The American Intellectual Property

As the U.S. Military looks towards shifting or expanding operating environments and continues to reform operating doctrine, new developments in technology continue to support growth. Thus, it is prudent to evaluate the state of the art and anticipated future capabilities continually and to map advantageous technology onto the latest needs and challenges.

Some of the most valuable and difficult-to-duplicate U.S. intellectual property (IP) is implicit in its history and culture. This IP manifests itself in the warfighter as individuality, creativity, and innovation. Different is good. The “nail that sticks up” is often revered. And, in the face of growing concerns over IP theft, any advantage that is inherent in a culture is relatively easy to guard and easy to capitalize on. Yet, with the substantial focus on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), cultivation of fundamental creative problem-solving skills can be neglected. Thus, although STEM-related skills and programs should by no means be diminished, consideration should be given to a comparable focus on creativity for the warfighter.

To be sure, military doctrine like the German Auftragstaktik and then Air-Land Battle do incorporate autonomous operation and decentralized execution. Nonetheless, there could be benefits to a renewed emphasis on training (from grade school students to senior military leaders) methods and tools that foster creative problem solving. In addition, systems for aggregating creative input to feed decisions could help. Is there an opportunity to leverage inherent individual creativity in the context of collective real-time decision-making? How can a group of warfighters operate as a cohesive unit while immediately incorporating information and ideas from various connected individuals?

The true value of creative decision-making and problem-solving comes with integrated performance. Two minds are better than one; a dozen minds better still. In accordance with the growing focus on swarm technology and crowd-sourced capabilities, communication between warfighters must be immediate. With the proper use of advancing technology, military operations can leverage collective, decentralized intelligence to perform complex tasks while remaining unpredictable and more efficient. A group of warfighters can operate as an unpredictable swarm.

An unsuspecting model for this kind of real-time, adaptable, and unpredictable communication and group decision-making is found with texting habits. Among the new generation of facile texters, plans are often tentative until almost immediately prior to execution. In addition, although advanced planning is becoming less critical for younger generations, these groups are adaptable; change is no longer a challenge. This mode of operation can run counter to a history and culture of advanced planning. Nonetheless, this approach points towards an adaptable and formidable swarm mentality, where a squad or even a battalion operates as a collective. Of course, there are both pros and cons to a swarm mentality. However, with the advancement of communications and wireless technology, humans now have at their disposal the ability to balance their inherent individual intelligence with the benefits of swarm intelligence.

In the parlance of game theory, cooperative game theory is the only approach that guarantees a Pareto optimal solution (where no one can be made better off without making someone worse off), and this is only achieved with an immediate exchange of data and preferences. Theoretically, iterative exchange cannot ensure a truly optimal outcome. Thus, integration and connectivity are critical for supporting distributed and creative decision-making.

The most powerful and unique technology driver may be the mind of the American warfighter. Whereas the 3^rd offset emphasizes man-machine interaction, perhaps the greatest and most difficult-to-duplicate value is the creativity of the warfighter him/her self. The combination of America’s diverse history, environment, values, and thus how Americans approach problems is effective and unique. Furthermore, it is almost impossible to replicate, let alone steal. Thus, in a continued search for competitive advantage, the United States may be asking the wrong question. Rather than asking what new material is needed, perhaps the question should be, how to most effectively cultivate what is inherent in Americans.

Tim Marler is a research engineer at the nonprofit, nonpartisan RAND Corporation and a professor at the Pardee RAND Graduate School.