Doctrine Development

Doctrine – represents a common way of thinking about a particular issue or problem.  Doctrine encompasses tactics, and the specific procedures for conducting tasks.

Key Roles and Major Influences

Why Doctrine?

Fundamental principles by which the military forces guide their actions in support of objectives. It is authoritative but requires judgment in application. Doctrine includes the responsibilities, defined command and control mechanisms, and Armed Forces concepts and ways of warfighting. It is based on national and international principles and values that guide all military action and decision-making. It covers plans, processes and procedures that enhance the military effectiveness of Defense and each of the various components in Defense. It also covers the Command, Leadership and Management at all levels that is required to plan, apply, measure, monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of the Armed Forces in peacetime and on operations.

Allied Joint Doctrine

There are three levels of Allied doctrine. These are level-1, level-2 and level-3 and they are detailed below.

  • Level-1 – comprises capstone (AJP-01) and keystone (AJP -2, -3, -4, -5, -6 and -10) publications. These AJPs contain overarching Allied joint doctrine. AJP-01, Allied Joint Doctrine, is the capstone publication that links joint doctrine to Alliance strategy. Keystone publications establish the doctrinal foundation for a series of joint publications (intelligence, operations, logistics (including medical), planning and communications) found in the AJDA.
  • Level-2 – publications contain supporting joint doctrine for specific functional areas and themes at the operational level. These publications also carry an AJP designation in their titles. For example, Allied Joint Doctrine for Land Operations is numbered AJP-3.2. They should not contain detailed procedures, but should address operational-level concepts (how, not what, to think) relevant to the joint commander.
  • Level-3 – publications contain tactics, techniques and procedural-level joint/ single service doctrine that support and enhance AJPs. These publications are Allied publications and do not appear on the AJDA. However, in parallel with the AJDA’s structure, all DTAs are requested to follow the AJDA numbering system as the basis for numbering their publications. Adopting a standardized approach to numbering Allied publications will create a numerical relationship among topic-related Allied publications. For example, level-3 Allied doctrine publications are typically numbered in a logical flow. Responsible DTAs should also ensure vertical and horizontal harmonization of level-3 publications with other Allied doctrine and could follow a similar developmental process as detailed in this publication.
 
 

Functional & Thematic Doctrine

Various organizations are responsible for developing doctrine, dependent upon the level and target audience. Within the levels, doctrine can be further subdivided into functional, thematic and environmental.

  • Functional doctrine covers the generic J1-J9 functions. It is important to note that whilst a doctrinal subject may sit in a specific functional area, its contents will likely reach into, and have implications for, other areas.
  • Thematic doctrine places functional doctrine within a specific context. These are not, however, intended to represent a template for any one operation or theatre. NATO takes a similar approach. It has developed a series of publications that deal with crisis response operations, such as non-combatant evacuation operations and counter-insurgency.

Lessons Learned & Doctrine

Observations, lessons identified, best practices and lessons learned from operations, exercises and training can have a significant influence on doctrine development. Feedback from exercises and operations provides doctrine developers with tested, and often proven, justification for revising existing methodology or practice to improve future performance. Lessons are drawn from recent and current operations, exercises, threat appraisals and relevant historical examples. Reviewing and validating lessons identified and best practices from operations provides knowledge from which to judge what does, and does not, work. Its relationship with doctrine ensures that AJPs remain current and relevant. Lessons identified are considered as a starting point for a request for feedback (RFF), to verify if others have experienced the same lessons, and should be included in the data fusion process.