The Institute of World Politics is a participant in Joint Urban Warrior 2004, a war game between the US Marine Corps and the Joint Forces Command to enhance joint, interagency, and combined urban operations effectiveness and capabilities.
The annual war game is built around the integration of the full spectrum of advanced operational concepts, organizational innovations, technologies, and other transformational opportunities to enhance effectiveness in complex urban environment.
Dr. J. Michael Waller, IWP’s Walter and Leonore Annenberg Professor of International Communication, is playing an information operations/information warfare role in a Joint Urban Warrior red cell. At the Institute, his courses include Strategic Information Warfare.
Joint Urban Warrior 2004 focuses on “developing innovative operational and organizational concepts and approaches for the conduct of major Joint Urban Operations in the context of the US Marine Corps’s Three Block War, identifying indicators of success and desired effects in Joint Urban Operations, and assessing and refining the JFCOM [Joint Forces Command] Joint Urban Operations Enabling Concept,” according to a USMC/JSCOM statement.
The “Three Block War” is a term used by the Marine Corps “to describe the full spectrum of complex Joint Urban Operations, ranging from humanitarian and relief missions through peacekeeping and peace enforcement actions, to full-blown combat,” according to the statement. “These are often conducted simultaneously and in close proximity.”
Other participants in Joint Urban Warrior 2004 include the U.S. Air Force, Army, Navy and Coast Guard; the Agency for International Development, the CIA, Department of Homeland Security, the Department of State and other agencies and services, as well as the armed forces of coalition nations.