Multi-Domain Operations in a Brittle, Anxious, Nonlinear and Incomprehensible World

The current era, characterized by brittleness, anxiety, nonlinearity and incomprehensibility (BANI), represents an environment in which the military operations must be planned, conducted and adapted in a comprehensive approach using all resources from all the domains that can be employed in order to achieve the desired end state. To become or remain relevant, the military organizations must achieve the state in which they are capable of mobilizing the proper resources from all domains and utilizing them wisely in order to create converging effects at a speed of relevance. The Multi Domain Operations (MDO) military concept is developed for neutralizing peer or near peer adversaries, having as its core idea the integration of armed forces from all five domains (land, air, maritime, space and cyberspace) that generates a relative superiority which creates deterrence leading to strategic achievements without using just conventional military operations. It represents a pragmatic manifestation of the holistic approach: the whole is more than the sum of its own parts. A successful implementation of MDO enables the military instrument of power to plan, prepare, orchestrate, and execute actions that are synchronized, and activities in close collaboration with other instruments of power, relevant actors and stakeholders across all domains and environments at a scale and speed that will outpace the adversary. A successful approach will deliver tailored options in the right time and at the right place, building a relevant advantage in shaping, and fighting, and creating new dilemmas that can influence in a decisively way the attitudes and behaviors of the adversaries and relevant audiences.