Most professions or tasks come with their own words (terms or, less nicely, jargon). Human rights is full of them: habeas corpus, CAT (Convention against Torture, “internally displaced,” “disappeared,” etc.
Each has a specific meaning and use and can illuminate. But “jargon” words can also obfuscate (fancy for confuse or hide). I was struck by this after reading one of my brother’s journal entries from a recent visit he made to Afghanistan, where he does service as a U.S. Navy Reserve officer (he is Mark Kirk, a US senator).
From one US official’s wall, Mark noted down the following “glossary,” which defines common words used in US military and political briefings. Some are familiar, but some were new to me (“Afghan good enough”? BLUF?)
What’s your opinion? Which words shed light and which ones confuse or hide (multilateration, any one)? Which ones contain a kind of insight and which are code for skulduggery? Which are crazy (“feed the beast until it chokes”), chilling (an “uptick” in casualties) or just fun (huddle)?
Granularity: Details on an issue
Socialize: Brief key players before a decision-making meeting
Calibrate: Adjusting fire, response or language
Driving forward: Moving ahead on an issue without regard to potential delays
Mainstream: Making an idea part of the culture of an organization
Robust: Strong, or adding firepower and numbers
Ground Truth: Judgments at HQ confirmed by front-line experience
Drill Down: Collect a large amount of detail on an issue
Low-Hanging Fruit: Easily achieved objectives
Bottom Out: Stopping the decline of an offensive, policy, direction
Takeaway: Key point to remember from a briefing
Afghan good enough: Achievable result given Afghan insurgency, education, poverty and corruption
Taking forward: Advancing a policy to the front line or to higher command
Sensitize: An early indication of a new policy or idea to those who may be involved
Forcing event: An action that must be taken after initiating a policy, offensive or speech
BLUF: Bottom-Line, Up Front, i.e., the conclusion of a briefing delivered at its start
Fusion: Assembling intelligence, policy or military action into a coherent whole
Bandwidth: The ability of an organization to process a very large amount of information quickly
Strategy refresh: A new look at a current operation or policy
Operationalize: To convert a strategy into actual orders for specific actions to a real unit
Multilateration: Involving a large number of actors, ministries or countries in an issue, policy or military action
Kinetic: Military action involving the firing of weapons
Grip Embed: Welding an external player to an organization to get an assessment, report or new look, even if the unit does not want a new player
Traction: The process of an idea, intelligence or a policy to gain acceptance by many
Apply a different optic: To take a new look
Namecheck: To ensure players, targets or units are properly identified
Populate: To add targets, subjects or policies to a target sight, discussion or meeting
Load-bearing: The ability of a person, unit or command to take on the new mission, idea or action
Upskill: To increase education or capabilities
Coverdown: To seek protection
Out of his lane: Not this person, unit or command’s job
Early engagement: To launch a mission, introduce an idea or put forward a policy before it is completely ready
Left Seat, Right Seat: (On a plane) Left seat is the commander, right seat is the co-pilot (and the reverse on a helo)
A big ask: a large request
Scratch the itch: Checking the box to do something because it is requested without caring about the result
Coming together across departments: To resist stovepiping of organizations to only work in their lane
Ramp up: to increase size, force or emphasis
Huddle: Meeting
All-weather platform: An aircraft or sensor that works in dry or wet weather, cold or hot, night or day
Deep-dive: A meeting with many details on one issue
Soft Landing: As an operation, policy or support is reduced, a gentle reduction towards the end
Uptick: Increase
Wavetops: The most important details of a meeting or briefing
Out Reach: Extension of a subject or issue beyond the normal participants
Stakeholder Analysis: The views of those involved in a issue
Plus Up: Increase
Serial Ops: Operations of the same type or against the same target
Forward Leading: Aggressive advancement of an issue or operation before all results or implications are known
Feed the beast until it chokes: A tactic to turn off too many requests with great detail or to overload an opponent’s information until he does not know what is actually happening
Target-Rich Environment: A battlefield with many enemies within range of weapons
Related articles
- Burhanuddin Rabbani’s death changes little | Stephen Grey (guardian.co.uk)
- US military deaths in Afghanistan at 1,618 (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
- A tale of jargon and the World’s Worst Press Release (mediatips.wordpress.com)