By Steve Hammons 

Two new documents by and about the U.S. Army are sparking discussion and debate about various elements of the Army’s missions and future directions.

Both documents, a field manual and a research study report, expand perspectives about achieving short-term and long-term success in various kinds of missions.

Taken together, along with other comprehensive considerations, these views might be considered part of an “outside-the-box” and valuable concept sometimes referred to as “transcendent warfare.”

The new Stability Operations Field Manual, to be released today according to an Oct. 5 Washington Post article, emphasizes the role of “stability operations” in countries and regions that include fragile states and failed states.

The article quoted Lt. Gen. William B. Caldwell IV as saying, “This is the document that bridges from conflict to peace.” Caldwell is commander of the U.S. Army Combined Arms Center at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. The manual was created with the past year at the center.

Another new document is a report by the Rand Corporation based on a study they conducted for the Army Environmental Policy Institute (AEPI). The report is titled “Green Warriors: Army Environmental Considerations for Contingency Operations from Planning Through Post-Conflict.”

The report notes that issues such as clean water, sewage and sanitation, proper handling of hazardous waste and similar challenges can affect mission success in establishing stability and support for U.S. missions by local residents, according to an Oct. 3 report in Newsweek.

How do the Stability Operations Field Manual, the Green Warriors research report and other approaches contribute to thinking and perceptions about transcendent warfare and future success for U.S. missions and activities?

HARD POWER, SOFT POWER, TRANSCENDENT POWER

When a U.S. Navy SEAL officer coined the term “transcendent warfare” several years ago, he was referring to the development of perspectives that include various advances in knowledge about psychology, sociology, physics, intelligence-gathering and other important elements.

The officer’s graduate-level research paper was titled, “Unconventional Human Intelligence Support: Transcendent and Asymmetric Warfare Implications of Remote Viewing.”

The 2001 report by then-Commander L.R. “Rick” Bremseth was part of his studies at the Marine Corps War College, Marine Corps University, Marine Corps Combat Development Command, Quantico, Virginia.

During and after extensive research and interviews, Bremseth noted that emerging developments and perspectives could be very helpful in various kinds of U.S. military and intelligence operations.

Do some of his research findings correlate with ideas such as those expressed in communications platforms such as the Stability Operations Field Manual and Rand’s Green Warriors study?

The answer is probably yes. Thorough, effective planning and implementation of those plans that take into account a wide scope of factors involved in U.S. military and intelligence activities can contribute to success.

While some comprehensive thinking may seem “outside the box,” some of it might be perceived as logical and common sense.

The Stability Operations Field Manual proposes that nations and regions that are havens for terrorism, criminal activities and religious extremism may pose a greater threat to the U.S. than the threat of major conventional battlefield wars.

The Green Warriors report noted that developing and sustaining the support from indigenous populations, such as in Iraq and Afghanistan, can be impacted by how well or poorly local circumstances involving clean water, sanitation and similar issues are handled.

The concepts in the field manual and the Rand report are not new.

The importance and value of comprehensive approaches in “winning hearts and minds” has long been recognized. Perhaps the value of these documents is to remind us that U.S. objectives can be achieved with “soft power” as well as the bombs and bullets of “hard power.”

The ideas of transcendent warfare simply add to the tools and options that are associated with both soft power and hard power.

NEW FORM OF WARFARE

Using Iraq and Afghanistan as examples, it is widely recognized that improving jobs and economic opportunity, getting business and agriculture up and running, providing basic services such as roads and electricity, opening schools and medical facilities, supporting the local communications media and similar activities all work hand-in-hand with hard-power military activities.

Making friends for America can be more helpful than making enemies.

Competence in the use of hard power, “killing people and blowing things up” as some like to say, is a given for military activities, whether we are talking about armies, navies or air forces. But, as we know, sometimes the battle is won but the war is lost.

What is sometimes a more challenging mission is to create peace, stability and long-term friends.

This assumes, of course, that the goal is actually to create stability and peace. When it is claimed or believed that military actions are undertaken for purposes of war-profiteering, to access natural resources such as oil or to intrude upon or dominate a specific region, then the moral authority of a military action will be questioned and possibly resisted.

It is possible that in some cases, conflict and war could be more desirable by some than peace and stability, at least by war-profiteers and those who have less-than-honorable motives.

Here again, perhaps transcendent warfare concepts can be of assistance. This is because some aspects of transcendent warfare look at human consciousness and human psychology in ways that can be helpful in a higher, deeper and more inclusive scope of understanding.

This can be helpful in dealing with other societies. And, it can be helpful in the understanding and advancement of our own nation.

In his Marine Corps War College report, Navy SEAL Bremseth noted that, “The real challenge for the United States is not asymmetric warfare, but rather what this writer calls transcendent warfare, the ability to conceptualize and subsequently actualize an entirely new form of warfare that transcends all previously known models.”

He also stated that it would be useful to, “Explore a myriad of phenomena having potential military applications with the goal of developing transcendent and asymmetrical warfare approaches.”

Using perspectives and methods that take into consideration the implementation of stabilization activities, peace operations, constructive psychological operations (PSYOP), information operations, open-source intelligence (OSINT), unconventional approaches, transcendent warfare concepts and other tactics and strategies might be very helpful now and in the future.

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By Steve Hammons

The term “transcendent warfare” was used by a U.S. Navy SEAL officer several years ago to describe the use of leading-edge knowledge and methods that could be helpful in achieving many important objectives.

The SEAL officer, L.R. Bremseth, indicated in a graduate-level research paper for the Marine Corps War College that transcendent warfare includes not only the deployment of certain methods, but also the understanding of underlying concepts.

He noted a significant range of opportunities for the utilization of leading-edge transcendent activities in U.S. national defense efforts.

People sometimes ask, “Is transcendent warfare a way to conduct war more successfully, or is it a way to transcend actual warfare and accomplish objectives in other ways?”

Transcendent warfare may be both … and more.

Transcendent concepts may help average people around the world understand ways to improve their lives and develop constructive solutions to the challenges they may face. In other words, transcendent understanding may enhance human development and change human consciousness.

NATIONAL SECURITY ACTIVITIES

In his paper, Bremseth summarized activities related to facilitating robust psychological and perceptual functioning of U.S. military and intelligence personnel.

He noted that research into human behavior and thinking processes is ever-expanding and that these developments can provide very useful insight and significant assets.

One aspect of transcendent warfare is establishing a perspective from which transcendent concepts can be understood. This is the formation of a certain perspective, viewpoint and understanding.

Another element is translating this understanding into activities can be deployed to accomplish worthwhile missions and tasks.

These may include “hard power” methods as well as “soft power” efforts. They may be applied to special operations missions and humanitarian activities. They may assist “public diplomacy” and constructive psychological operations. They may involve open source intelligence (OSINT) platforms and educational/sociological outreach.

Transcendent concepts and activities can provide additional resources and tools for many kinds of situations … situations that are of importance to us now.

HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

When we hear a term like transcendent warfare, the ideas of improving the state of the human race and solving the myriad of problems facing humanity might not immediately come to mind.

However, a study of the theories and activities on which the idea of transcendent warfare is based clearly indicates a potential for far-reaching positive changes for the human race and our planet.

Why? At the heart of transcendent concepts is human psychology and human consciousness. Most problems facing the human race are based on these fundamental elements. Many solutions lie in those same basic platforms too.

Enhancing human perception and understanding are keys to the transcendent perspective. Some of the research and activities conducted regarding discoveries in the area of human consciousness clearly indicate great potential for short-term and long-term human development.

How will these discoveries in consciousness and transcendent perspectives help us? It may not be completely clear. Important progress has already been made in integrating some of these leading-edge discoveries into the mass media and our everyday lives.

Social, educational, cultural, spiritual, medical, public safety, governmental, defense and other components of human societies can make greater use of transcendent viewpoints.

As they do, we may see a new paradigm, tipping point or breakthrough in the ways the human race solves problems and makes progress.

Tags: american empire, intelligence, military, psychological operations, Steve Hammons, Terrorism, veteran, war, War on Terror
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Russell Cole

Mukasey – the United States Attorney General – stated on March 28th that pirating of digital copy righted materials was funding terrorism. The statement by the Attorney General was made after he met privately with executives from the entertainment industry as well as software vendors, such as Adobe.

I do not have much to say about this announcement other than the fact that it appears to be another fabrication that has been injected into the Discourse of Terror: a type of speech that serves as a justificatory device lending support to public initiatives that might otherwise appear undesirable if not absurd. This rhetoric that has been developed by the Bush Administration consists of a linguistic operation in which a policy position – that if viewed independently, might be unpopular - declares the policy to be a subsidiary of the larger War on Terror, even if the connections establishing such a relationship are lacking in evidential support; after all, there is always a black box, States Secrets, to reference if an Administration representative is pressed for empirical substantiation for an alleged scenario in which terror and its prosecution are invoked.

We can observe this same speech pattern in the latest canard; this time attempting to offer credence for increased resources being devoted by the Department of Justice for the investigation of individuals and syndicates engaging in IP, (intellectual property crimes). Under normal speech conditions – since we are, after all, presently fighting a war against terror – such a proposition might be difficult to sell to the public. IP - although not victimless – is certainly not violent, and IP surely does not qualify as publicly harmful. It is damaging to major software vendors and movie industry moguls, not the ordinary public. Therefore, the initiative by the Justice Department against IP might appear, if not cloaked in the prototypical terror-inciting garb, as an allocation of resources that is directed to protect the interests of the few, and the wealthy, and it might seem as though it is a distraction from more pressing matters, such as the actual War on Terrorism.

Therefore, how better alter the public’s opinion of such a policy announcement than to reconstitute its semiology, so that the increased expenditures against IP are subsequently understood as an extension of the War on Terror.

Tags: economics, foreign policy, government, homeland security, justice department, political rhetoric, politics, Terrorism, War on Terror
Categories: Commentary, Economics, government, Politics, Homeland Security, Terrorism, Foreign Policy, War on Terror
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