ARTICLES

NOTE TO FILE
MAPPING THE HUMAN
TERRAIN FOR DOMESTIC
OPERATIONS
Major Derek Spencer, CD
INTRODUCTION
With the end of the military mission in
Afghanistan, the Canadian Army has been
strongly committed to preparing for future
operations. The release of “Designing
Canada’s Army of Tomorrow” marks the
start of this process by outlining a roadmap
to 2021. 1 Building upon its force
employment concept, Adaptive Dispersed
Operations (ADO), 2 the Army has detailed
a number of substantial changes and
developments to support the missions it
expects to face in the next decade.
One consistent theme is that the Canadian
Army must operate effectively across the
physical, moral and informational planes of
any conflict. Thus, while new equipment and
weapons catch the attention of the media,
development of the Army’s capabilities must
also be focused on all three domains. This is
echoed throughout both documents in the
discussion on influence activities: “in order
to effectively influence people in the
operating space, [they] will be important
tools in the conduct of operations across the
spectrum of operations in the future
security environment.” 3
The 2008 Canada First Defence Strategy and
ADO lay out the six missions of the
Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) and, by
extension, the Canadian Army (CA):
• Conduct daily domestic and
continental operations.
• Support a major international event
in Canada.
• Respond to a major terrorist attack.
© MAJOR DEREK SPENCER, ‘MAPPING THE HUMAN TERRAIN FOR DOMESTIC
OPERATIONS’, CANADIAN ARMY JOURNAL VOL. 16.2
117