ABSTRACT
The Combat Estimate has served the military well over the past 60 years in planning missions, but need to update the supporting tools in light of the changing operational landscape has been identified (Forster, 2010; DCDC, 2008). The aim of this research was identify applicable tools to map onto the existing Combat Estimate, in order to improve the performance of tactical planners where non-kinetic effects were required. This paper will outline the identification of prominent and transferable tools, and metrics, which can be used to develop, and organise, Influence activities in military operations. Through the exploration of the planning processes within the political and marketing domains (e.g., Zetter, 2007), a deficit was recognised within the current military planning process. The process models from both the marketing and political domains involved an additional phase of identifying one’s own strengths. This is an important area as it enables the choice of strategy to be contingent upon one’s inherent strengths and capabilities. The identification of overlapping processes within the political, marketing and military domain allowed for the recognition of appropriate tools utilised within politics and marketing at each of these phases.
