Placing Informational Effect at the Centre of Command
by Commander Steve Tatham
Tactical Strategic Communication! (Full PDF Article)
In October 2006, Brigadier Andrew Mackay was appointed to lead 52 Brigade, British Army, to Helmand Province, Afghanistan. Mackay, with much stabilisation experience from previous conflicts had used his pre-deployment time to read and to research not just the country but also some of the many ideas of how counter-insurgency (COIN) operations may be conducted. At the forefront of his mind was the work of former French Army Officer, David Galula, who in his book 'Counterinsurgency Warfare' had looked at the need to build consent amongst organic populations to deny insurgencies support; his work was a direct result of his own military service in Algeria. For Galula, and for Mackay, 'the population was the prize' and in Afghanistan that prize might be for the taking, but in Mackay's view only if influence was embedded at its core.
