text: Information Operations Overview
  to influence threat decision makers to act in ways that will resolve the crisis peacefully. Other IO efforts may
  attempt to influence actors within a target group’s political, economic, military, and social structures.
  Operational and tactical commanders prepare for IO as part of their deployment preparations. They
  coordinate preparations with the joint force commander to ensure unity of effort and prevent information
  fratricide, which is defined as adverse effects on the information environment resulting from a failure
  to effectively synchronize the employment of multiple information-related capabilities which may
  impede the conduct of friendly operations or adversely affect friendly forces.
  1-34. The objectives during crisis are to halt escalation and move the level of conflict back towards peace.
  Therefore, commanders conduct IO to develop the situation and refine their situational understanding.
  Through the deliberate selection and effective synchronization of IRCs, commanders increase the potential
  that adversaries or other relevant decision makers will choose alternatives other than conflict or war.
  MAJOR OPERATIONS AND CAMPAIGNS
  1-35. Major operations and campaigns are large-scale, sustained combat operations to achieve national
  objectives and protect national interests. Such operations may place the United States in a wartime state and
  are normally conducted against a capable enemy with the will to employ that capability in opposition to or
  in a manner threatening national security. Major operations may be part of a joint campaign comprised of
  multiple phases. The goal is to achieve national objectives and conclude hostilities with conditions favorable
  to the United States and its multinational partners, generally as quickly, with as few casualties as possible,
  and in a manner that conveys continuing strategic advantage for the United States and its partners.
  1-36. During major operations and campaigns, commanders conduct IO to achieve decisive effects in and
  through the information environment against enemy forces. Well-synchronized IO planning and operational
  integration supports offense, defense, and stability tasks by weighting IO efforts appropriate to each task. For
  example, during offense, units conduct IO attack, defend, and stabilize actions, in appropriate combination,
  to help defeat and destroy enemy forces and capabilities, especially those that are information-related. Units
  also conduct IO to deny aspects of the information environment (physical, informational, and cognitive) that
  facilitate threat decision making, while preserving critical information infrastructure, content, and networks
  essential to friendly decision making.
  SECTION III – INFORMATION OPERATIONS AND COMBAT POWER
  1-37. The information element of combat power is integral to optimizing combat power, particularly given
  the increasing relevance of operations in and through the information environment to achieve decisive
  outcomes. IO and the information element of combat power are related but not the same.
  1-38. Information is a resource. As a resource, it must be obtained, developed, refined, distributed, and
  protected. IO, along with knowledge management and information management, are the ways that units
  harness this resource and ensure its availability, as well as operationalize and optimize it.
  1-39. IO, a component of the mission command warfighting function, supports all other warfighting
  functions and makes each one more potent. The effects that IO achieves in the information environment
  amplify the effects of movement and maneuver, intelligence, fires, sustainment and protection, both
  constructive and destructive.
  MISSION COMMAND
  1-40. The mission command warfighting function enables commanders to balance the art of command and
  the science of control in order to integrate the other warfighting functions. It also enables a shared
  understanding of an operational environment and the commander’s intent. IO’s focus on protecting
  information, information systems, and decision making, enhances commanders’ ability to integrate the other
  warfighting functions and create necessary shared understanding. At the same time, it seeks to degrade the
  enemy’s decision-making ability.
  1-41. IO supports the accomplishment of several mission command warfighting tasks, including inform and
  influence audiences inside and outside an organization, conduct knowledge management and information