text: Operational Art and Science
  2-40. Risk cuts across the levels of warfare. A risk decision at one level directly affects the other levels. JFCs
  and their component commanders are uniquely positioned uniquely to assess risk across the levels of warfare.
  They inform strategic-level risk decisions, or act to shape tactical-level risk decisions. They inform strategic-
  level risk decisions in several ways. First, they frankly provide their best military advice, and they clearly
  articulate their assessment of the probable risks associated with a decision. Second, they provide superiors
  insight into how changes to an OE affect U.S. and multinational interests and objectives. Third, when they
  determine that an imbalance between the ends, ways, and means available for prosecuting operations is
  creating risk, they adjust the ways in which they operate by securing additional means to achieve the desired
  end state or by dialoguing with strategic leaders to adopt an end state more achievable with the resources
  available.
  Defeat and Stability Mechanisms
  2-41. Commanders consider defeat and stability mechanisms when developing their operational approach.
  Defeat mechanisms relate to offensive and defensive operations, while stability mechanisms relate to stability
  operations. Army forces use combinations of four defeat mechanisms: destroy, dislocate, disintegrate, and
  isolate.
  * Destroy is a tactical mission task that physically renders an enemy force combat-ineffective until
  it is reconstituted. Alternatively, to destroy a combat system is to damage it so badly that it cannot
  perform any function or be restored to a usable condition without being entirely rebuilt
  (FM 3-90-1).
  * Dislocate means to employ forces to obtain significant positional advantage, rendering the
  enemy’s dispositions less valuable, perhaps even irrelevant (ADP 3-0).
  * Disintegrate means to disrupt the enemy’s command and control system, degrading its ability to
  conduct operations while leading to a rapid collapse of the enemy’s capabilities or will to fight
  (ADP 3-0).
  * Isolate means to separate a force from its sources of support in order to reduce its effectiveness
  and increase its vulnerability to defeat (ADP 3-0).
  2-42. Applying more than one defeat mechanism simultaneously produces complementary and reinforcing
  effects not attainable with a single mechanism. Used individually, a defeat mechanism achieves results
  relative to the amount of effort expended. Using defeat mechanisms in combination creates enemy dilemmas
  that magnify their effects significantly. Commanders and staffs use operational art to formulate the most
  effective, efficient way to apply defeat mechanisms. Physically destroying enemy forces deprives them of
  the ability to achieve those aims. Temporally dislocating enemy forces anticipates their reactions and nullifies
  them before they can become effective. Cognitively disintegrating enemy forces disrupts their decision
  making and erodes their will to fight.
  2-43. As with defeat mechanisms, combinations of stability mechanisms produce complementary and
  reinforcing effects that accomplish the mission more effectively and efficiently than single mechanisms do
  alone. The four stability mechanisms are compel, control, influence, and support.
  * Compel means to use, or threaten to use, lethal force to establish control and dominance, affect
  behavioral change, or enforce compliance with mandates, agreements, or civil authority.
  * Control involves imposing civil order.
  * Influence means to alter the opinions, attitudes, and ultimately the behavior of foreign friendly,
  neutral, adversary, and enemy audiences through messages, presence, and actions.
  * Support establishes, reinforces, or sets conditions necessary for the instruments of national power
  to function effectively.
  Echelons focused on the consolidation of gains employ combinations of both defeat and stability
  mechanisms.