Discriminate Force -- Helping to Visualize It

Discriminate Force -- Helping to Visualize It
PROJECT DESCRIPTION

Background
We have cooperated closely with the Discriminate Force Project of the Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC), Stanford University. Some of the individual visual Communication Units (CUs) were made specifically for presentations in that project.

(For more information on the Discriminate Force project, see Levite, Ariel and Elizabeth Sherwood Randall. The Case for Discriminate Force. Survival. Vol. 44, No. 4, Winter 2002-03.)

Our part of the project was to use visual analysis tools to develop new ways of analyzing and portraying aspects of the new situations that Western forces find themselves in.

Table of Contents
1. Context of discriminate force. This diagram shows the (a) New situations, (b) New threats, and (c) New missions faced by military forces of Western nations , many of which they are not fully prepared for. (PDF)
2. Classical war. This diagram portrays a typical ground encounter in a rural setting with massed forces which is the typical situation in which Western military forces are prepared to fight. It also shows a schematic of the kinds of maps needed. (PDF)
3. The emerging world of discriminate force. This diagram shows a new kind of world and the different layers in which the battles are fought: (a) the battle on the ground, usually an urban setting, (b) the new "fog of war" created by the world media such as CNN and al Jazeera. (PDF)
4. Avoidances in the new military situation. (PDF)
5. Cartoon. Discriminate Force. This illustration shows the difficulties of the individual soldier in avoiding new participants in use-of-force situations. (Click here to view image.)

Collaborating project-Visualizing the Struggle of Narratives
Closely connected in topic and timing was our project that used visual analysis tools to help understand and portray the clash of worldviews that has been emerging between Western nations and Islamic militants. Here is a brief list of the visual analysis topics in the "Struggle of Narratives" project: (Click here for the home page of this project)
1. Globalization
2. Clash of Narratives and Worldviews
3. Western-Islamic Worldview conflicts
4. Struggle of Narratives
5. The New Fog of War - A Battle of Messages
6. The creation of modern jihad ideology
7. Models for Conflict and - Psychological / Sociological attacks from non-state sources
8. Dilemma of constitutional democracies defending against disguised attacks from non-state sources
9. Dilemma of lethal and non-lethal force
10. Needed-New Maps for a New War of Narratives

Wicked Problems
Our view is that complex public policy issues constitute what Horst Rittel has called "wicked problems." We call them ill-structured problems and more informally "social messes."

Wicked problems are situations that have these properties:

complicated, complex, and ambiguous
uncertainty even as to what the problems are, let alone what the solutions might be
great constraints
tightly interconnected, economically, socially, politically, technologically
seen differently from different points of view, and quite different worldviews
contain many value conflicts
are often a-logical or illogical

(Click here for more on social messes A talk on Knowledge Mapping for Social Messes given to a Packard Foundation conference.)

Visual language-information design aspects
A major assumption of our project is that visual analysis can provide new avenues of thought, indeed, new ways of thinking about complex issues. At the same time we also focus on improving our ability to communicate difficult and complicated subject matters.

A major portion of our projects are focused on creating new templates to enable humans to learn complex subject matter or adapting previously developed templates to new subject matters. These information graphics enable people to think "bigger thoughts." At the same time, our projects are focused on solving real world problems, in this case attempting to understand more deeply how we are to think about the struggle of narratives that has become a major context for international relations and security of many nations.

Project history.
This project began after the September 11, 2001 attack on the World Trade Center.

Project support
Unsupported research.

Status
Drafts. V.1

Possiblities and plans
Our project will work on these extensions as time permits.

Acknowledgements. For significant portions of this project we worked closely with Dr. Eli Levite, who was one of the leaders of the Discriminate Force Project at CISAC. His contribution to our project is gratefully acknowledged.

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