Seminar 2020 Read-Ahead | Carlina Grispen-Gelens – Cohesion through convergence?

This paper aims to enhance the reader’s understanding of contemporary discussions related to the Multi-Domain Operations (MDO) warfighting concept and multidomain operations in general. First, it provides a brief overview of U.S. Army and Air Force developments prior to this concept, followed by a brief elaboration of the MDO warfighting concept itself, complemented with Gen. Perkins’ intellectual foundation that undergirds this contemporary concept. Third and finally, some of the most prominent challenges in relation to the MDO concept are addressed, one of which is Command and Control (C2).

While it is acknowledged that the MDO warfighting concept of Pamphlet 525-3-1 endeavors a profoundly military problem and proposes a military solution from an Army perception, the author believes that it is imperative to address this concept in order to improve and clarify contemporary discussion on multi-domain operations, and accordingly to distinguish between the MDO warfighting concept on the one hand and the use of ‘multi-domain’ as an adjective to operations on the other hand.