Transition to and From Hostilities

The Defense Science Board report, "Transition to and from Hostilities", published in December 2004, was the foundation for the new DoD Instruction 3000 that elevates Operations Other Than War (OOTW) to co-equal status with combat operations.

The report has two highlights of great significance to the public:

1. It acknowledges that the Department of Defense cannot transition into war, nor transition out of war, without the coordinated, broad, sustained, and in-depth support not only of the civilian agencies (a term now in vogue is Whole of Government, but also of the United Nations and all other Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO). This first point frames the primary obstacle to coordinated operations, the here-to-fore impossiblity of sharing secret information, and communicating over incompatible networks, most of ours being secret unilateral networks, most of all the others being civilian not secret networks.

2. The conclusion of the report focused on the value of Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) is addressing this need. Written largely by Dr. Joseph Markowitz, the second and final director of the Community Open Source Program Office (COSPO), it stresses the need to share information, to achieve early warning among all stakeholders, not just US national security enterprises, and to create multinational decision support helpful to all stakeholders, not just combat commanders.

External Reference

[http://rds.yahoo.com/_ylt=A0geu44eqZhILaoALc1XNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTEzbzhvYWcxBHNlYwNzcgRwb3MDMQRjb2xvA2FjMgR2dGlkA1FTU0hfMTI4/SIG=12mtaauq0/EXP=1218050718/**http%3a//www.acq.osd.mil/dsb/reports/2004-12-DSB_SS_Report_Final.pdf Defense Science Board Report, "Transition to and From Hostilities" (December 2004)]