text: Threat
  SECTION IV – COUNTERING ADAPTATIONS AND RETAINING THE
  INITIATIVE
  3-39. Countering enemy adaptations and retaining the initiative in armed conflicts requires the BCT
  commander and staff to understand the threat and the operational environment specific to its area of
  operations. Accurately depicting how an enemy employs forces requires an understanding of the enemy’s
  organization, the enemy’s capabilities, and the employment of enemy forces in the past. Overcoming
  increasingly sophisticated area denial actions and capabilities requires an effective information collection
  effort (see chapter 5) to develop the enemy situation within the BCT’s area of operations.
  3-40. In armed conflict, the commander’s understanding is not limited to enemy organizations and their
  capabilities. This understanding includes ethnic groups,political factions,tribes or clans,religious sects,or
  ideological movements and their agendas. Identifying and distinguishing these groups and the associated
  dynamics is extremely difficult and requires deliberateinformation collection and analytical effortsthrough
  every phase of the operation. Using the mission variable of civil considerations and its subordinate
  characteristicsidentified by the mnemonic ASCOPE,the BCT staff has a standardized baseline for analysis
  to generate understanding. This baseline is augmented by analyses conducted by organic and attached forces
  such as social-cultural analysis,target audience analyses,intelligence analyses,population,and area studies.
  3-41. While in contact with the enemy and in close proximity to the population, the BCT fights for
  information to understand and develop the situation. Complementary and integrated information collection
  capabilities (reconnaissance, surveillance, security operations, and intelligence operations) assist the
  commander in identifying opportunities to seize,retain,and exploit the initiative and dominate in increasingly
  challenging and complex environments.