Lessons Learned from Al Qaeda's Network Centric Operations

While Al Qaeda is a very different organization from the U.S. military, the differences in size, mission, and technology do not impact the lessons drawn from the analysis.

Those lessons are:

• The operational commander must trust his subordinates to successfully execute themission.
  
• Balancing knowledge management with the operational factors space, time, and force inoperational planning may allow the commander to dictate the pace of warfare.
  
• Network-centric operations can increase combat power.