text: Stability
  the BCT must identify and mitigate sources of instability, understand and nest operations within political
  objectives, and achieve unity of effort across diverse organizations.
  SOURCES OF INSTABILITY
  8-19. The BCT conducts information collection to gain a detailed understanding of the sources of instability,
  and the capability and intentions of key actors within its area of operations. Sources of instability are actors,
  actions, or conditions that exceed the legitimate authority’s capacity to exercise effective governance,
  maintain civil control, and ensure economic development. Enemy forces leverage sources of instability to
  create conflict, exacerbate existing conditions, or threaten to collapse failing or recovering states. Examples
  of sources of instability include but are not limited to—
  (cid:122) Ungoverned areas.
  (cid:122) Religious, ethnic, economic, political differences among the local population.
  (cid:122) Natural disasters.
  (cid:122) Resource scarcity.
  (cid:122) Individual disrupting legitimate governance.
  (cid:122) Degraded infrastructure.
  (cid:122) Economic strife.
  (cid:122) Immature, undeveloped or atrophied systems.
  (cid:122) Ineffective or corrupt host-nation security forces.
  8-20. The BCT commander and staff must apply the same fundamental planning processes in the military
  decision-making process (MDMP) and the intelligence preparationof the battlefield (IPB) process to identify
  the tactical problem, and conduct information collection to fulfill priority intelligence requirements or
  identified information gaps. Critical thinking, innovative problem solving, and leveraging different tools to
  address these tactical problems assists the BCT commander and staff in identifying sources of instability.
  Thorough analysis, engaging with local leaders and populations, leveraging unified action partners, and
  research are standard methods used to identify sources of instability. The commander and staff consider
  operational variables (in coordination with division and corps staffs) and mission variables, with emphasis
  on civil considerations, to gain an understanding of the interests and motivations particular to different groups
  and individuals to enhance situational understanding.
  8-21. Interactions of various actors affect the BCT’s operational environment in terms of operational and
  mission variables. Some of these actors include the following:
  (cid:122) Unified action partners.
  (cid:122) Nongovernmental organizations.
  (cid:122) Private volunteer organizations.
  (cid:122) International and private security organizations.
  (cid:122) Media.
  (cid:122) Multinational corporations.
  (cid:122) Transnational criminal organizations.
  (cid:122) Insurgents.
  (cid:122) Violent extremist organizations.
  (cid:122) Tribes,clans, and ethnic groups indigenous to the area of operations.
  (cid:122) Regional influences such as other nation states.
  8-22. The commander and staff consider alternative perspectives and approaches to the ones used in offense
  and defense. The BCT analyzes sources of instability from both the local, indigenous perspective and the
  U.S. military perspective to understand the differences between viewpoints. During the IPB, the BCT
  identifies key actors and their interests or agendas. Additionally, the BCT analyzes how these key actors
  influence the local civil capacity; this analysis drives the BCT’s planning effort that addresses
  accomplishment of stability operations tasks. Staffs conduct preparation to understand unique aspects of
  operations focused on stability. For example, the brigade assistant engineer might conduct an assessment on
  the local electrical grid system of an assigned area of operations or the brigade surgeon or medical planner