Locating the Human in Doctrine

Abstract

In 2013, top U.S. Army, Marine Corps, and Special Operations Command military leaders chartered the Strategic Landpower Task Force to examine the concept of a human domain and inform whether to adopt it into doctrine. The Department of Defense (DoD) should not adopt human domain into doctrine. However, examining human in war illuminates opportunities to improve joint doctrine by developing precise terminology for the many facets of humanness in war. This article explores human domain, human dimension, human factors, and human capital. It also proposes re-evaluating defeat mechanisms to consider human factors and how military operations influence adversary decisions. Human domain concepts have gained attention in the land services and special operations, especially in population-centric conflicts, but the importance of human factors goes beyond these limited viewpoints. Since war is an inherently human endeavor, DoD should evaluate human factors across all domains and joint operations so the concepts are not unnecessarily constrained.