull, learning model is more effective 

than an others-directed model because it enables greater relevance to the 

individual’s needs, greater flexibility in the learning process and tempo, 

immediate and long-range payoffs for developing problem-solving skills, 

highly focused learning, and lower costs for an organization.26 Of course, 

effective self-directed learning requires more than permissive corporate 

policy. The responsibility of the organization is to supply the tools, time, 

and incentives for an individual to pull the information, participate in 

decisions, and receive timely feedback from decisions.27 Companies that 

promote self-directed learning, including Motorola, Honda, and General 

Electric, have reduced by up to 50 percent the cycle time for new product 

introduction and increased their market shares.28

By combining self-directed learning with training of intuition and 

reasoning, an organization can enhance the ability of its personnel to 

make good decisions. Obviously, self-directed learning fits well with 
112 GOMPERT, LACHOW, AND PERKINS

networking, and it actually can help in preparing for real-life conditions 

in which networked users will be responsible for initiating smart pull and 

prioritizing information from the network.

Decentralized Decisionmaking

The value of self-directed learning can be undermined if individuals lack the trust and confidence of their superiors and are not granted 

the authority to make decisions. Many strong businesses are distributing 

decisionmaking authority to those on the front lines, a practice that not 

only enables an organization to act with greater agility and speed but also 

imparts confidence to those who make the decisions.

Businesses in the 1980s and 1990s were swamped with new management theories—to name a few: total quality management, continuous improvement, right-sizing, core competence, process engineering, strategic 

alliances, competitive strategies, learning organizations, empowerment, 

flattening of hierarchies, cross-boundary teaming, and even destroy-yourbusiness (so you can build it anew). To our knowledge, none of these theories alone induced sustainable organizational change without the mutual 

commitment of leadership and rank-and-file employees. 

For reform to be sustainable, an organization must put into practice 

certain values and principles concerning information, people, and trust: 

transparency; open information-sharing; cross-boundary communication and collaboration; an understood mission and values; a culture that 

rewards taking responsibility; a commitment to learning; and a willingness to give talent room and to give people the confidence and authority to make decisions.29 Many companies, large and small, have achieved 

success by applying these principles and practices. Although we focus on 

decentralized decisionmaking, other ways of enhancing and harnessing 

information, people, and trust also can contribute to the overall success 

of an organization. 

One model for successful decentralized decisionmaking in an organization is Semco, a manufacturing conglomerate in Brazil. Semco is a 

rather democratic firm that relies heavily on individuals at all levels across 

the company to make important decisions, thus strengthening adaptability in the face of change. For this type of organization to succeed, flow of 

information is key. For information flow to be open and transparent, trust 

must exist. Trust develops through peer-to-peer relationships. Trust has a 

higher potential of developing in an open and democratic corporate environment, where transparency and sharing information are the lifeblood 
 BATTLE-WISE 113

of a culture committed to adaptability. Such an organization becomes 

more fit for responding to opportunities quickly with a nimble workforce 

unencumbered by bureaucratic rules and centralized decisionmaking.30

Since adopting these practices in the late 1980s, Semco revenues have 

quadrupled, and the staff has grown from 450 to 3,000. The firm runs 

eight businesses, having expanded into outsourcing management (for 

four of Brazil’s five biggest banks), environmental-site remediation, and 

engineering-risk management. Employee turnover rate is an astonishingly 

low 1 percent.31

Google, once again, stands as an example of the robustness, efficiency, and market success that distributed decisionmaking can foster. The 

company culled out managers in the engineering departments and instead 

has independent teams of three engineers who operate autonomously and 

fix whatever problems they see with no need for permission from above. 

Strict hiring practices save unnecessary supervision because employees can 

be trusted to do their jobs and make intelligent decisions. This approach 

also encourages risk-taking and creativity, both of which are important for 

a company to continue growing in increasingly competitive markets. 

As predicted by theories of complex adaptive systems, corporate decentralization seems to be a rewarding way to function in a dynamic marketplace. The mythical superhero leader at the center with all the answers 

no longer exists; problems are too complex and markets too urgent for the 

one or the few to understand, decide, and act. Organizations that need to 

wait for bureaucratic procedures, chain-of-command review, or decisions 

from on high before acting on an opportunity may not be able to survive 

in fluid and unfamiliar situations. 

Tapping Collective Intelligence

Even as organizations decentralize decisionmaking, enabling many 

individual decisionmakers to address many different problems, they also 

are pursuing the idea of collective knowledge and collaborative decisionmaking. The use of horizontal communication techniques, cross-training, 

and cross-functional teams can improve the quality of decisions and overall adaptability. Dialogue and openness, versus closed environments that 

breed stuffiness and defensiveness, enable a diversity of viewpoints to be 

voiced when addressing a problem. By letting each individual know how 

others in the company are employed and what they know, cross-training 

encourages empathy, builds trust, and lowers defensiveness—all crucial 

for collective thinking. It also enables a broader perspective on how all the 
114 GOMPERT, LACHOW, AND PERKINS

parts of a process fit together and can lead to better diagnoses of problems 

and better decisions. Cross-functional teams lend a diversity of backgrounds to the solving of problems—an important point, as The Wisdom 

of Crowds tells us—and can increase the quality of decisions through divergent thinking and innovation that a specialist may not have the mental 

framework or training to arrive at individually. 

One organization that effectively leverages the collective intelligence 

of its employees is General Electric’s unique jet-engine production facility 

in Durham, North Carolina. Each engine has approximately 10,000 parts 

and must be assembled with exacting precision—the lives of millions of 

air travelers depend on it. GE/Durham consistently produces the highest-quality jet engines in the world. Its people attribute their success to an 

environment that includes decentralized and collective decisionmaking. 

GE/Durham only has 1 plant manager for its 170 employees, who work in 

teams of 15 people and make decisions together.32

Hiring at GE/Durham is very selective and takes into consideration 

an individuals’ propensity to help teammates as well as their communication skills, flexibility, coaching ability, and work ethic. Those hired are 

trained to work in a team environment. At work, they are accountable to 

the others in the team, and feedback from colleagues is continuous and 

welcome. Each employee is taught every job by colleagues, and this practice strengthens trust, team awareness, and understanding of how individual tasks fit together. As evidence of this system’s success, GE/Durham’s 

people were able to learn how to assemble a new engine in 8 weeks, and 

then produced it at 12 percent below the cost of a plant that had been producing the same engine for years. Although the plant manager’s job is to 

make sure the plant is making smart decisions as a whole, most decisions 

are made on the floor by employees or through collaborative teams.33

Atlas Container, a Baltimore company, also has a democratic system 

of decisionmaking that involves employees voting on decisions that directly 

affect them. Although voting is not always necessary for collective decisionmaking, it is one practice that seems to build morale and trust. Employees 

have the authority to make changes to processes or systems that they see 

creative ways to improve and are rewarded for risk-taking. The company 

is flexible, solves problems, and does not stagnate with systems that work 

poorly.34 Atlas boosted its sales from $5.8 million in 1990 to $45 million 

in 2000 to about $69 million in 2002, with 25 percent per annum growth. 

Employee retention averages around 85 percent, compared with an industry average of about 50 percent. 
 BATTLE-WISE 115

Another important practice for collective decisionmaking is the

use of teams that cut across functional boundaries. The most innovative 

and flexible organizations, such as GE/Durham, promote an active crosspollination of ideas when solving problems. One of the best examples 

of this concept is a company called Ideo, a highly regarded designer of a 

wide variety of items from high-technology products to workspaces. Ideo 

uses interdisciplinary teams of anthropologists, engineers, social scientists, 

marketers, and designers when developing new products. The teams look 

at problems from many angles to arrive at sound yet innovative solutions 

that can give the firm a market advantage.35

A key to adaptability is hunger for new information from the market and competitive environment, especially information that challenges 

conventional wisdom and the status quo. Just as an individual must understand the boundaries of mental models and be receptive to new possibilities to avoid stagnation, so must an organization:

If an organization seeks to develop . . . life-saving qualities of adaptability, it needs to open itself in many ways. Especially important 

is the organization’s relationship to information, particularly to 

that which is new and even disturbing. Information must actively 

be sought from everywhere, from places and sources people never

thought to look before. And then it must circulate freely so that many 

people can interpret it. The intent of this new information is to keep 

the system off-balance, alert to how it might need to change. An open 

organization doesn’t look for information that makes it feel good, 

that verifies its past and validates its present. It is deliberately looking 

for information that might threaten its stability, knock it off balance, 

and open it to growth.36

Semco, for example, not only has an open environment where information sharing is the norm, it shuts down and starts up all over again 

every 6 months, forcing disruption and requiring everyone to be rigorous 

and fresh in their activities, such as planning and budgeting. The company 

takes a fresh look at the organization and questions each business unit’s 

existence. It asks people to justify the existence of their jobs and the top 

leadership team rotates roles. It avoids the stagnation that bureaucracy can 

breed by requiring people constantly to be aware of their decisions and 

how they fit into the organization. 
116 GOMPERT, LACHOW, AND PERKINS

Semco also has been successful in engendering and leveraging collective intelligence and decisions. CEO Ricardo Semler attributes Semco’s 

success to open communication and peer-to-peer relationships, not restricted to need-to-know, parent-to-child approaches of the past. By eliminating unnecessary layers of management and trusting its employees, the 

company encourages a dynamic system of teams that self-organize, share 

information openly, and adapt quickly to seize opportunities.37

Key Lessons

The increasing use of networking in and out of the military is creating both new opportunities and new challenges, the mastery of which will 

require more effective use of the human mind. Networked information 

permits but does not ensure improved reasoning and decisionmaking. At 

the same time, networking increases the complexity and pace of events by 

providing torrents of information of uneven quality, faster communication, and fluid interdependencies. The military can learn from wider research and other sectors how to strengthen individual decisionmaking and 

reform organizations to gain advantages in dynamic, urgent, and complex 

environments. 

Successful organizations understand that information networking

alone is no panacea without having people with the right cognitive 

abilities and a strategy and structure to use them. Such organizations in 

dynamic markets tend to be choosy and aggressive in hiring people who 

are not only intelligent but also are open to learning, adaptable, creative, 

humble yet confident, willing to take responsibility, able to work interdependently, and good at solving problems collaboratively. Hiring individuals with these qualities will produce a workforce capable of self-directed 

learning, which contributes to adaptability. Decision games can strengthen 

intuition, even in unfamiliar situations, and enhance understanding of 

mental models. Likewise, specific training can increase the quality and 

speed of analytic methods.

In addition to hiring and training, decentralizing authority and entrusting people in the organization to make important and autonomous 

decisions enable organizations more effectively to harness the cognitive 

abilities of their people. Furthermore, successful organizations are sharing information and using cross-boundary teams, cross-training, collective decisionmaking, and induced disruption to enhance the quality of 

problem-solving and performance in operations and markets. Many of 

these findings can be applied successfully to soldiers, forces, and war. 
 BATTLE-WISE 117

These lessons in decisionmaking from outside the realm of warfare are 

worth consideration by the military as the use of networking becomes a 

commodity among competing entities and the advantage goes to the best 

thinkers.

Notes1

 See Gary Klein, The Power of Intuition: How to Use Your Gut Feelings to Make Better 

Decisions at Work (New York: Random House, 2004); and Sources of Power: How People Make Decisions

(Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2000). 2

 Klein, The Power of Intuition, 19. 3

 Ibid. 

4

 Bill Breen, “What’s Your Intuition?” Fast Company 38 (September 2000), 290. 5

 Charles L. Smith, Computer-supported Decision Making: Meeting the Decision Demands of 

Modern Organizations (Greenwich, CT: Ablex, 1998), 23. 6

 Klein, The Power of Intuition, 7. 7 Ibid., 8.

8

 Ibid., 250.

9

 Jim Collins, Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap—and Others Don’t (New 

York: Harper Collins, 2001). 10 Figure derived from information from Keith H. Hammonds, “How Google Grows . . . and 

Grows . . . and Grows,” Fast Company 69 (April 2003), 74. 11 Ibid., 74.

12 David E. Vise, “Google Ends Auction for IPO Shares,”The Washington Post, August 19, 2004, 

A1, A9.13 Collins, 42.

14 Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman, First, Break All the Rules: What the World’s Greatest 

Managers Do Differently (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1999). 15 Ibid., 56. 

16 Kevin Freiberg and Jackie Freiberg, Nuts! Southwest Airlines’ Recipe for Business and Personal 

Success (Austin, TX: Bard Press, 1996), 66.

17 Collins, 63.

18 Doug Krug and Ed Oakley, Enlightened Leadership: Getting to the Heart of Change (New York: 

Fireside, 1994), 59. Oakley and Krug discuss the importance of attitude in hiring and management. 19 Klein, The Power of Intuition, 28. 20 Ibid., 30.

21 Methods and tools for supporting the choice of a course of action include cost-benefit analysis, hypothesis testing, systems analysis, and objective weighting. 22 Smith, 35.

23 Paul Guglielmino and Lucy Guglielmino, “Moving Toward a Distributed Learning Model 

Based on Self-Managed Learning,” SAM Advanced Management Journal 66, no. 3 (Summer 2001), 

36–43. 24 Freiberg and Freiberg, 113.

25 Ibid., 40. 

26 Guglielmino and Guglielmino, 39.

27 Ibid., 39.

28 Ibid., 36.
118 GOMPERT, LACHOW, AND PERKINS

29 See Traci L. Fenton, The Democratic Company: Four Organizations Transforming our Workplace and our World (Washington, DC, 2002), available at <www.designnine.com/library/docs/other_

papers/Democratic_Company.pdf> . 30 Ricardo Semler, “How We Went Digital Without a Strategy,” Harvard Business Review, 4 

(September 2000). 31 Brad Wieners, “Ricardo Semler: Set Them Free,” CIO Insight, April 1, 2004, available at 

<www.cioinsight.com/article2/0,1397,1569009,00.asp>. 32 Charles Fishman, “Engines of Democracy,” Fast Company 28 (October 1999), 174. 33 Ibid.

34 John Case, “The Power of Listening,” Inc. Magazine, March 2003, available at <www.inc.

com/magazine/20030301/25206.html>. 35 Brad Stone, “Reinventing Everyday Life,” Newsweek, October 27, 2003. 36 Margaret Wheatley, Leadership and the New Science (San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler, 

1999), 83. 37 For a full description of Semco’s approach, see CEO Ricardo Semler’s writings.
 BATTLE-WISE 119

119

Chapter Eight

Creating a Battle-Wise Force 

The Need for a Strategy

Our excursion into the civilian business sector found that many of 

our main themes resonate across different types of organizations. Sound 

and timely decisions under pressure demand a combination of intuition 

and reasoning; delegation of authority and collaborative problem-solving 

are useful and often necessary in messy, dynamic, information-rich environments; individuals must take responsibility and learn; and training is 

critical. The basic ingredients of battle-wisdom are as important in other 

sectors of our society as in the military. Yet the cognitive demands of warfare are especially challenging.

First, soldiers often must make split-second, complex decisions that 

can have deadly implications and severe penalties for error. Second, because of the ubiquity of videocameras and news teams, the consequences 

of a military decision may end up on television or the Internet, possibly 

with international political ramifications. Third, these life-and-death and 

potentially controversial decisions may be complicated by ambiguities, 

such as the blurred lines between war and peace, combat and law enforcement, and angry civilians and plain-clothes insurgents. Fourth, soldiers 

face opponents who are trying to confuse, disrupt, outsmart, and harm 

them. They must attend to self-preservation and face their own mortality 

on top of other burdens.

Keeping in mind both the similarities and the differences between 

warfare and the rest of society, we are ready for a preliminary look at 

policies the military establishment might pursue to enhance the battlewisdom of soldiers, teams, and forces. A statement by Army Chief of Staff 

General Peter Schoomaker about current operations in Iraq sums up quite 

well the need for battle-wisdom in the modern warfare environment:

We’ve had to transition to more unconventional warfare in some 

highly complex terrain that includes not only cities and towns, but 

also rivers, valleys, wetlands and desert. . . . I’ve been most impressed 
120 GOMPERT, LACHOW, AND PERKINS

with the adaptability of our leaders and soldiers, especially the ability of relatively junior leaders to take on roles that were far beyond 

the traditional scope of a company or battalion commander. Those 

officers are running towns in Iraq, helping organize and working 

with civic leaders, making tough decisions day and night, even while 

conducting combat operations around the clock ... I think that kind 

of adaptability and sophistication is something we need to fold back into 

the batter here as we think about shaping the future Army ...We want 

an adaptive organization full of problem solvers. We want them to know 

how to think, not just what to think.1 (Emphasis added).

A similar observation comes from an article in The New Yorker:

Iraq ... is precisely the kind of unpredictable environment in which a 

cohort of hidebound and inflexible officers would prove disastrous ... 

the exigencies of the Iraq war are forcing decisionmaking downward; 

tank captains tell of being handed authority, mid-battle, for tasks that 

used to be reserved for colonels ... whatever else the Iraq war is doing 

to American power and prestige, it is producing the creative and flexible junior officers that the Army’s training could not.2

There is a crying need for soldiers—especially junior officers and 

NCOs—who are adaptable, quick to learn, opportunistic, capable of making timely yet sound decisions, and ready for more responsibility. If the 

U.S. military is to remain operationally superior in networked warfare, it 

needs people who are more battle-wise, and it needs many such people. 

The more battle-wise the soldiers are, the better they will be able to function in the chaotic, ambiguous, and perilous situations that await them. 

And the more battle-wise individuals there are in the military, the more 

likely it is that U.S. forces will continue to hold a cognitive edge in networked warfare. Because of the importance of local information, initiative, 

and authority, the U.S. military will not succeed if it relies on a battle-wise 

few.

Along with improving the cognitive performance of the individual, 

the Armed Forces should attempt to increase the collective wisdom of 

military organizations, especially ad hoc combat teams. As noted earlier, 

the wisdom of crowds can be greater than that of any individual, however smart or capable that person is. In addition, top leadership must 

exhibit, encourage, and reward the traits that it expects of its employees: 
 BATTLE-WISE 121

adaptability, anticipation, decisiveness, and a willingness to be accountable 

for their judgments. 

The U.S. military has several policy levers it can use to achieve the 

goals outlined above. Recruiting strategies can be used to find and attract people with battle-wise abilities and potential. Sorting strategies 

are important for identifying, grooming, and assigning people capable 

of effective cognition in operations. Education and training can be used 

to improve the intuition, reasoning, and specific battle-wise abilities of 

individual soldiers and teams. Retention policies will remain essential to 

keeping the requisite numbers of battle-wise people for as long as they are 

needed. All of these endeavors must reinforce one another; the sections 

that follow examine how.

Recruiting

One of the most critical factors in creating a top-notch, all-volunteer 

military is the ability to recruit the right people. Recruiting is the first step 

in the process of fielding a force of battle-wise soldiers. One of the key 

challenges facing the military, of course, is that the private sector competes with them for the same pool of talent. This challenge is particularly 

difficult when it comes to persons who have the cognitive and leadership 

qualities that allow them to excel in information-rich, complex, pressurized, and time-sensitive environments. 

People join the military for a variety of reasons. A survey of the 

roughly 200,000 people who volunteered for active duty between 1996 and 

1998 found that:3

30 percent joined to finance their college education

20 percent joined for job training and experience

20 percent joined for the pay and/or travel

10 percent joined out of a sense of duty

Thus, no single policy lever can be used to attract recruits across society. 

Because networked warfare will require that responsibility be pushed 

down to lower levels in the military, DOD will need to recruit more battlewise soldiers in both the enlisted ranks and officer corps. However, the 

challenges it will face in identifying and recruiting personnel of each type 

will differ. We begin by analyzing enlisted troops. 

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Enlisted Personnel

Two criteria are used to identify high-quality enlisted recruits: scores 

on the Armed Forces Qualification Test (AFQT) and level of education. The former is used to eliminate recruits not likely to succeed in the 

military: “The AFQT is designed to measure the trainability of potential 

recruits—more specifically, to identify individuals who are at high risk 

of not completing the initial training program.”4

 It does this by assessing 

achievement and aptitude rather than pure intelligence (which is why 

scores on the AFQT tend to rise with age). Current enlistment standards 

require that 90 percent of recruits have a high school diploma and 60 percent score in the upper half of the AFQT.5

 High-quality enlisted recruits 

satisfy both criteria. 

While education and aptitude as measured by the AFQT do provide

some ability to predict military performance, these measures do not capture a number of the intangible attributes of outstanding soldiers.6 In fact, 

those intangibles often do not reveal themselves until people are placed in 

situations that simulate combat: “Research has shown that only on-thejob experience can reveal certain important but previously unobserved 

aspects of quality, such as effort, reliability, leadership, ability to work as 

part of a team, and communication skills.”7

 To be more precise, research 

performed by the RAND Corporation has found that roughly 75 percent 

of a soldier’s quality is related to the intangibles that show up during performance of duties, while about 25 percent is related to education level 

and AFQT score.8

 In addition, the Government Accountability Office has 

found that it takes 4 years to measure the full performance of a given recruiting class.9

Thus, reliable predictions of military performance cannot be made 

with the current metrics used to recruit enlisted personnel. If this is true 

in general, it is surely all the more true in gauging the presence of, or 

potential for, battle-wisdom. Individuals capable of anticipation, initiative, quick reactions, adaptation, and learning in action may be better 

networked warfighters than others who lack these qualities, even if they 

have less education and/or lower AFQT scores. Unfortunately, identifying inexperienced people who have such traits is not easy. If it were, the 

military already would be using those methods to recruit at least some of 

its soldiers. The reality is that unless and until the Armed Forces are able 

to develop new tests and methods to evaluate battle-wise traits in potential recruits—a problem that begs for research—it has little choice but to 

continue using AFQT scores and education as filtering criteria and to seek 

and develop key abilities later.10
 BATTLE-WISE 123

Officers

Officers are generally selected in one of three ways: admission to a 

military academy, Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC), or promotion 

from the enlisted ranks. Each of these paths has its own method for identifying both high performers and those unlikely to survive a career in the 

military. Although these recruiting methods are different than those used 

for recruiting enlisted personnel, level of education and achievement are 

still used as filters, albeit through different means. For example, some service schools rank students based on both academic standing and performance in boot-camp–type professional training.11 In all three recruiting 

methods used for officers, the military has some way of observing recruits 

in either simulated or real operational exercises. As a result, the Armed 

Forces should be able to do a better job of identifying battle-wise officers 

than battle-wise enlisted personnel. In fact, research has shown that it may 

be possible to predict the leadership performance of officers by looking at 

a small set of cognitive and personality traits.12

In general, officers have more years of education than enlisted personnel and thus have more attractive career options and earnings potential 

in the private sector. Although the military can try to match the starting 

compensation packages offered by companies, it will be hard-pressed to 

succeed. One problem is that it has less flexibility in its ability to offer variable forms of compensation, such as bonuses and stock options, because 

its pay structure is primarily based on rank and tenure rather than skill 

set, scope of responsibility, and occupation.13 On the other hand, if DOD 

simply tried to pay all of its officers at the equivalent private-sector rate, it 

would end up grossly overpaying some while underpaying others. In any 

case, this strategy is unaffordable. 

Thus, while monetary compensation is important for recruiting officers, by itself it may prove insufficient for attracting the battle-wise many. 

To recruit high-quality officers today, the Armed Forces focus on the many 

intangible benefits one can receive from the military. It should continue 

to do so. In particular, prospective education and training are key levers 

at the military’s disposal.14 The military can (and does) offer to provide 

top-notch education and training to officers at little or no cost. This is an 

attractive proposition for many highly skilled and ambitious people—and, 

of course, education and training are essential in their own right for developing battle-wise people. Other intangible benefits include the chance 

to see the world and be of service to one’s country. These benefits are explored further in the section on retention.
124 GOMPERT, LACHOW, AND PERKINS

Lateral Entry

Adjusting recruitment strategies to attract people of generally high 

cognitive fitness will not guarantee or simplify the way to spot future battle-wise soldiers. Nonmilitary organizations regularly take risks when hiring people with no experience and little basis on which to determine how 

they will react to stressful, urgent situations. Like the military, companies 

rely on certain predictors—grades, test scores, measure of aptitude, and fit. 

And like the military, their results are mixed. Consequently, in addition to 

recruiting right out of good business and engineering schools, companies 

in demanding, dynamic markets rely increasingly on hiring experienced 

people whose past performance can be assessed. 

The current U.S. active-duty personnel system is considered to be 

closed because one must generally enter at the bottom of the hierarchy and 

climb from there (exceptions to this rule will be discussed). This closed 

system is different than the civilian personnel system used by DOD, which 

allows people to enter the defense workforce at middle and senior levels 

of management.

The current active-duty system is closed for many reasons, but primarily because it is based on an assumption that incoming people are unskilled and inexperienced high school graduates.15 This approach ignores 

the fact that the number of high school graduates pursuing college degrees 

is growing. These potential recruits are gaining education and skills valued 

in the private sector and expect higher salaries, more responsibility, and 

more seniority than unskilled high school graduates. With college as a 

popular option, the traditional pool of high-quality enlisted applicants is 

shrinking. Simultaneously, the demands being placed on enlisted recruits 

are increasing: “Requirements are shifting toward enlisted personnel who 

are knowledgeable decisionmakers who can apply general principles in 

technical fields, define problems and reach conclusions, and communicate these technical issues effectively to co-workers.”16 A similar problem 

is found in the officer ranks. For example, due to shortages at the rank of 

captain, the Army has begun to recruit extra lieutenants and rush them to 

promotion a year early, whether or not they are qualified—hardly a way to 

upgrade cognitive capabilities for networked warfare.17

The implication of these trends is a potential shortage of battle-wise 

personnel at the very time when the military needs many more of them. 

One approach that deserves examination is to expand lateral entry into 

the military to provide a new stream of future warfighters.18 Four potential 

benefits may be gained with such an approach:19
 BATTLE-WISE 125

Gaps can be filled in certain fields where young recruits are hard to find 

or where skill shortages exist due to attrition.

The potential pool of applicants can be expanded.

Entrants with backgrounds and known abilities relevant to warfighting 

can be recruited.

Training costs can be reduced.

The traditional argument against lateral entry is that recruits are not 

capable of functioning effectively in the military without starting at the 

bottom and working their way up through experience and training. While 

this assumption certainly held true when the vast majority of recruits 

had relatively low skills and education, today’s applicants are both better 

educated and more highly skilled than in the past. Although some aspects 

of military training are unique, especially combat training, the private 

sector now provides many of the general skills that the military teaches 

its recruits, especially in the areas of combat support and combat service 

support. Thus, the Armed Forces have the opportunity to bring in experienced people at more senior levels and provide them with military-specific 

rather than general skills training. This allows the services to get qualified 

people with experience and proven, relevant abilities into the force quickly. 

In fact, the Armed Forces do this already with their Reserve forces. The key 

question is whether this approach should be broadened to people with no 

prior military experience. 

The more the military relies on information networking, and the

more that battle-wisdom is required, the more attractive and feasible lateral entry becomes as an option to supplement current recruiting methods. Depending on work experience before joining the military, it may be 

possible actually to identify battle-wise traits in recruits. For example, if 

someone were to switch from being a fireman or police officer to being a 

soldier, the military might be able to assess fairly accurately how that person would perform under urgent, life-and-death circumstances. Of course, 

recruits who join the military via lateral entry still would be required to 

undergo basic and advanced military training. While this training possibly 

could be abbreviated, the real benefit is that the military is likely to end 

up with more battle-wise soldiers when the training is done than if it had 

recruited people right out of school. 

Both the Army and Navy are currently experimenting with lateralentry programs for enlisted occupations and having limited success.20

However, these programs have not focused on attracting soldiers with 

battle-wise characteristics. On the contrary, they tend to focus on techni-

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126 GOMPERT, LACHOW, AND PERKINS

cians, medical support staff, and musicians. Other programs that focus 

on lateral entry into the officer corps, such as in the medical and legal 

corps, appear to be more successful. In addition, the heavy reliance on 

and excellent performance of reservists in Operation Iraqi Freedom and 

its aftermath demonstrate the value of at least some forms of lateral entry. 

We believe that the potential benefits of lateral entry justify continued 

experimentation to determine if it can increase the number of battle-wise 

soldiers in the military.

Why not recruit college-educated firefighters or police officers with 

a few years of experience, run them through basic military training, and 

give them a rank that puts them in charge of recruits who have had no experience dealing with complex, life-and-death situations? Is it not possible 

that a firefighter or police officer with 5 or more years of experience facing time-urgent, life-and-death decisions is equivalent to a military officer 

with less than 5 years of experience? Think of the battle-wise potential of 

a young fire commander. It behooves the military to explore this idea in 

earnest, especially given the fact that many of its current and future operations will involve counterinsurgency tactics, peacekeeping operations, and 

urban warfare. 

Of course, recruiting people with proven cognitive abilities from 

high-risk/high-stress professions is not the same as looking for battlewise potential in the larger population. Perhaps the hardest trait to detect, 

much less measure, is the courage and cool with which a person will 

handle receiving or delivering violence. Indeed, the only reliable predictor of future behavior in combat is prior behavior in combat. But this 

should not rule out lateral entry. Although nothing in the business world 

compares to warfighting, some of the core cognitive abilities—self-aware 

intuition-cum-reasoning, fast learning and decisionmaking, anticipation 

and rapid adaptation—are important in a growing number of civilian sectors, especially where information is plentiful, conditions are ambiguous, 

problems are constantly changing, and pressures to make timely but sound 

decisions are great. 

Any lateral-entry strategy will have limits, even if it proves successful in the lower ranks. The military has unique training requirements, 

and the higher one goes in the organization, the more one needs the indepth knowledge that only can be acquired within that organization or 

industry. Intensive training can provide a finite amount of information; 

the rest must be learned through experience seasoned with training. The 

implications of lateral entry for unit cohesion and morale also need to be 

examined. Therefore, we suggest a deliberate and experimental approach, 
 BATTLE-WISE 127

addressing important questions before such a system is implemented on 

a large scale:21

What occupations will be open for lateral entry? Will combat positions 

be filled?

What levels of training and experience will be required for 

lateral entrants?

What incentives will be provided to attract lateral entrants?

How will potential recruits be identified?

Lateral entry should be explored as one way to address the looming demand for more battle-wise warfighters. If nothing else, it could be 

an option when a need arises to increase rapidly the number of battlewise soldiers—a need that cannot be met quickly enough via traditional 

recruiting strategies. But even if lateral entry is adopted, it will account 

for only a small fraction of total recruits. For the most part, the military 

must still bring in soldiers at the bottom of their hierarchy. Given the 

challenges associated with trying to identify battle-wise people before they 

join the military, the Armed Forces have little choice but to focus heavily 

on evaluating people in their junior years, while still using filter tools like 

the AFQT to weed out likely drop-outs. This process, called sorting, will 

be discussed in more detail. 

Whichever recruiting strategy is adopted, the military still will need 

to compete with the private sector for people. It is important that tangible 

military benefits (base pay, bonuses, retirement pay, and health care) be 

competitive with, if not necessarily equal to, those found in the private sector. However, we believe that the key to hiring talent away from business 

and other nonmilitary professions lies with intangible benefits—skills, 

education, career development, job excitement and satisfaction, and esprit 

de corps.

Even then, recruiting alone cannot satisfy the need for increasing the 

number of battle-wise people in the U.S. Armed Forces. Because of the 

cost of competing for top raw talent and the difficulty of predicting cognitive effectiveness in combat conditions, the military simply cannot follow a 

Google-like strategy of satisfying its needs by hiring almost exclusively the 

most talented people with the very best qualities needed. It must augment 

its recruiting efforts by increasing the battle-wisdom of soldiers already in 

the fold.

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128 GOMPERT, LACHOW, AND PERKINS

Training and Education

Military education and training serve a number of purposes. Education can provide foundational and contextual knowledge for the military 

profession, while training can sharpen skills. But both can and increasingly should be used specifically to enhance battle-wisdom for networked 

warfare to improve the ability of warfighters, both individually and in 

teams (ad hoc or standing ones) to blend intuition with reasoning to solve 

complex problems, seize opportunities, exhibit adaptability, and take responsibility for hard choices under extreme pressure and urgency. 

The Defense Science Board (DSB) has made similar points about 

the current ability of the military to prepare soldiers for 21st-century 

warfare: “transformation of the military will substantially increase the 

cognitive demands on even the most junior levels of the military. In short, 

everybody must think. Our current training and educational processes 

will not adequately prepare our people to cope with these increasing and 

constantly changing cognitive requirements.”22

Training

Training in the U.S. military is a success story and an important 

source of advantage over adversaries. Accordingly, we are able to find numerous examples of training approaches that foster battle-wise abilities 

and decisionmaking and, therefore, ought to be favored. Current training 

has both a traditional component and, increasingly, a component that 

responds to the unfamiliarity and unpredictability of the security environment and operational contingencies. The requirement to train soldiers in 

standard skills and forms of military operations is not going to disappear. 

Soldiers must know how to operate equipment, carry out orders, and work 

together in small and large units. 

Beyond this, the requirement to gain time-information superiority 

in networked warfare implies a growing need for training intuition and 

reasoning to enhance the abilities we identify with battle-wisdom. As the 

DSB report stated: “The future will require that more of our people do 

new and much more complicated cognitive tasks more rapidly and for 

longer continuous periods than ever before . . . this amounts to a qualitative change in the demands of our people that can not be supported by 

traditional kinds of training.”23 The DSB is exactly right, but operations in 

Iraq are showing that the future is now. 

As early as 2000, General Eric Shinseki, then-U.S. Army Chief of 

Staff, opined that about half of a soldier’s training was meaningless and 
 BATTLE-WISE 129

“non-essential.”24 Subsequent research by the Army War College revealed 

that:

the problem was not “bogus” training exercises but worthwhile training being handled in such a way as to stifle fresh thinking. The Army 

had so loaded training schedules with doctrinaire requirements and 

standardized procedures that unit commanders had no time—or 

need—to think for themselves. The service was encouraging “reactive 

instead of proactive thought, compliance instead of creativity, and 

adherence instead of audacity.”25

 U.S. Army Chief of Staff, General Peter Schoomaker, concurs with 

that assessment but notes, quite rightly, that changes are under way: “In the 

past, you were measured on how you complied with doctrine and used it 

to organize and accomplish your objectives. Today, we’re designing training scenarios that put people in a continual zone of discomfort . . . that’s 

where we want them. That’s how you stretch yourself.”26 The quotation is 

telling because it implies doubts—healthy ones, in our view—about the 

value of compliance with doctrine (coming from the chief of the service 

for which doctrine has always been paramount). Also implicit in General 

Schoomaker’s statement is that change will produce bewildering circumstances for which the trainee must be stretched beyond the familiar. Cognitively intensive and extensive training can help soldiers develop more 

reliable intuition about warfare through experience in situations with a 

wide range of patterns, solving various types of problems, and learning 

to think in strange and confusing circumstances. This will help trainees 

gain a time-information advantage over the adversary and create room for 

reasoning to make decisions or verify intuitive choices.

One way to improve decisionmaking is to isolate the types of decisions 

encountered in a certain situation or job function, practice those decisions 

repeatedly, review the success or failure of those decisions, and make appropriate adjustments. In fact, the U.S. Army National Training Center 

(NTC) practices a process quite similar to the one just described.27

The NTC approach follows several key tenets:

■ The best learning comes from the most stressful situations.
130 GOMPERT, LACHOW, AND PERKINS

Learning should be about what matters.

The use of hard data eliminates subjective debate about outcomes.

Learning requires facilitators who coach rather than lecture.

A learning mindset that endures beyond the training exercise should be 

promoted.

NTC training methods are well-suited for increasing battle-wisdom:28

Training must be realistic so that soldiers can gain experience

recognizing patterns relevant to real-life combat situations.

Soldiers are encouraged to experiment, which allows them to gain 

experience in recognizing what options work in which situations.

After-action reports are conducted right after an exercise so that 

soldiers learn from their mistakes while the experience is still fresh in their 

mind. Also, through a facilitated approach, the Army forces soldiers to 

recognize their own successes and failures and determine what other 

courses of action might have worked. Because they are in charge of their 

own learning, these soldiers are much more likely to internalize these 

lessons and incorporate them into their future intuition.

A key feature of such training is to condition people to take chances 

and allow them to fail. “When you allow people to innovate and lead, you 

invite failure.”29 This is important for two reasons. First, it is better to have

U.S. soldiers learn from failure when training than when facing an enemy 

on the battlefield. Second, unless taxed to the point of failure, the learning 

and abilities of trainees may not be fully realized. A further benefit of the 

NTC approach to training is that it focuses on unit performance as well 

as individual performance. This is critical in helping the military improve 

its ability to make collective decisions—one of the capabilities we believe 

critical for future operations. 

A good example of a group whose training methods clearly enhance 

battle-wisdom is the Navy SEAL.30 Sea, Air, Land (SEAL) recruits are subjected to multidimensional stress: rather than being faced with a single 

stress-inducing task (such as a long run), they often must perform two or 

three difficult tasks simultaneously. For example, recruits are asked to dive 

into a deep tank carrying three ropes, which they must tie to a rope fixed 6 

inches from the bottom. Each knot has to be tied one at a time in a different style. Once they have accomplished this task, recruits must repeat the 

exercise blindfolded. As a result, recruits learn to handle multiple types of 

stress while working in an environment they do not control—they learn 

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to “normalize the abnormal.” Such exercises are used to build teamwork, 

leadership, and trust among SEALs. While they involve strength, endurance, and dexterity, these exercises are more about cognitive skills than 

pure physical skills.

SEALs also train their recruits to failure. This not only weeds out 

those who lack what it takes to become special operations soldiers, but 

it also teaches the recruits to recognize their limits and learn how to succeed despite those limits. Although SEAL training is extremely demanding 

physically, it is worth exploring how the principles and cognitive features 

used by SEALs and other special operation forces could be incorporated more widely in the less strenuous training methods used for other 

troops.

Another issue that bears on cognitive development is experimentation. The military has focused a great deal on experimentation in the 

last decade. It has even created a command focused specifically on joint 

experimentation.31 While pursuing experimentation certainly has value, 

especially to strengthen joint warfare concepts and integration, the current 

form of experimentation appears to be mismatched with what is required 

to increase battle-wisdom. This mismatch occurs because experimentation is tied strongly to exercises, and the latter are traditionally used to 

improve performance in existing operations. Soldiers in exercises do not 

necessarily gain experience in a wide range of operations that can improve 

their intuition when faced with novel situations.“In reality, experimental 

objectives are often at variance with operational requirements—operations each (combatant command) must be prepared to execute . . . because 

the exercises usually stress traditional operational practices, asymmetric 

threats, alternative methods of conflict deterrence, and support to peace 

operations are relegated to secondary importance.”32

In other words, exercises are often scripted so that specific technologies, doctrines, and tactics can be evaluated in controlled circumstances. 

Unfortunately, the constraints placed on the opposing forces in such 

scenarios are often unrealistic (or assume a less-than-clever adversary) 

and thus undermine the validity of the exercise results. Such a problem 

occurred with a major exercise called Millennium Challenge 2002 that was 

designed to test one of the key concepts of network-centric warfare: effects-based operations. The retired general heading the opposition (Red) 

force utilized unconventional and innovative tactics that proved so disruptive and destructive to Blue operations that exercise officials reset the game 

to ignore the effects of Red’s unorthodox tactics.33 The Red commander 

quit the game, and Blue went on to victory—a victory that failed to deter-
132 GOMPERT, LACHOW, AND PERKINS

mine the limits and weaknesses of Blue problem-solving in the face of a 

clever, unorthodox enemy. 

Our purpose is not to denigrate the utility of exercises and experimentation; both have important roles to play in military training. However, if the military wishes to improve battle-wisdom in junior officers and 

enlisted personnel, it needs to provide them with a wide range of experiences, including ones that are unorthodox or unusual, in a short period 

of time. Exercises may be useful in augmenting the training of battle-wise 

soldiers—by improving their ability to perform in joint operations and 

international coalitions, for example—but they cannot form the core of 

cognitive preparation. 

One area in particular where experimentation has not been used 

enough is in evaluating personnel policies themselves. The military should 

consider creating experimental units to test out new personnel policies. 

One group that would be a good candidate for such experiments is the Red 

force that resides at NTC. However, any unit or coherent group of soldiers 

(such as a career field) could be used to test new approaches for recruiting, 

training, and retention.34

Our analysis to this point has shown that the training methods used 

by NTC and the SOF community appear well suited to facilitating battlewisdom. Other training methods, such as large-scale exercises, may not be 

so suitable. This is not to say that every aspect of training needs to focus 

on producing battle-wise characteristics, but many soldiers today are not 

receiving the kind of training they need to be prepared for networked 

warfare.35 The military establishment should explore the expanded use of 

NTC and SOF training methods across the military as a whole. 

Another option for strengthening battle-wise thinking and decisionmaking via training is through the use of simulations. Again, parts of the 

U.S. military seem to be moving in that direction. One of the most promising systems under development is the Joint Fires and Effects Trainer 

System (JFETS), which provides extremely realistic three-dimensional 

simulations of warfare.36 The motivation behind this effort is to prepare 

troops for the increasing complexity they are facing in the field:

The backbone of military training for centuries was rote learning. 

The goal of the punishing routines and endless drills was to replace 

thinking with instinct so that at the sound of gunshots, a soldier 

would automatically return fire. But this kind of schooling, the 

Pentagon now believes, is inadequate to prepare soldiers for hot 
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spots like the Sunni Triangle, where it’s not enough to be a good 

marksman. These days, grunts fresh out of basic training must also 

be versed in the nuances of street-level diplomacy with an increasingly hostile citizenry in densely populated neighborhoods where 

allies can turn into opposing forces overnight.37

The focus of the JFETS training program is to develop soldiers’ cognitive skills and decisionmaking ability in high-pressure, time-sensitive 

environments—in our words, to improve battle-wisdom:

Institute for Creative Technologies programs [such as JFETS] are 

designed to train the individual soldier in a decentralized, networked 

model of warfare in which even the lowest-ranking officer can call in 

an air strike or a tank battalion . . . The Army decided that it needed to 

think less about educating people on the physics of artillery tubes and 

start teaching them how to make smart discriminations very quickly 

in close urban fights—training in cognitive decisionmaking rather than 

skills.

38 [Emphasis added]

Using JFETS, soldiers can train in a wide variety of combat (or

noncombat) environments in an extremely short period of time. The 

simulations are much less expensive than real-life exercises and can be 

changed daily to reflect up-to-the minute intelligence. This allows the 

military to improve a soldier’s intuition by increasing the number of combat situations experienced in a given time period. 

While systems like JFETS are clearly important, use of simulations is 

not limited to large-scale, multiple-user environments; a wide variety of 

electronic training aids and devices can be used by individuals as part of 

either a formal or self-directed learning program.39 Given that the number 

of recruits who grew up playing videogames is growing rapidly, soldiers 

will be increasingly open to utilizing virtual environments as part of their 

training. In fact, the use of simulations may even have a significant impact 

on recruiting: “An Army survey of potential recruits found that the game 

America’s Army [a videogame in which players take on the role of new 

soldiers], which cost only $4 million to develop, has made a more positive 

impression than all the Army’s other recruiting initiatives combined.”40

We have recommended a number of options for improving the 

training of soldiers for networked warfare. Whatever approaches the 

Armed Forces take, it is critical to develop a methodology for measuring 
134 GOMPERT, LACHOW, AND PERKINS

the efficacy of training methods. Without this information, there is no 

reliable, timely way to know if a particular training system is having the 

desired effects. This is especially true, and especially important, for cognition-related training. To this end, the performance of forces undergoing 

training must be assessed at the individual, unit, and force-wide levels. 

The latter is important because the individual or small-unit level has too 

much variation to enable broad conclusions about a military-wide training program to be reached. One way to assess training is to require the 

Armed Forces to deliver an annual training report card directly to the 

Secretary of Defense.41 In addition to providing metrics on service training programs, this approach would help raise the visibility of training and 

address the chronic underfunding of training: “Training’s achievements, 

its failures and costs are not routinely visible to those with authority over 

discretionary funding in the Defense Department.”42 If training continues 

to lag behind other highly visible funding priorities, such as weapons 

systems, U.S. forces (and the Nation as a whole) will pay the price—especially when faced with well-trained, intelligent, networked adversaries.

Education

The U.S. military has an excellent system of professional military 

education (PME). Much of the instruction that goes on at the Nation’s 

service schools and joint institutions of learning is built around theory 

and case studies. This educational approach is quite effective in supporting learning around a solid body of knowledge like doctrine. However, it is 

less effective for teaching soldiers to develop reasoning skills in uncertain 

and stressful conditions. In addition, students who exhibit unorthodox 

thinking often are marginalized or penalized, despite the fact that such 

thinking may be an explicit goal of the educational system. As a result, students may be susceptible to groupthink. This is partly because soldiers are 

acutely aware of rank, even in the classroom, and partly because students 

are acutely focused on grades. Promotions at higher ranks are extremely 

competitive, and student performance in service and joint schools is a key 

factor in promotion decisions. Thus, students are often reluctant to jeopardize their academic standing by challenging the system and potentially 

hurting their grades. As a result, PME sometimes fosters an environment 

where students are taught to mimic the thought processes of instructors 

or superiors in the classroom.43

Another challenge facing the military, particularly the Army, is 

that peacekeeping operations call for different skills and knowledge than 

battlefield operations, but its education system is still primarily focused 
 BATTLE-WISE 135

on warfighting: “While many basic leadership skills carry over from war to 

peacekeeping, the latter calls for more patience and political and cultural 

sensitivity. The Army recognizes this challenge, but there is little evidence 

that it has significantly broadened the education of its rising leaders.”44 

Part of the problem is that the decisionmaking styles involved in peacekeeping operations may be quite different from those used in a warfighting 

situation. Thus, the Army must educate (and train) soldiers to function 

effectively using two different decisionmaking styles. This is not easy, and 

once again points to the need for recruiting, training, and retaining those 

who are best able to switch between these cognitive approaches—that is, 

those who are battle-wise. 

While no easy solution is available to alter the PME system to support different and often opposing needs, some steps appear promising. 

One option for encouraging innovative thinking is to enforce strictly a 

policy that all personnel at educational institutions leave rank at the door. 

This is especially important as a new generation of soldiers who have 

grown up with computer technology enters the force. Another idea is to 

change how these schools grade their students, or how the services take 

academic performance into account in their promotion decisions. Again, 

the goal is to move away from an overly strong focus on compliance with 

theory and doctrine to more creative thinking. 

A more direct strategy might be to focus the teaching curriculum on 

the problem of groupthink itself. An example of this approach is found at 

the Information Resources Management College (IRMC) at the National 

Defense University. IRMC currently offers a program in Organizaional 

Transformation that focuses on something called cross-boundary leadership. According to Elizabeth McDaniel, IRMC Dean of Faculty and Academic Programs:

Cross-boundary leaders must be public servants who are very skillful at communicating, coordinating, and collaborating as members 

of networks across sectors, levels, departments, and agencies. As 

participants in networks they must foster trust among members, be 

selfless risk-takers, and effectively focus on intended outcomes to 

achieve lofty goals as well as concrete goals for their customers . . . 

and the senior leaders of their own organizations. They must think 

systematically, influence others without relying on organizational 

authority, and share responsibility and accountability with other 

cross-boundary participants. To be effective, cross-boundary leaders 
136 GOMPERT, LACHOW, AND PERKINS

must appreciate cultural and organizational differences, and appreciate, create, and take advantage of networks that rely on technology, 

management, policy, and people.45

It is evident that cross-boundary leaders have the potential to increase the collective wisdom of military organizations. The challenge facing the military is how to integrate cross-boundary leadership principles 

into its PME curriculum. While the Organizational Transformation program at IRMC can serve as a model, its focus is on government services 

rather than warfare, and its overall size and scope are limited. More work 

is needed to adapt this approach to both service and joint colleges. By reinforcing battle-wise training with cross-boundary leadership, the military 

can strengthen a culture that values the innovative, adaptable, and creative 

thinking required in today’s complex environment. 

Retention

If the military proves successful in recruiting, educating, and training battle-wise people, it will still face the challenge of keeping them. To 

achieve this goal, several obstacles must be overcome. Perhaps the biggest 

one is that the characteristics that define battle-wise soldiers are in high 

demand in the private sector. The business world generally offers better 

pay and more desirable career opportunities than the military, especially 

for individuals with intuitive abilities. As a result, some of the most capable soldiers are at risk of leaving the military before it has received sufficient payback for the education and training it has provided them, and 

while it still needs them. 

The flip side of this problem is that the existing personnel system 

makes it difficult for the military to release soldiers it does not need. As a 

result of these two conflicting challenges, the military has a poor mix of 

soldiers: “On average between 1999 and 2002, the services had shortages 

in about 30 percent of their occupations, while they were overstaffed in 

40 percent.”46 The options for fixing this problem fall into three general 

categories: career development, tangible benefits, and intangible benefits.

Career Development

The ability to predict how well a young recruit will perform in military operations based on prior education and test scores is limited. While 

certain traits can be correlated with high marks in such key military areas 

as leadership and communication, discerning who has such qualities 
 BATTLE-WISE 137

during the recruiting process is extremely difficult. Often these traits do 

not appear until a person is placed in a combat situation. Because battlewisdom consists of elusive qualities, it will be even more difficult to identify green recruits with battle-wisdom potential using existing metrics. 

Therefore, it is incumbent on the military to identify battle-wise individuals as early as possible in their careers. 

This process is called sorting. Early sorting to identify battle-wise individuals will allow the military to focus resources not only on developing 

those individuals but also on retaining them. They could receive higher 

base pay, performance bonuses, specialized education and training, and 

career tracks that stress operations. This approach is used for SOF, pilots, 

and other high-value occupations. The challenge will be to extend it more 

broadly across the combat forces.47

In addition to identifying battle-wise soldiers, the military also 

should consider highly rigorous sorting around the 10- to 12-year mark, 

which generally coincides with promotion from O–3 to O–4 in the officer 

ranks: “[I]t is important that people not reach 10 to 12 years of service 

without having been selected for their knowledge, skills, initiative, and effort.”48 Because the current retirement system does not vest until 20 years 

of service, soldiers who make it past the 10- to 12-year threshold tend to 

remain in the military until year 20. After 12 years, it also becomes harder 

to justify releasing soldiers based on performance. This is a major cause 

of overstaffing. Another problem is that after 20 years of service, soldiers, 

with their cognitive effectiveness potentially at its greatest, often leave the 

military. After they have vested in their retirement system, many soldiers 

leave the military to begin a second career in the private sector. Rigorous 

sorting before soldiers reach the 10- to 12-year mark could target those 

who will provide value in the future and could help focus on retaining 

those soldiers beyond 20 years. 

According to Bernard Rostker, former Undersecretary of Defense for 

Personnel and Readiness:

In the 21st century, the U.S. military needs a competitive up-or-out 

system in the junior grades with relatively high selection rates, and 

then stringent selection of only about 30 percent into a career force. 

Once in the career force, the norm would be very high promotion

rates, perhaps 90 percent to O–6 (colonel) rather than the 50 percent 

of today. Longer tenure and higher remuneration for those selected to 

join the “career force” should encourage people to stay for a full career 
138 GOMPERT, LACHOW, AND PERKINS

that would end at about 40 years of service. Compensation packages 

must be structured to motivate the best to stay and encourage those 

whose potential is limited to leave.49

At the same time, if the military creates battle-wise soldiers early, it may 

not need to retain them for 20 years or more to recoup its investment. 

If a battle-wise major can make decisions as effectively as a 20th-century 

colonel, the military may not need as many colonels. As more decisions get 

pushed down the ranks, the military may become a flatter organization. As 

a result, retention policy may be used to optimize the mix so that senior 

positions are no longer overstaffed. However, to do this the military will 

need to adjust its compensation policies.

Tangible Benefits

 One of the primary means that the Armed Forces use to retain 

people is a mix of tangible benefits that includes pay and nonmonetary 

benefits, such as housing, medical care, and assistance with child care and 

education.50 Because the private sector usually offers higher base salaries

and bonuses than the military, one strategy that the military has used to 

retain its people is to offer generous medical and retirement benefits. Thus, 

individuals can receive compensation that may rival what is found in business if they are willing to defer those rewards for 20 years.51 However, the 

fact that retirement benefits do not accrue until 20 years of service causes 

some soldiers to stay in the military longer than would be optimal for 

the force as a whole. This ends up costing a great deal of money and also 

suboptimizes the allocation of resources, since the funds that could be 

used to entice “high-aptitude individuals” to remain in the military are 

tied up with lower-quality soldiers who are staying in the military primarily to obtain their retirement benefit.52

The dilemma here is that retirement benefits, triggered at the 20-year 

point, are one of the advantages the military has over the private sector, 

which make them an excellent retention tool. The challenge is to retain 

the best and discourage those who provide little value to the organization. 

The best way to do this is to sort and target individuals before they reach 

10 to 12 years of service. Another problem associated with the 20-year 

retirement benefit is that it can discourage risk-taking, especially after a 

soldier has passed the 10- to 12-year mark: “To reach 20 years of service 

at current rank, the service member must guard against a mistake or misbehavior that would result in demotion or dismissal from service.”53 This 

is a serious problem if the military desires to grow battle-wise individuals 
 BATTLE-WISE 139

who are willing to take on parochial interests, accept responsibility, and 

take initiative. 

It seems clear that a more flexible retirement system would help the 

military retain its best and brightest while releasing those people whom it 

no longer needs. While numerous modifications to the retirement system 

have been proposed, we believe that the following changes merit serious 

consideration:54

Adopt a new retirement system that includes full vesting between 5 

and 10 years.

Increase Government contributions (matching funds) for military

personnel who participate in the Thrift Savings Plan.

Remove the one-size-fits-all 20-year annuity in favor of one that 

allows for differences among occupations.

While overhauling the military retirement system would help in retaining battle-wise individuals, other tangible benefits play an important 

role in retention. One of the biggest factors that causes prized people to 

leave the military is the pay differential between it and the private sector. Companies can offer employees higher base pay, significant bonuses 

(often exceeding base pay at senior levels), and stock options. While it is 

difficult for the military to match such compensation, it does not have to 

do so to retain its people. The military offers numerous other tangible and 

intangible benefits that can compensate for differences in pay; however, 

monetary compensation in the military must be close enough to what is 

offered in the private sector so that the differences do not outweigh the 

other benefits of military service.

The Defense Department has two levers at its disposal in this area: 

base pay and variable pay (bonuses). One obvious approach to increasing 

retention (and helping recruitment) is to increase significantly the base 

pay of all military members. However, the costs associated with a pay raise 

of this magnitude are so high as to make it nearly impossible. A steeper 

pay table, by which promotions would produce ever-larger step increases, 

could offer substantially greater compensation for those who stay and 

excel.55 Taking responsibilities into account, military pay tends to become 

less competitive with the private sector the higher the rank and the longer 

the service. The present value of future pay is a major factor in retention 

decisions, especially for highly educated and able individuals who think 

about long-term financial well-being and know that companies pay senior 

people well. 

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140 GOMPERT, LACHOW, AND PERKINS

The advantage of using base pay as a lever to increase retention is 

that it minimizes uncertainty and perceived inequity for people in the 

system: everyone at a given level in a given branch of service will get the 

same pay. The disadvantage of this approach is that it lacks the flexibility 

to reward and motivate battle-wise abilities and performance. In contrast, 

variable pay options such as performance bonuses are extremely flexible, 

which makes them useful for rewarding strong performance by warfighters facing cognitive challenges. One idea particularly well suited for retention of battle-wise soldiers is capability pay, which is designed to “provide 

compensation and incentives for superior individual capability, especially 

current and prospective future leadership potential.”56 Capability pay 

provides a mechanism for rewarding performance outside the promotion system. As a result, it gives greater flexibility to personnel managers 

and encourages people who excel in their jobs to remain in the military. 

Because capability pay can be skewed to become steeper at higher ranks, it 

can be useful in retaining high value personnel past the 20-year mark.

While variable pay has many advantages, it does carry some challenges. One disadvantage is that variable pay mechanisms may create 

incentives for me-first behavior. One way to minimize this problem is to 

tie bonuses to the types of behaviors that improve performance in a networked environment, such as collaboration, sharing, and teamwork.57 This 

would create a shared sense of responsibility. On the other hand, assessing 

team performance can be difficult and will become more so as the composition of combat teams becomes fluid and crosses service lines, as will be 

the case in networked operations. Another challenge is that systems that 

reward outstanding behavior must be based on a rigorous set of standards 

that are perceived as being applied fairly.58 If this is not done well, the variable pay system may foster a climate of competition and parochialism. 

Intangible Benefits

Although efforts to improve retention of battle-wise people should 

begin with tangible benefits, intangible benefits must not be neglected. 

The military cannot top private sector pay in competition for effective 

thinkers and decisionmakers. In fact, focusing primarily on money may 

prove counterproductive: “the more compensation shifts toward tangible 

rewards, the more likely it is that professionals who seek the intangible 

rewards will leave. Their departure, in turn, makes the military a less attractive place for other professionals, creating a vicious cycle away from 

professionalism toward bureaucracy.”59
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Perhaps the most important benefits the military can offer soldiers 

are high-quality, low-cost education and training. According to recruits, 

the top reasons for enlistment in the military are to obtain education and 

training. By providing its personnel with a rewarding and beneficial experience of lifelong learning, the military can improve recruiting, workforce 

performance, and retention. People with battle-wise potential will tend to 

value such a benefit, and the military should give such people priority for 

educational opportunities. Training and education are especially valued if 

they are useful outside the military, which is the case for the basic cognitive abilities that make up battle-wisdom. One would think that the better 

the job the Armed Forces do in developing battle-wise people, the harder 

it will be to retain those people. However, evidence shows that an organization that gives people marketable skills keeps its employees longer: 

“There is a strong correlation of psychological commitment and intent to 

stay (loyalty) with an organization’s efforts to make an individual more 

marketable; the risk of losing employees is greatly increased when organizations fail to provide such opportunities.”60

Finally, the military can offer people the feeling of camaraderie and 

satisfaction that comes from working with others to serve one’s country. 

Many soldiers view their military service and lives as a calling and their 

relationship to the Nation as a compact. Of course, the Nation must 

do its part to ensure that its soldiers are not taken for granted or put in 

harm’s way unnecessarily. The stresses and strains of frequent, long, and 

dangerous deployments can take an immense psychological, emotional, 

and financial toll on both active-duty and reserve personnel and their 

families.61

In sum, when it comes to attracting, developing, and keeping battlewise people, no magic answers—at least not affordable ones—are available 

to the military. Still, several ideas seem promising and deserve consideration: lateral entry; training for problem-solving in unfamiliar, ambiguous, and urgent circumstances; educational emphasis on analytic skills and 

cross-boundary collaboration; rigorous sorting before the 10- to 12-year 

mark; a more flexible retirement system; a steeper pay scale; and increased 

use of variable monetary incentives, such as bonuses. Further research is 

needed to determine whether and how these ideas should be pursued.

Reforming Command and Control

If the decisionmaking abilities of each networked warfighter can 

be expanded by the sorts of measures suggested, it stands to reason that 
142 GOMPERT, LACHOW, AND PERKINS

the performance of U.S. military forces in networked warfare would be 

enhanced by involving lots of them, as individuals and in teams, in decisionmaking and increasing the demands on each. This requires action to 

discourage top-down decisionmaking.

In the traditional perspective, centralization of authority reflects less 

a willful hoarding of authority than a natural distribution of responsibility from the strategic to the operational to the tactical planes. However, 

that three-plane model has been disturbed by the growing speed, fluidity, 

and ambiguity of warfare, which blur and compress these planes, increase 

the significance of tactical decisions, and reward horizontal, peer-to-peer 

collaboration. The operational effects of tactical choices and the strategic 

effects of operational choices flow freely and quickly across these porous 

boundaries. 

In addition, the traditional view of decisionmaking presumed that 

the force commander and staff (at the top or in the back, depending on 

one’s perspective) would possess more relevant information and experience than the warfighter (on the bottom or at the edge). This view is no 

longer valid for many situations. The beliefs of the old culture—that experience counts above all and that top commanders are better informed 

than lower ones—are being battered by the geopolitical and networking 

revolutions. In unfamiliar conditions, and with data easily shared, neither 

experience nor information at the top/back necessarily trumps cognition 

at the bottom/edge. Mobilizing the battle-wise many is made necessary by 

change, ambiguity, and complexity, and made practical by networking.

Decentralization must, of course, accompany any attempt to have

more battle-wise warfighters throughout the force, up and down the ranks. 

Entrusting junior officers and NCOs in the field to make quick, critical, 

and sound judgments demands that they can intuit reliably and reason 

efficiently, are aware of their analytical and experiential strengths and 

limitations, can learn in action, and are adept at adaptive decisionmaking. 

Therefore, decentralization of decision authority to take advantage of networking will both require and reward efforts by the Armed Forces to build 

up these cognitive strengths.

Extending decisionmaking to more warfighters on the network 

depends on devising command and control architectures that permit 

the shifting of authority downward and outward. But reform is not just 

about decentralization because networking not only informs warfighters 

but also makes them interdependent by expanding options for collaboration. Command and control architectures should accommodate the need 

for units and decisionmakers throughout the networked force to support 
 BATTLE-WISE 143

and be supported by others, regardless of geography, service boundaries, 

and normal operational command boundaries. Permitting local and peerto-peer problem-solving weakens vertical control and demands strong 

and open horizontal and diagonal links, which do not easily fit with rank 

and structure. However, even as commanders delegate their traditional 

authority, they are indispensable in managing interdependencies, settling 

disputes, and allocating scarce resources.

A formidable obstacle to any reform, particularly one involving

command and control, is that the effort to organize for joint operations is 

now frozen just beneath the level of the joint force commander. So-called 

component commanders are little more than service commanders with 

responsibility to coordinate the operations of the forces of their service 

with those of other services. Thus, while information networking is permitting deeper integration and horizontal collaboration, joint command 

and control only exists at the upper echelons. Over the long term, this will 

not do for achieving deep, operational integration, which is the essence of 

networking in any field. In fact, recent operations already reveal weakness 

in joint command and control on the battlefield.62

In the transition from control by the few to empowerment of the

many, it may be useful to have a few enduring rules to govern who should 

make what decisions:

First, commanders should communicate an understood envelope 

within which subordinates may and should operate, defined by mission 

objectives, limits, and available resources. The limits of authority should 

be predicated on whether decisions (including bad ones) taken by subordinates may have consequences (including unintended ones) outside their 

envelopes. 

A second rule could be that the decisionmaking authority of an individual is contingent on that individual’s having at least as much information as a superior commander does. Even in a networked environment, 

it will sometimes be the case that headquarters has some information 

bearing on a tactical situation that cannot be rapidly shared with the warfighter—for security reasons, for example.

Third, any individual who does not feel equipped with the intuitive and 

reasoning powers to make a sound decision should unhesitatingly seek 

and receive advice, guidance, and, if need be, orders. Self-awareness of 

limitations is a strength, not a weakness.

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144 GOMPERT, LACHOW, AND PERKINS

Fourth, if an individual wishes to use forces that are not under his or 

her regular command or have not been placed at his or her disposal, the 

commander of those forces must concur in whether and how they are to 

be used. 

To illustrate, we can revisit the major leading the ambushed force in 

the African peace-enforcement operation. If he decided wrongly and failed 

in his mission or suffered numerous casualties, yet his decision did not 

have significant consequences outside his envelope of responsibilities, then 

giving him decision authority was probably the correct move. If, however, 

his misjudgment exposed other units to a larger losing battle or jeopardizes the peace of the province as a whole, perhaps the decision should not 

have been his to make. Similarly, if the major’s superior knows but cannot 

communicate, for whatever reason, that the window to carry out the unit’s 

mission is closing, the superior may have to tell the major that pulling back 

is not an option. If the major or his superiors are convinced that the situation is more complex and dangerous than he is prepared for, it might be 

best not to risk failure even within his envelope of responsibility. Finally, if 

the major wishes to call in reinforcements from another unit, and if they 

have not already been placed at his disposal, then he will have to seek a 

decision from the officer commanding those other forces or, failing that, 

seek intervention from higher command.

Intangible qualities—self-awareness, trust, and an educated feel (not 

some rigid structure) for who is best placed to decide what—are of great 

and growing importance in networked warfare. Other than combat itself, 

both training exercises are potentially the most effective way to inculcate 

forces with these qualities. Whereas Navy culture traditionally has stressed 

delegation of authority, autonomy, and accountability, the Army has 

stressed reliance on fellow soldiers—obviously reflecting the difference 

between a ship at sea and a company in the field. A fusion of the former’s 

trust in “the skipper” and the latter’s trust in “buddies” is needed for 

battle-wise forces in networked warfare. 

Developing Battle-Wise Teams

Developing collective intelligence for military operations will not be 

easy. Networking certainly will help by providing good communication, 

shared awareness, additional information, and decentralization of authority. However, because the forces deployed for an operation and present on 

an operational network are fluid and dependent on circumstances, it is not 

yet clear how to choose the assortment of units to be exercised. Obviously, 

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more joint exercises are warranted. However, it will take considerable resources and organizational flexibility to plan exercises involving various 

combinations of, for example, SOF, bombers, unmanned airborne sensors, 

land forces, missile-carrying submarines, and aircraft carriers. 

We hesitate to advocate wholesale application of the wisdom-ofcrowds principle to military problem-solving. After all, the warfighters of 

a force are not all faced with the same tactical problem but, rather, myriad 

ones. Yet this approach could have merit in the case of a group of people 

who organize to face a common problem, which is the very idea of ad hoc, 

cross-boundary, military-operational teams. Assuming they are accommodated by flexible command and control, such teams can bring to bear 

diverse perspectives on common problems—precisely the conditions in 

which collective wisdom excels. Thus, crowd-wisdom could translate into 

battle-wisdom under certain conditions.

Networking theory, more or less confirmed by practice, suggests that 

ad hoc teams will self-organize to deal with common problems, enabling 

an organization continuously to optimize its resources despite uncertainty 

and change. Take the case of the major and the ambushed unit. All else 

being equal, forming a team with other networked unit commanders for 

the sake of deciding whether to get his unit out of harm’s way or engage 

in a firefight would offer little gain in the quality of the decision and significant risk to its timeliness. Yet, once ground and gunship support arrive, 

it may make more sense for the several officers concerned to discuss and 

even decide together whether to eliminate the ambushers or instead brush 

them aside and get on with the mission. 

If ad hoc teams can be crowd-wise, the question remains of how to 

make them battle-wise. A reasonable starting point could be what appears 

important for the individual warfighter: a provisional decisionmaking approach to gain time and information; self-awareness of collective experiential and analytical limits; the ability to learn in action; and an emphasis 

on the abilities that create operational time-information advantages—

anticipation, rapid decisionmaking, opportunism, and rapid adaptation. 

This is daunting enough for individuals; its achievement by teams, 

however promising in theory, will be very hard. All in all, the concept 

of collective wisdom in military operations—creating it as well as using 

it—requires much more thought, research, and experimentation. But it 

should not be dismissed simply because it seems to defy the principle 

of unity of command. The test will be whether it is possible to involve 

multiple decisionmakers without running the risk that no decisionmaker 

emerges at all.
146 GOMPERT, LACHOW, AND PERKINS

Notes1 “The Buzz,” Government Executive, December 2004, 18. 2

 Dan Baum,“Battle Lessons: What the Generals Don’t Know,” The New Yorker, January 17, 

2005, 42–48. 3

 Bill Owens, Lifting the Fog of War (New York: Farrar, Strauss & Giroux, 2000), 49–50. 4

 M. Rebecca Kilburn, Lawrence M. Hanser, and Jacob Alex Klerman, Estimating AFQT Scores 

for National Education Longitudinal Study (NELS) Respondents (Santa Monica, CA: RAND, 1998). 5

 Paul F. Hogan,“Overview of the Current Personnel and Compensation System,” in Filling the 

Ranks: Transforming the U.S. Military Personnel System, ed. Cindy Williams (Cambridge, MA: MIT 

Press, 2004), 30. 6

 James R. Hosek, “The Soldier of the 21st Century,” in New Challenges, New Tools for Defense 

Decisionmaking, ed. Stuart E. Johnson, Martin C. Libicki, and Gregory F. Treverton (Santa Monica, 

CA: RAND, 2003), 191. 7

 Hosek, “The Soldier of the 21st Century,” 196. 8 James R. Hosek, interview by author, Washington, DC, October 8, 2004. Quality is understood as the level of job match between the member and the military. It is often correlated with 

promotion speed; the faster someone gets promoted, the higher their “quality.” For more information, 

see James R. Hosek and Michael G. Mattock, Learning About Quality: How the Quality of Military 

Personnel is Revealed Over Time (Santa Monica, CA: RAND, 2003), xi. 9

 Richard J. Koucheravy, Whence the Soldier of the Future? Recruiting and Training for the Objective Force (Fort Leavenworth, KS: United States Army Command and General Staff College, School of 

Advanced Military Studies, 2001), 24. 10 For further discussion of the challenges associated with identify high-quality recruits (both 

enlisted and officers), see Koucheravy, 23–24. 11 An interesting insight into the life of cadets at West Point is provided in David Lipsky, Absolutely American: Four Years at West Point (Boston: Houghton-Mifflin, 2003). 12 Paul T. Bartone, Scott A. Snook, and Trueman R. Tremble, Jr., “Cognitive and Personality 

Predictors of Leader Performance in West Point Cadets,” Military Psychology 14, no. 4 (2002), 321–338. 

This study focused on the leadership performance of cadets during their 4-year tenure at West Point. 

If the predictors in this study are shown to be robust when applied to officers after they graduate from 

West Point, we recommend that they be tried out on enlisted personnel. 13 Thomas M. Strawn, “The War for Talent in the Private Sector,” in Filling the Ranks, 75. There 

are some notable exceptions to this statement. Officers in certain highly competitive and in-demand 

occupations such as aviation, medicine, and nuclear engineering receive significant sign-on and retention bonuses. We discuss this point later in the chapter. 14 One of the most successful tools for recruiting college-bound individuals is loan repayment. 

For more information on this and other policy choices related to recruiting from the college market, 

see Beth Asch, Can Du, and Matthias Schonlau, Policy Options for Military Recruiting in the College 

Market: Results from a National Survey (Santa Monica, CA: RAND, 2004). 15 Donald J. Cymrot and Michael L. Hansen, “Overhauling Enlisted Careers and Compensation,” in Filling the Ranks, 120. 16 Ibid., 121.

17 Cindy Williams, “Introduction,” in Filling the Ranks, 2. 18 Lateral entry can be defined as allowing recruits to enter the military at a rank other than 

E–1 or O–1 (the bottom of the pyramid). 19 Levy et al., Expanding Enlisted Lateral Entry: Options and Feasibility (Santa Monica, CA: 

RAND, 2004), xiii. 20 For more details, see Levy et al.

21 Ibid.
 BATTLE-WISE 147

22 Defense Science Board Task Force on Training for Future Conflicts, “Memorandum for the 

Chairman, Defense Science Board” (Washington, DC: Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for 

Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics, July 9, 2003). 23 Defense Science Board Task Force on Training for Future Conflicts, “Final Report” 

(Washington, DC: Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics,

2003).

 24 Baum, 42.

25 Ibid.

26 “The Buzz,” 18. 27 See Richard Pascale, “Fight. Learn. L*E*A*D,” Fast Company, August/September 1996, 65. 28 See Gary Klein, Sources of Power: How People Make Decisions (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 

1999). 29 Baum, 43.

30 The information on SEAL training was provided by Rear Admiral Raymond C. Smith, USN 

(Ret.), in phone interview by author, Washington, DC, January 10, 2005. Although our discussion here 

focuses only on Navy SOF, the other services use similar methods to train their SOF units. 31 More details available at <www.jfcom.mil>.

32 Thomas M. Cooke, “Reassessing Joint Experimentation—Out of Joint,” Joint Force Quarterly, 

no. 28 (Spring-Summer2001), 102–105. 33 See Sean D. Naylor, “Fixed War Games? General says Millennium Challenge 02 ‘was almost 

entirely scripted,”’ Army Times, August 16, 2002; and Malcolm Gladwell, Blink: The Power of Thinking 

Without Thinking (New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2005), 145. For an in-depth discussion of 

both this exercise and the opposing force commander’s military philosophy, see Gladwell, 99–46. 34 For more details on this idea, see Stephen Peter Rosen, “Implementing Changes in U.S. 

Military Personnel Policy,” in Filling the Ranks, 295. 35 See Defense Science Board Task Force, “Final Report.”

36 See Steve Silberman, “The War Room,” Wired, September 2004, 151–155, 171–173. This system was the brainchild of the Institute for Creative Technologies (ICT) at the University of Southern 

California. ICT is a collaboration between DOD, film and gaming companies, and Silicon Valley. 37 Ibid., 153.

38 Ibid.

39 Koucheravy, 38. For a good discussion of the use of tactical decision exercises and simulations to improve both leadership training and decisionmaking, see Major J.B. Vowell, Between Discipline and Intuition: The Military Decision Making Process in the Army’s Future Force (Fort Leavenworth, 

KS: United States Army Command and General Staff College, School of Advanced Military Studies, 

2004), 53–55. 40 Shawn Zeller, “Training Games,” Government Executive, January 2005, 46. According to 

Koucheravy, the DOD budget for recruiting advertising was $265 million in fiscal year 2000. Thus, the 

cost effectiveness of America’s Army is striking. 41 Defense Science Board Task Force, “Final Report,” 70.

42 Ibid., 7.

43 There are obvious exceptions to these points. We are making rather broad generalizations 

based on our observations and experiences because we believe they contain a grain of truth that needs 

to be expressed. 44 Thomas L. McNaugher, “Refining Army Transformation,” in The U.S. Army and the New 

National Security Strategy, ed. Lynn E. Davis and Jeremy Shapiro (Santa Monica, CA: RAND, 2003), 

299. 45 Elizabeth A. McDaniel, “Facilitating Cross-Boundary Leadership in Emerging E-Government Leaders,” Electronic Government, Vol. 1, forthcoming. 46 Williams, “Introduction,” in Filling the Ranks, 2.
148 GOMPERT, LACHOW, AND PERKINS

47 Details on sorting strategies can be found in Hosek, “The Soldier of the 21st Century,” 

204–207.

48 Ibid., 204. If they reach the 10- to 12-year threshold, officers tend to remain in the military 

until they hit 20 years (barring serious issues with performance). Enlisted personnel have a less obvious threshold because their promotions are less tied to time-in-grade. 49 Bernard Rostker, “Changing the Officer Personnel System,” in Filling the Ranks, 160–161. 

Rostker also served as Undersecretary of the Army and Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Manpower 

and Reserve Affairs. 50 Elizabeth A. Stanley-Mitchell, “The Military Profession and Intangible Rewards for Service,” 

in Filling the Ranks, 94. 51 Of course, this depends on a number of factors, including rank, career field, and years of service. It is also worth noting that many soldiers who retire at 20 years enter the private sector and thus 

end up with the best of both worlds: generous retirement and health benefits from the military plus 

private-sector salaries and bonuses. This is another reason why military personnel who make it past 

the 10- to 12-year mark tend to stay until 20 years and then leave; they know they can begin second 

careers at a relatively young age while still taking advantage of military retirement and health benefits. 52 Hosek, “The Soldier of the 21st Century,” 204. 53 Ibid.

54 See Strawn, 88.

55 This idea is examined in James Hosek and Beth Asch, Air Force Compensation: Considering 

Some Options for Change (Santa Monica, CA: RAND, 2002). 56 Ibid., xv. 

57 See Strawn, 78.

58 Hosek and Asch, xvi.

59 Stanley-Mitchell, 94.

60 Strawn, 89.

61 See James R. Hosek and Mark Totten, Does Perstempo Hurt Reenlistment? The Effect of Long 

or Hostile Perstempo on Reenlistment (Santa Monica, CA: RAND, 1998). 62 Richard Kugler, Michael Baranick, and Hans Binnendijk, Anaconda’s Lessons for Joint Operations (Washington, DC: Center for Technology and National Security Policy, forthcoming). 
 BATTLE-WISE 149

149

Chapter Nine

Recommendations and 

Conclusions 

This book began with the point that U.S. military forces, by harnessing information technology and adopting networking principles, 

can improve speed, flexibility, precision, integration, and overall 

performance in a wide range of contingencies, provided they overcome institutional inertia and service parochialism. Yet using the same principles 

and exploiting the diffusion of IT, real and potential U.S. adversaries as 

diverse as al Qaeda and China can counter these U.S. advantages, according to their own strategies. As a consequence, even though the United 

States and its democratic partners have taken a dominant lead in military-networking, they cannot assume it will last. As enemy forces become 

more aware, lethal, dispersed, and integrated, they will become less visible 

and less vulnerable to U.S. forces; at the same time, U.S. forces, though 

networked and superior, will become more visible and more vulnerable. 

With their elusive networks, cellular structure, and fluid tactics, terrorists 

and insurgents in Iraq today provide a preview of this danger. The skill and 

speed with which transnational terrorists, despite their technological poverty, already are using networking—linking cells, conducting operations, 

and disseminating messages of death—point to a network-versus-network 

future. 

In that future, the operational edge will lie with the side that uses 

brainpower to make better sense and use of information—anticipating 

enemy moves, making quick decisions, seizing opportunities, learning 

rapidly, and adapting in action. It will not be enough for U.S. forces to 

have superior firepower, sensors, and bandwidth. If they are to hold a 

clear operational advantage over any adversary in any contingency, they 

must be able to create and exploit time-information superiority. By doing 

so, despite being more vulnerable to the networked sensors and precision 

weapons of the enemy, U.S. forces can increase the exposure of enemy 
150 GOMPERT, LACHOW, AND PERKINS

forces and reduce their own. Gaining and holding such an edge requires 

battle-wisdom. 

 More precisely, the abilities of U.S. military personnel, up and 

down the ranks, to solve complex and unfamiliar operational problems in 

the face of danger, urgency, ambiguity, and information overload must be 

improved. Given that human rationality is often wanting when wrestling 

with reality, especially in such critical conditions, this is a formidable challenge. No single measure or simple formula will answer that challenge. It 

will take a multifaceted strategy spanning personnel policy, command and 

control principles and processes, and intelligent, ad hoc combat teams. It 

also will take openness to learn from nonmilitary spheres and organizations that are pioneering the exploitation of networking to improve performance, including better decisionmaking under pressure.

As we have noted, people in the military and other high-stakes,

high-intensity professions tend to rely mainly on their intuition when 

time is short. However, today’s fluid security environment and unfamiliar 

operational circumstances make experience less relevant and, thus, intuition less reliable. At the same time, reasoning, though obviously preferred 

when ample time and information are available, typically is underutilized 

in battlefield decisionmaking precisely because it is time-consuming. With 

the tempo of military campaigns increasing, mainly because of networking, intuition inevitably remains essential. But the messier the world and 

its battlefields become, the more important it is to improve reasoning, 

using the information processed and shared by networks. Simply put, the 

aim is to make intuition more reliable and reasoning more time-efficient, 

thus enhancing military operational problem-solving and lending an increasingly important advantage. But how?

The U.S. military can be proud of the quality, intelligence, and attitude of its people since the birth of the all-volunteer force after the 

Vietnam War. Nonetheless, the way the U.S. Armed Forces recruit, organize, and prepare people for the mental demands of operations can be 

improved. This is not a criticism of U.S. military personnel systems but 

a recognition that the demands on those systems are shifting because of 

the mix of networking and messiness. Today’s personnel systems, with the 

exception of some innovative training approaches, have not been designed 

to maximize the particular bundle of decisionmaking abilities that are rising in operational importance: anticipation, decision speed, opportunism, 

rapid learning, and adaptation. Nor is professional military education 

especially geared to decisionmaking methods that are both time- and 

information-sensitive and that integrate intuition and reasoning. Now, 
 BATTLE-WISE 151

for strategic reasons, these qualities and methods should be stressed. With 

practical steps, not drastic change, they can be.

In this spirit, we conclude this book by recommending concrete 

actions to be taken, including additional research to be pursued, if U.S. 

warfighters, forces, and decisionmaking methods are to become more 

battle-wise. If the U.S. military is to exploit its superior networking to 

preserve operational and strategic advantages, it will have to consider a 

variety of policies and measures aimed at developing warfighters who 

are more battle-wise; command and control systems that empower and 

support more battle-wise warfighters; battle-wise, self-forming teams; 

and fast-adaptive decisionmaking methods that integrate intuition and 

reasoning. In places, we applaud existing efforts being undertaken by 

DOD and suggest more of the same. In other areas, we recommend new 

approaches to be examined, tried out, or implemented. In both cases, our 

recommendations are only a starting point. For one thing, it is likely that 

a number of efforts are under way that we are not aware of. For another, 

the very wisdom of crowds that we describe herein may find solutions we 

have not discovered. With these possibilities in mind, the following recommendations are provided: 

1. Explore the use of lateral entry to increase the number of potential 

battle-wise soldiers entering the military. 

2. Leverage training techniques used by the National Training Center and 

Special Operations Forces, as well as virtual training environments, to 

strengthen battle-wisdom across the Armed Forces. 

3. Orient professional military education more toward cross-boundary 

leadership and analytic discipline, and remove disincentives to taking risks 

and presenting radical ideas.

4. Strengthen retention by performing more rigorous sorting before the 

10- to 12-year mark in military careers, and develop new retirement and 

pay policies that will help the services keep high performers while releasing others.

5. Stress distributed and horizontal decisionmaking in command and 

control, and experiment with joint command and control arrangements 

that permit deep integration and spontaneous teaming.

6. Foster cross-boundary team cognition and problem-solving.

7. Launch research and analysis efforts to understand better the challenges 

and opportunities involved in developing a battle-wise force that can create and exploit time-information superiority. 
152 GOMPERT, LACHOW, AND PERKINS

1. Explore the use of lateral entry to increase the number of potential battlewise soldiers entering the military. 

Both the public and private sectors agree that one of the keys to successful organizational performance—be it thriving in financial markets, 

providing services to citizens, or fighting wars—is finding and hiring the 

right people in the first place. This is easy to say but hard to do, especially 

in the public sector. For one thing, the military cannot entice valedictorians with stock options or promises of vast riches and corner offices. For 

another, it is extremely difficult for DOD to know in advance how people 

will think and perform when faced with urgent life-and-death decisions in 

the midst of combat.1

 The best indicator by far of how people will handle 

intense cognitive pressure in the future is how they have handled it in 

the past.2

 The problem for the military is that it recruits people primarily 

straight from high school or college. Scant information is available to help 

DOD determine which recruits can become battle-wise warfighters.

If companies make bad hiring decisions, long-term harm is not 

irreparable; if the military makes bad decisions, lives may be lost and 

national security may be affected. One option DOD should consider for 

improving its ability to recruit battle-wise people is to see if it can develop 

and use some sort of cognitive profile and/or screening method to indicate key battle-wise qualities: anticipation, opportunism, reasoning under 

pressure, willingness to take responsibility and make decisions, ability 

to learn in action, flexibility, and self-awareness. It is not apparent to us 

whether such an approach is feasible, or how it would be used. Further 

research is clearly necessary. 

A more promising approach for increasing the number of battle-wise 

soldiers entering the military is to use selective lateral entry. A number of 

civilian professions currently place individuals in situations that bear a resemblance to aspects of networked warfare: urgency, life-and-death decisions, complexity, unfamiliarity, and ambiguity. It is possible that recruiting such individuals, giving them essential military training, testing them, 

and then placing them in positions of leadership will prove to be a successful way of increasing the battle-wisdom of the junior ranks. Although 

a number of issues clearly would need to be explored and addressed, we 

believe this option should be given a thorough test before being rejected as 

either too hard or too disruptive, as skeptics might claim.

Most people agree that recruitment of enough people with high 

battle-wise aptitude could be achieved by offering substantially higher 

pay. While pay is a powerful recruiting tool, it also is extremely expensive. 
 BATTLE-WISE 153

Trying to increase cognitive abilities substantially throughout the military 

by increasing pay across the board would be cost prohibitive. However, 

monetary compensation can be tailored to focus recruiting (and retention) on targeted specialties and high-value recruits. Such strategies 

include steeper pay tables, loan-repayment programs, and enlistment 

bonuses. 

Evidence has shown that the military can attract valued recruits—at 

least in the case of much-sought-after IT specialists—by offering education and training that will pay off whether the person stays in or leaves the 

military.3

 In fact, the chance to get broadly relevant, top-notch education 

and training for free is one of the major reasons people join the military. 

Thus, providing such education and training has multiple benefits: it aids 

in recruiting people with battle-wisdom, it increases the battle-wisdom of 

people who have been recruited, and it helps retain battle-wise soldiers 

who might otherwise leave just as their value increases sharply, between 

5 and 10 years of service. Clearly, education and training should figure 

centrally in a total strategy to build a battle-wise force.

2. Leverage training techniques used by the NTC and SOF, as well as virtual 

training environments, to strengthen battle-wisdom across the Armed Forces.

The training methods of the past—those focused more on doctrine

and standard operating procedures—will not serve soldiers well in networked warfare. Instead, training programs should focus on developing 

cognitive abilities by placing soldiers in situations where they are forced 

to think quickly, adapt, seize opportunities, and learn on the fly. In the 

words of Army Chief of Staff General Schoomaker: “In the past, you were 

measured on how you complied with doctrine and used it to organize and 

accomplish your objectives. Today, we’re designing training scenarios that 

put people in a continual zone of discomfort . . . that’s where we want 

them. That’s how you stretch yourself.”4

We have identified the training programs used by the NTC and 

SOF as exemplars for the Armed Forces generally. This is not to say that 

these two programs should be adopted wholesale without change. Each 

service has unique requirements, and different specialties within each 

service may need specialized training above and beyond what we recommend. However, the fundamental principles followed by the NTC and 

SOF programs—realistic situations, freedom to experiment, training to 

failure, analysis after the fact to learn what worked and what did not, and 
154 GOMPERT, LACHOW, AND PERKINS

multidimensional stressors—apply to all forces that take part in networked warfare.

Another recommendation concerns the use of simulations. To develop battle-wisdom in junior officers and enlisted personnel, these soldiers must be exposed to a wide range of experiences in a short period 

of time. Exercises are certainly a necessary component of this training 

program, but they are not sufficient for two important reasons: they are 

too expensive and difficult to develop and use with the frequency required, 

and they often do not provide the freedom of action necessary to develop 

battle-wisdom. One solution to this problem is to make greater use of 

simulations. Simulations can present the kind of messy, ambiguous, unfamiliar, and complex situations faced by soldiers in networked warfare at a 

fraction of the cost of and with greater flexibility than full-scale exercises. 

They can be modified quickly (in a matter of days or even hours) to represent new environments for the soldiers. The Armed Forces already are 

using simulations with much success and placing more emphasis on this 

aspect of training. This will help build battle-wisdom, especially to the 

extent that it emphasizes those particular abilities that can yield timeinformation superiority.

3. Orient PME more toward cross-boundary leadership and analytic discipline, and remove disincentives to taking risks and presenting radical ideas.

The U.S. military has a fine and enviable system of PME. However, 

much of the instruction that goes on at service schools and joint institutions of learning is designed to support learning of a body of knowledge 

rather than forcing soldiers to think analytically and unconventionally. In 

fact, students who exhibit unorthodox thinking are often penalized because their ideas may run counter to the body of knowledge being taught. 

Two other factors that inhibit risk-taking in educational institutions are 

that soldiers are acutely aware of rank in the classroom and extremely 

focused on grades. Promotions at higher ranks are extremely competitive, 

and student performance in service and joint schools can be a factor in 

promotion decisions. The net result of those factors is that PME sometimes fosters an environment in which students are taught to mimic the 

thought processes either of their instructors or of their superiors in the 

classroom.

We recommend a number of steps that may help remedy the situation described above. First, military educational institutions need to 

enforce strictly a policy that “rank does not enter the classroom” (which 
 BATTLE-WISE 155

includes the professor). Second, schools need to reconsider how they 

grade their students. If battle-wisdom matters, then PME must foster and 

support the development of those key attributes, and it cannot do so if 

it discourages risk-taking and creativity. A final and related challenge is 

that the services must reconsider the role of academic performance in 

their promotion decisions. If students need to maintain “A” averages to 

get promoted, and if getting an “A” means demonstrating doctrinal and 

by-the-book thinking, then PME may actually hinder rather than help the 

development of battle-wise personnel.5

The Nation’s military colleges and universities also need to stress 

cross-boundary thinking and foster cross-boundary collaboration. Doing 

so will actively develop in students the types of skills and thought processes needed to excel in the collaborative networked warfare. Finally, placing greater weight on how to think and less on what to know would pay 

dividends. Learning or refreshing analytic methods and adaptive decision 

principles as part of PME would be beneficial, especially in the course of 

confronting students with the requirement to solve complex and unfamiliar problems. 

4. Strengthen retention by performing more rigorous sorting before the 10- to 

12-year mark in military careers, and develop new retirement and pay policies that will help the services keep high performers while releasing others.

Given the difficulty of identifying battle-wisdom potential among 

green recruits, it is important to sort new soldiers as early as is meaningful. This will allow the services to identify individuals with high levels of 

battle-wisdom and take steps both to leverage their skills and place them 

on specific career tracks. This will also not only improve the performance 

of the soldiers in the field, but will help with retention by allowing the 

military to tailor its policies, such as pay, training, and career development. 

A similar approach is used for SOF today; we recommend applying it to a 

broader set of skills that includes those associated with battle-wisdom.

It is especially important to conduct rigorous sorting before people 

reach the 10- to 12-year mark because those who make it past that point 

tend to stay for a full 20 years. The reason for this is that military retirement benefits do not vest until someone has put in 20 years of service. 

The consequence of this policy—and the challenge it presents to recruiting battle-wise soldiers in junior ranks—is that the military has too few 

soldiers of the sort it needs in the junior ranks and too many in the senior 

ranks. We have addressed the former problem earlier. The latter problem 
156 GOMPERT, LACHOW, AND PERKINS

can be addressed through the use of both rigorous sorting and the creation 

of a more flexible retirement system. 

For example, if soldiers were able to fully vest in their retirement 

system somewhere between 5 and 10 years of service, then fewer soldiers 

would feel the need to “hang on” until 20 years (which costs DOD a 

great deal of money and does not necessarily yield a positive return on 

investment). By the same token, the military needs to develop incentives 

for keeping people it does value beyond 20 years (at which point many 

soldiers leave the military to have second careers in the private sector). It 

can accomplish this goal via a mix of both tangible benefits—such as base 

pay, variable pay, and retirement contributions—and intangible benefits, 

such as education and training. In particular, a steeper pay scale (by which 

compensation increases significantly at higher ranks and/or years of service) could play a major role in improving the attractiveness of remaining 

in the military. Not only is a steeper pay scale likely to result in increased 

retention, it also may help in recruiting. Thoughtful young people base career decisions at least partially on long-term earning potential; one of the 

major lures of joining professional services companies such as law firms, 

accounting firms, and consulting firms is the prospect of making partner, 

at which point compensation increases dramatically. Steeper military pay 

tables, properly implemented, could play an important role in creating a 

battle-wise force. 

5. Stress distributed and horizontal decisionmaking in command and control, and experiment with joint command and control arrangements that 

permit deep integration and spontaneous teaming.

Depicting the warfighter instead of headquarters in the center of a 

network has value. After all, the ultimate purpose of most military networks, like most other networks, is to satisfy the needs of the user for 

access to information and opportunities to collaborate. Users include 

lieutenants, lieutenant generals, and everyone in between. Such a perspective would foster the design and testing of network command and control 

according to the responsiveness of the warfighters’ information needs, 

cognitive performance, and, ultimately, operational effects. It could help 

expose what technical investments would most improve user accessibility 

to systems that host critical data, many of which were not designed to support networked operations. It also could reveal how best to promote the 

sort of distributed, horizontal, and interdependent decisionmaking that 

can exploit information and cope with fast-changing circumstances. 
 BATTLE-WISE 157

It is especially important to conduct tests and exercises to learn how 

responsive various command and control schemes are to warfighter collaboration and problem-solving needs, as well as to experiment with ways 

to improve responsiveness. Only exercises, besides actual operations, will 

permit realistic experimentation with and refinement of distributed and 

horizontal, collaborative, interdependent decisionmaking. 

In addition to improving command and control, exercises and experimentation will aid in the measurement of how well efforts to build 

battle-wisdom are doing. Distribution of information and authority can 

produce observably better operational results—but only if those receiving the increased authority have the cognitive abilities to use it well. Put 

differently, if those at the warfighting edge (or network center) are not up 

to solving increasingly difficult battlefield problems, despite having more 

and better information, it may be better to leave control with the force 

and component commanders. However, through measured exercising and 

experimentation, work to improve warfighter cognition and distributed 

decisionmaking can be managed as an integrated undertaking.

The U.S. military must figure out how to achieve deep integration—pushing joint command and control downward—such as by having 

deployable joint command cells available to support tactical commanders 

in the prosecution of fluid cross-service operations. Joint headquarters 

could designate which tactical commander would have joint command 

for a given mission or task well below the component commander level. 

As this is done, the battle-wisdom of junior officers must and can be improved so that they can be entrusted to organize and lead joint operations 

at their level. 

Progress along these lines is critical to the goal of taking full advantage of the cognitive potential on any given network. As we have noted, 

local commanders should and can have an information advantage—over 

both their adversaries and their own superiors—by virtue of being able 

to pull whatever information they need from the network while also having unique, sensory-based, immediate knowledge. Unless they have the 

authority to make decisions, however, this will be for naught. Moreover, 

unless decisionmaking authority for integrated operations is pushed out 

to the warfighter, tactical decisions will be made by remote generals and 

staffs—the opposite of the objective of engaging more brainpower closer 

to the action, as well as getting better strategy from the generals.6

Of course, the further out and deeper authority is pushed in the context of joint operations, the harder it may be to know or resolve who is in 

charge and who is expected to support whom at any moment and for any 
158 GOMPERT, LACHOW, AND PERKINS

task. This presents all the more reason to intensify exercising and experimenting with teaming and horizontal decisionmaking—the concomitant 

of decentralization that has enabled much of the corporate world to improve productivity. 

 The smart-pull principle of information distribution must be 

relentlessly pursued.7

 In recent years, civilian IT has made great strides 

toward meeting this challenge. Before long, the command “search” should 

be tantamount to summoning whatever useful stored information exists 

anywhere that is meant to be accessible. Importing the latest methods into 

the military for both new networks and existing ones must be a priority. 

The growing commitment of DOD to network-centric enterprise services 

technology is an important step toward better accessibility, even in a heterogeneous network environment. Once again, smart pull is vastly more 

complicated for the warfighter than for the Internet user. While the latter’s 

information needs can be reasonably anticipated and met, the former’s information needs often will be shaped by ambiguous and dynamic circumstances that defy anticipation and even complete communication—for 

example: the scale, distance, closing speed, nature, and intent of an enemy 

force; the weather; tactical objectives; fatigue or other impairments; and 

operational tempo. Despite the immensity of the challenge, however, this 

is the right direction to take in military command and control and networking.

6. Foster cross-boundary team cognition and problem-solving.

Although our analysis emphasizes the capabilities of individual soldiers, soldiers rarely fight alone. It is equally important for groups of fighters, independent of service, to be able to form into battle-wise teams or 

units. Although the concept of self-forming teams that exercise collective 

intelligence to accomplish the task at hand may seem like a recipe for anarchy, the notion of self-synchronization lies at the very heart of networkcentric warfare. Thus, as DOD refines operating concepts for networked 

warfare, the services must concentrate on developing the protocols and 

habits of team-forming and decisionmaking. 

How can DOD best develop battle-wise teams? Once again, the key

lies in training and experimentation. We already have discussed some 

of the difficulties and limitations associated with creating truly realistic, 

large-scale joint exercises that allow Blue forces to face clever, networked 

Red ones. However, such exercises, done properly, are an excellent tool for 

improving cross-service, and even cross-national, collective decisionmak-
 BATTLE-WISE 159

ing. That said, in military operational contexts, collective intelligence is 

better aimed at solving specific microproblems rather than large-scale 

challenges. Cross-structural teams should be organized around the logic of 

the operational challenge at hand, be it an ambush, the sudden discovery 

of a terrorist cell, better-than-expected enemy air-defense capabilities, or 

the like.

In the context of larger service or joint force exercises, greater effort 

should be placed on fostering self-formation of teams to cope with particular problems. If problems must be solved by the command hierarchy 

taking tactical control, the integrative potential of networking and collective thinking will be lost. Once a team forms, the challenge is to reach rational conclusions exploiting all available information and, as important, 

the diverse perspectives of the members. The advantage of building and 

using team-based collective intelligence is that it augments the warfighters’ 

networked knowledge and immediate sensory awareness with the problem-solving potency of diverse perspectives. 

7. Launch research and analysis efforts to understand better the challenges 

and opportunities involved in developing a battle-wise force that can create 

and exploit time-information superiority. 

We make these recommendations fully mindful that they will not be 

embraced by busy policymakers and careful bureaucracies without further 

study. When it comes to such complex issues as recruiting, retention, PME, 

training, and distributed and horizontal decisionmaking, shifts in direction have to be carefully and critically examined before being blessed and 

implemented. For example, tailoring recruitment and retention goals and 

tools depends on calculations of complicated econometrics and shifting 

elasticities governing how people respond to monetary and other incentives. We hope that the proposed recommendations will trigger such research and analysis, and we realize—and agree—that policy change must 

await such work. 

Some questions especially deserving of further study follow: 

What are the prerequisites adversaries must meet to be able to exploit 

networking militarily, and how and when might they meet them?

As adversaries are able to exploit networking, what will be the effects 

on U.S. military operational performance?

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160 GOMPERT, LACHOW, AND PERKINS

What are the strategic and security implications of these operational 

effects?

Is it possible to develop a profile for potential recruits that identifies 

those who have battle-wise abilities?

How should recruiting standards and strategies be altered to target 

people with these aptitudes and abilities in sufficient numbers?

Should quantitative and qualitative retention goals change with the 

advent of networking, the decentralization of authority, the flattening of 

organizations, and the stress on people with key cognitive abilities? What 

mix of personnel policies can help the military meet those goals?

How can the PME system place more emphasis on developing and recognizing battle-wise abilities and the decisionmaking methods that utilize 

them to best effect?

How should training and exercising be sharpened to make intuition 

more reliable and reasoning more time-efficient in operational problemsolving?

How should command and control networks, structures, and procedures be designed and developed to improve the distribution of authority 

and the efficacy of horizontal decisionmaking?

Can and should the concept of the wisdom of crowds be applied to 

military decisionmaking? If so, how is it best developed, evaluated, and 

inculcated into the force?

How can the goal of and progress toward improved cognitive performance in networked operations be measured?

How well is the current U.S. military culture aligned with that goal, and 

how can the alignment be improved?

How can the effectiveness of new training and education programs and 

personnel policies be measured?

Conclusions 

Because the goal described in this book—exceptional minds making 

sound decisions in the heat of networked warfare—has strategic significance, we will conclude at that level. 

Every so often, the plane of military competition shifts. By the 

beginning of the 20th century, grand fleets and continental armies had 

become less important as industrialized military power moved to the fore. 

Germany, Great Britain, the United States, and Japan stood apart and 

competed fiercely—at times, violently—based on their ability to combine 

industrial productivity and military excellence. In the aftermath of World 

War II, nuclear and aerospace power eclipsed mechanical power. Only two 

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 BATTLE-WISE 161

superpowers could assemble the massive resources and expertise needed 

to compete in these realms. Toward the end of the Cold War, IT entered the 

military domain. One of the superpowers—the one that lacked consumer 

and capital markets—could not compete technologically or keep its empire intact geopolitically. With each shift, the field of competitors shrank 

as fewer and fewer could marshal the requisite economic and technological resources for military purposes. 

At the beginning of the 21st century, the networking of information 

and forces offers a potent combination of awareness, precision, speed, dispersion, and integration in military operations. With its excellence in IT, 

engineering, and advanced military systems, the United States is and will 

remain the leader. Unless and until an authentic peer challenger emerges, 

head-to-head warfare and tit-for-tat competition with the United States 

are not wise. Yet paradoxically, the scope for military competition has been 

reopened by this development. Information-network technologies tend 

to be inclusive, not exclusive. With widely available information services, 

readily accessible global network infrastructure, abundant bandwidth, and 

rapidly spreading technical know-how, growing numbers of states and 

nonstate groups will be able to use information networking to improve 

their operational awareness, precision, speed, dispersion, and integration. 

Although enemy forces will not be able to rival U.S. military network 

capabilities, this does not mean they cannot be shrewder and quicker than 

U.S. forces in exploiting information. Military history shows that new 

eras of competition are not prejudged by the outcomes of preceding eras. 

In a world of networked warfare and networked opponents, the risks associated with U.S. military action could increase, the certainty of decisive 

success could decline, and the willingness of the United States to be the 

principal provider of international security could be thrown into doubt. 

Operationally, the loss of networking monopoly will translate into 

increased visibility and vulnerability of U.S. forces. However invulnerable 

and invincible those forces may have seemed in the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, their subsequent struggles in Iraq may preview things to 

come. As the transformation of U.S. forces proceeds, an aim of paramount 

importance must be the attainment of time-information superiority. Networking is necessary but not sufficient to attain such superiority, especially 

as opposing forces start linking sensors and shooters with precision weapons and dispersing their forces. Convergent vulnerability requires thinking 

and decisionmaking that compounds the complexity faced by the adversary and compresses the time the adversary has to understand, reason, and 
162 GOMPERT, LACHOW, AND PERKINS

react. Surprise, suddenness, and reaction speed become as important as 

firepower and bandwidth to lethality and survivability.

Whether the concern is with al Qaeda in the near term, China in the 

long term, or some other wily and determined adversary along the way, it 

is imperative that the United States sharpen the cognitive abilities and decisionmaking methods of its military personnel—battle-wise individuals 

and teams alike. The U.S. military needs to increase the number of minds 

in its ranks that have the ability to make decisions under the pressures of 

war in the increasing complexities of a networked environment. With its 

exceptional people, proven personnel systems, and excellent military education institutions, the United States has all the basic ingredients it needs 

to develop superlative battle-wise forces.

Networked adversaries also will surely grasp the pivotal importance 

of time-information and the cognitive skills needed to enhance it at the 

expense of U.S. forces and interests. Al Qaeda is already behaving as if it 

understands this well, even if in terms that might not resonate with us. 

Thus, just as cognition could become the key factor in networked warfare, 

so will it become the new plane of strategic competition, whether with 

global terrorists or rising powers. 

Do America and Americans have inherent advantages in such competition—other than wealth, which does not guarantee better cognition 

and decisionmaking? RAND researchers contemplating this question 

opined: “In such a contest, volunteer military personnel drawn from an 

open, educated society like that of the United States would appear to have 

the advantage over a stove-piped military embedded in an authoritarian 

state, but the blinding pace of social, cultural, and technological change in 

China strongly suggests that this conclusion will not always remain true.”8

We may think of the Chinese, with their tangle of Mandarin and Maoist 

roots, as not being able to produce and motivate risk-taking, responsibility-taking, battle-wise people the way Americans can. Yet China eventually 

could become a sufficiently open and educated society that competition 

with the United States on the cognitive plane would not be lopsided at all. 

Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups with strategic ambitions may 

pose greater dangers than China. The philosophies of such people are, 

of course, the opposite of those we associate with human enlightenment, 

rationality, and responsibility. But this does not mean they are incapable 

of good intuition, effective reasoning, anticipation, opportunism, reaction speed, and learning-in-action. All indications are that al Qaeda has 

and values people with precisely these abilities, which apparently can 

coexist with fanatical religious beliefs. Indeed, fanaticism undoubtedly 
 BATTLE-WISE 163

helps in recruitment. In sum, battle-wisdom may be no more confined to 

the democratic “enlightened” West than IT has proved to be.

Ultimately, a democratic society should have an edge in the capability to find large numbers of volunteers with the education, creativity, objectivity, and willingness to learn and lead essential to battle-wisdom—but 

only if it sees the need and makes the effort. This book has presented a case 

that gaining and holding cognitive superiority is of strategic importance—

indeed, the stuff of grand strategy—in the coming age of networked 

warfare. By the same token, the effort to achieve that superiority should 

be strategic—with the senior attention, coherence, and call on resources 

implied by the term. 

In time—and it may be soon, if the spread of Internet use is any 

indication—many states and nonstate groups will come to embrace not 

only networking principles, such as smart pull and distributed decisionmaking, but also the emphasis on improved cognition that flows from 

those principles. Will this represent some ultimate plane of warfare and 

strategic competition—the end of an inexorable escalation from fists to 

clubs to spears to arrows to guns to tanks to missiles to information networking to minds? Other than going back to invest ever more on the lower 

planes, with questionable returns on investment, the future of conflict and 

defense, and hence of war and peace, is likely to be based increasingly on 

the human brain.

As networking creates the opportunity to gain operational and strategic advantage with the human mind, American security interests and 

responsibilities argue for taking that opportunity. Yet this raises some 

philosophical questions: Does improving the ability of the brain to wage 

war constitute human progress? Do we want our smartest people to be 

warfighters? Is it good or bad for global security that warfare becomes 

more intelligent? This study has side-stepped such questions. But it seems 

reasonable that the better the judgment of the soldiers of the forces that 

stand for peace and security in the world—by which we mean those of the 

United States and its democratic allies—the less likely aggression will succeed, the more judicious military decisions will be, and the less destructive, 

indiscriminate, and, perhaps, frequent warfare will be. On balance, as the 

quality of thinking takes on greater importance in strategy and warfare, 

the societies that favor and foster reason, objectivity, and individual genius 

should have an advantage—if only they seize it.
164 GOMPERT, LACHOW, AND PERKINS

Notes1

 Malcolm Gladwell, “Personality Plus,” The New Yorker, September 20, 2004, 42–48. 2 James R. Hosek, “The Soldier of the 21st Century,” in New Challenges, New Tools for Defense 

Decisionmaking, ed. Stuart E. Johnson, Martin C. Libicki, and Gregory F. Treverton (Santa Monica, 

CA: RAND, 2003), 196. 3

 James R. Hosek et al., Attracting the Best: How the Military Competes for Information Technology Personnel (Santa Monica, CA: RAND, 2003). 4

 James Kitfield, “Army Chief Struggles to Transform Service during War,” Government Executive, October 29, 2004, 18. 5

 This is not to say that doctrine and theory are not important—they are. The issue is whether 

they take precedence over “out of the box” thinking that is required to deal with today’s complex and 

ever-changing environment. 6

 One potential consequence of pushing decisionmaking down the ranks is that the military’s 

overall structure may flatten a bit; fewer people will be required at the top while more people will be 

required at the bottom or edge. As a result, service retention strategies may begin to place even greater 

emphasis on quality over quantity at the higher ranks, for example O–5 and above. 7

 David S. Alberts and Richard E. Hayes, Power to the Edge: Command and Control in the Information Age (Vienna, VA: CCRP, 2003) 8

James C. Milevenon et al., Chinese Response to Military Transformation and Implications for the 

Department of Defense (Santa Monica, CA: RAND, 2006), xvii.
AFTERWORD 165

Afterword

Linton Wells II

The information revolution is transforming our societies and our

way of life. DOD leverages these critical developments to build its 

own networks, empower its people, and improve the effectiveness

of its operations and business practices. However, in the course of a recent 

senior-level defense review, an analyst asked an important question: “Are 

network-centric operations evolutionary or transformational?”

In one sense, network-enabled capabilities are evolutionary in that 

they draw heavily on commercial technology developments. But technology alone is not enough. To realize the revolutionary potential of 

the network, several factors need to evolve together. These include doctrine, organization, training, material, leadership, personnel, and facilities. 

When these changes are synchronized, truly dramatic, transformational 

leaps are possible.

Much has been written about the material and technological aspects 

of network-centric operations and warfare: how much information can 

be delivered, how much data can be stored, how much bandwidth is available. But it is not by accident that most of the critical changes mentioned 

above deal with people—how they are trained and organized, how they are 

recruited and led, what kinds of doctrine they follow. This is precisely the 

focus of Battle-Wise. As the authors point out, in future network-versusnetwork engagements, “the operational edge will lie with the side that uses 

brainpower to make better sense and use of the information.” 

In developing this thesis, they focus on the cognitive domain, which 

is precisely where path-breaking research is most needed. A few years ago 

I had the chance to see a Marine Corps Amphibious Assault Vehicle that 

had been modified into an advanced command and control platform. The 

vehicle’s 4 radios had grown to 12, including some satellite systems, and 

the troop compartment was filled with computer displays covered with 

glowing icons. As I looked at this, I thought,“If I had this vehicle, I’d command differently than I would if I had a conventional one with just four 

radios and no computers.” Shortly after, I met a friend who was a Marine 

general and explained what I had seen. He replied,“Lin, this terrifies me, 

165
166 BATTLE-WISE

since it gives senior officers the power to destroy the greatest advantage of 

our armed forces, which is the initiative of our junior officers and senior 

enlisted personnel. Now commanders can meddle all the way down to the 

lowest tactical level.”

The response surprised me, since I had thought what I had seen 

was a significant step forward. But, on reflection, I realized that the Navy 

had gone through a similar experience years earlier, when it introduced a 

wide area data link that could share tactical dispositions across entire theaters. It was not long before fleet commanders began calling battlegroup 

commanders thousands of miles at sea to suggest adjustments in tactical 

dispositions. Not only was this resented afloat, but it also was not the best 

way to fight. Eventually reason prevailed, and commanders began using 

the same kind of “control by negation” that had been adopted for tactical 

situations in the “composite warfare commander” concept.1 The point is 

that through a mix of doctrine, discipline, and training the Navy was able 

to strike the right balance between operational needs and technological 

possibilities. This will be possible in other warfare domains also, such as 

land, air, space, and cyber.

One of the strengths of Battle-Wise is its focus on the interaction 

between leadership and technology. This, too, often is neglected in writings on modern systems, but it is absolutely essential to understanding the 

network-centric world.

The book makes the point that “the best indicator by far of how

people will handle intense cognitive pressure is how they have handled it 

in the past.” The importance of realistic training in combat environments 

has been shown over and over again, from boot camp to Top Gun. Now 

we must teach our commanders to “Fight the Net” like a weapon system, 

and not just treat it as an administrative adjunct to modernized business 

practices or operational procedures. At the same time, we must move 

beyond static concepts of protecting our networks by perimeter defenses 

to “mission assurance”—being able to accept damage and fight through it 

to complete the mission, irrespective of the kind of attack the network is 

under. This is not primarily a technological problem. Most of the vulnerabilities in network defense stem from mistakes made by people. It is the 

responsibility of the commander to see that his or her command is battlewise in both the physical and cognitive dimensions of network warfare.

The principle of network-centric operations is straightforward: the 

availability of the network lets information be distributed so that participants can establish and share situational awareness. In concert with com-
AFTERWORD 167

mand intent, this shared awareness allows units to self-synchronize their 

actions rather than wait for orders from each echelon of a hierarchical 

command structure. We are moving away from the traditional “push” of 

information by those who have “owned” it in the past and are giving users 

the ability to “pull” the information they need from the network. 

These changes will require innovative thinking at every level of an 

organization. People who have “owned” information must be willing to 

share it, even as network designers must provide enough security to let this 

sharing happen responsibly. Moreover, the network itself must be built to 

be “battle-wise” in the sense that it must meet the needs of the full range 

of operational users from senior commanders on stable, high capacity 

networks to junior personnel in bandwidth-constrained, dynamic tactical situations. Many kinds of information need to be brought together, 

especially operational and intelligence data.2 Forces in contact must know 

enough to define the operational pictures they need, to instruct their “discovery services” how to pull the information they need from the net, and 

to act on it effectively. Senior commanders must be willing to accept that 

they will have less direct control over subordinates’ activities. One may 

even ask if “command and control” should be redefined in the networkcentric environment. 

A key advantage conveyed by network-enabled capabilities is agility. The existence of a network in 2002 allowed Special Forces units on 

horseback in Afghanistan, with radios and GPS receivers, to call in precision-guided munitions carried by B–52s for close air support. Virtually 

no system in those engagements was used in the way it had been designed. 

The future is likely to be similarly uncertain. It is worth remembering that 

many of today’s Army units were designed for armored warfare against 

the Soviet Union in Europe, the Air Force was shaped for air superiority 

over the inter-German border, and much of the Navy was built to keep 

open North Atlantic sea lines. Yet they have adapted, and will continue to 

adapt, helped by the flexibility brought by the net and by the battle-wise 

operators and designers who can improvise on short notice as changing 

circumstances dictate. 

The importance of adaptability is reinforced by the length of the 

DOD planning and acquisition cycle. The Department plans, programs, 

and budgets over a 6-year time horizon (the Future Years Defense Program, or FYDP). The Defense Program Projection extends another 10 

years beyond the FYDP. It is worth noting that these 16 years are longer 

than from the time of the Wright Brothers’ first flight to the end of World 
168 BATTLE-WISE

War I. In a period where commercial product cycles are measured in 

months, and the global political environment also changes rapidly, individual defense programs typically take more than a decade to develop and 

acquire, and may be in the inventory for decades more. Both our warfighting and our business practices, and the people who implement them, need 

to be nimble enough both to keep pace with the competition and to take 

advantage of emergent opportunities. Networks encourage such adaptability, which is one reason why “net-ready” is the only key performance 

parameter mandated for any new DOD capability. But network-centric 

concepts cannot simply be repeats of those used to defeat the Taliban or 

the Iraqi army. Battle-wise thinking will have to address the challenges of 

asymmetric conflict in urban canyons as much as conventional war in the 

open desert or precision strikes against Tora Bora.

Taking full advantage of these networked capabilities may require 

quite different skills from those we see today in the U.S. military. Not only 

should we encourage the use of new tools like blogs, wikis, and collaborative spaces to flatten hierarchies and speed decisionmaking, but massive 

multiplayer online games also are converging with future command and 

control systems. Our young people are well suited to operate in these environments. But, as this book notes, adversaries and potential adversaries 

also are enlisting people with network-centric skills, and the global pool of 

technologically literate individuals from which they can draw is growing.

The authors have described several innovative ways to attract, train, 

and retain the kind of information-age workforce that we will need to 

prosper in this new era. This kind of long-term thinking needs to be 

folded into the DOD planning process, even as we also adapt our operational approaches and business practices to move from the industrial age 

to the information age. Congress recently authorized the National Security Personnel System, which offers exceptional flexibility for managing 

the civilian workforce, although DOD managers are only beginning to 

understand its implications. Many battle-wise ideas may be adaptable to 

this environment.

In sum, Battle-Wise is a timely and valuable book. It addresses serious problems that our security forces will face and provides reasonable 

and often provocative recommendations on how to solve them.

Notes1 When battle speeds became too fast for a single flag officer to control an engagement, command was decentralized to an “anti-air warfare commander,” “anti-submarine warfare commander,” 

“strike warfare commander,” etc. The governing principle was “control by negation,” wherein the 
AFTERWORD 169

overall commander stood back and let the engagement be conducted by his subordinates unless he 

chose to weigh in. 2 In fact, DOD is in a unique position to provide leadership in the area of information fusion 

because it deals not just with intelligence stovepipes, operational data, and business flows, but with 

many different kinds of information. But this also requires specially trained people to articulate and 

execute the mission.
170 BATTLE-WISE
GLOSSARY 171

Glossary of Key Concepts

Battle-wisdom is the effective melding of reliable intuition and efficient reasoning to gain time-information superiority in complex, intense, 

and possibly confusing networked warfare. Battle-wisdom demands selfawareness, the abilities to anticipate, decide quickly, seize opportunities, 

and adapt in action, and the willingness to lead and learn. In practice, it 

also depends on implementation of the smart-pull principle of information management and delegation of authority. Battle-wisdom may be 

employed to increase the exposure time of enemy forces and reduce that 

of one’s own forces—a key factor in tipping the balance of vulnerability 

to one’s advantage. 

Cognition is the mental process of knowing, including aspects such as 

awareness, perception, reasoning, and judgment. 

Collective intelligence is a phenomenon in which the errors of individuals 

tend to cancel out one another as numbers increase, leaving the average 

to be that much better. Collective intelligence only works if there is ample 

diversity and independence of views among the participants, so that the 

full range of experiences, perspectives, and information of the many are 

in play, resulting in a better answer than if the solution is based on the 

experience, perspectives, and information of only a few, even if they are of 

above-average intelligence.

Convergent vulnerability is a condition in which the ability of each of two 

opposing forces to operate safely is offset by the ability of the other to find 

and destroy it. The stronger, better networked force would, of course, be 

less vulnerable than and better able to find and destroy the inferior one. 

But that superior force would be more vulnerable and less effective than if 

it were opposed by a non-networked force, all else being equal.

Intuition is the power to attain direct knowledge or cognition without 

evident rational thought and inference. Intuition enables unconscious 

problem-solving, which may seem simple—like having a hunch or “gut 

feel”—but in fact involves complex brain activity. Although intuition is 

171
172 GOMPERT, LACHOW, AND PERKINS

more than learning from repetitive experience, it does appear to function 

more effectively in dealing with familiar rather than strange circumstances. 

Research shows that decisions in combat, as in other intense and urgent 

circumstances, are made mainly using intuition by drawing on experience 

and going with familiar solutions, rather than analyzing and comparing 

the costs and benefits of multiple options. 

Reasoning is the power of comprehending, inferring, or thinking, especially in orderly, rational ways.

Self-awareness is the knowledge of the origins, assumptions, biases, and 

limits of one’s mental models and experiences.

Time-information is the product of time and information. In decisionmaking, time can be made more valuable if it is used to gather, evaluate, 

and exploit information. In turn, the ready availability of credible and 

useful information can permit better use of time, compensate for a lack 

of it, and, in effect, make it last longer. The quality of a decision improves 

as a function of both time and information. The enhancement of timeinformation, thanks to networked information, should improve the quality of urgent decisions. 
ABOUT THE AUTHORS 173

About the Authors

David C. Gompert co-authored this book while a Distinguished Research 

Professor in the Center for Technology and National Security Policy at the 

National Defense University (NDU). Previously, he was the Senior Advisor for National Security and Defense at the Coalition Provisional Authority, Iraq. Mr. Gompert has held senior policy and executive positions at the 

State Department, the National Security Council, the RAND Corporation, 

and in the information technology industry. He has published extensively 

on international affairs, national security policy, and technology. His books 

include Right Makes Might: Freedom and Power in the Information Age and 

Mind the Gap: A Transatlantic Revolution in Military Affairs. Mr. Gompert 

holds a Master of Public Affairs degree from the Woodrow Wilson School, 

Princeton University, and a Bachelor of Science degree in engineering 

from the U.S. Naval Academy. 

Irving Lachow is a Senior Research Professor in the Information Resources 

Management College at the National Defense University. Dr. Lachow has 

extensive experience in both information technology and national security. He has worked for Booz Allen Hamilton, the RAND Corporation, and 

the Office of Deputy Under Secretary of Defense (Advanced Systems and 

Concepts). Dr. Lachow received his PhD in Engineering and Public Policy 

from Carnegie Mellon University. He earned a Bachelor of Arts in Political 

Science and a Bachelor of Science in Physics from Stanford University.

Justin Perkins is a research associate in the Center for Technology 

and National Security Policy. Previously, he served as chief operating officer for World Blu, Inc., a consulting firm pioneering the field 

of organizational democracy, and as co-founder and director of Afrique Profonde, a human rights organization in Congo. He also has 

been involved with several small businesses and served for several 

years as a water resources administrator for the State of Colorado. 

Mr. Perkins holds a Masters of Business Administration from the

University of Colorado and a Bachelor of Arts in history and world perspectives from Principia College.

173
174 GOMPERT, LACHOW, AND PERKINS

Rear Admiral Raymond C. Smith, USN (Ret.), is a former Deputy Commander for the U.S. Special Operations Command and former Commander of the Naval Special Warfare Command. 

Linton Wells II is Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense (Networks and Information Integration) and the Acting Deputy Assistant 

Secretary of Defense for Spectrum and Support.

: 2006–870/00019
The unstoppable spread of information networking and knowhow gives rise to the need for a new edge—one that utilizes 

but transcends networks—by developing people, teams, and 

decisionmaking methods that convert information into better 

choices and outcomes. We call this new edge “battle-wisdom.”

ndupress.ndu.edu

9 781579 060725

9 0 0 0 0

ISBN 1-57906-072-2