Let’s Talk About Contested Domains

Hillson says: By necessity and doctrine, the projection of “soft power” is becoming increasingly important to the U.S. Department of Defense. The elements of soft power are often abstracted as Diplomatic, Information, Military, and Economic (DIME) actions and

their Political, Military, Economic, Social, Information, and Infrastructure

(PMESII) effects.

Then during the Air Force Association speeches, the Air Force leadership introduced via excellent and simple explanation of what a domain is by using a classic historical reference, 1 if by land, 2 if by sea. Leadership went on to explain that in addition to the standard air, land and sea contested domains in which war has always been fought, we must add cyber and space.

The Deputy Sectary of Defense explained it well and portions of his speech were presented on traditional media outlets:

Let’s start to unpack this a bit. First, there’s nothing “soft power” about either a trade war or actions required when the U.S. department of defense is called into action. I’m a bit surprised by the NRL depiction of soft power. My concept of soft power is manga and anime in Japan and Hollywood for the U.S. DIME and air, land, sea, cyber and space are hard power issues, in my opinion.

Let’s take a closer look at DIME. Diplomacy, Information and Economy are all deeply contested areas. Of course, military is a deeply contested domain, but it covers the previously mentioned air, land, sea, space and cyber. My problem is with economy, diplomacy and information. Not only do I think we fight in these areas, I think we would be well served to develop strategy with a recognition that all of these areas are contested.

Additionally, the world according to Mao per On China by Kissinger indicated that two other areas of critical importance to strength were domestic and global public opinion.

Then, I haven’t yet seen where authors pair critical elements. Military and Economic, for example, are deeply interdependent. A large and powerful military requires a robust coffer to create and maintain.

Moreover, information as a contested space, is deeply related to public opinion, both foreign and domestic.

I’d like to see a new, more comprehensive domain evaluation that looks more like the 8 ways of Buddhism. I think the 8 domains we need to embrace and recognize as contested are air, land, sea, space, cyber, information, economy and public opinion. We need to seriously reexamine our view of domains.