PIA Bifold (1) (PDF)

Point of Influence Analysis
Point of Influence Analysis (PIA) is a scalable, cross-discipline, multistep,
systems-based analytic process that enables analysts to identify the RCC
and isolate ways to impact the human environment in alignment with
strategic guidance. PIA may be descriptive (a value-neutral assessment
where the analyst avoids any perspective associated with adversarial and
friendly roles) or prescriptive (a perspective-based assessment assigning
friendly and adversarial roles).
The four PIA steps are

1

2

3

4

Research

Conflict
Assessment

Point of Influence
Identification

Integration
into Planning

PIA implementation can be scaled to the operational environment,
enabling assessment from the local level to the national or regional
level, and can be used to inform tactical, operational, and strategic engagement strategies.

Addressing the RCC
The United States has a vested interest in peace. The rise in foreign
fighters, Western terrorist incidents, radicalization in and threats to the
homeland, and modern violent conflict requires a population-centric
mission focus that includes consideration of the RCC. Using tools such
as PIA to address the RCC increases the United States’ potential to
reach a strategically desirable end state, resolve violent conflict, and
protect its homeland and interests overseas.

Identifying the Root Cause of Conflict
Point of Influence Analysis

Doctrine offers many models that help the planner design courses of

action that are aligned with strategic objectives. These models do not,
however, provide a cross-disciplinary theory–based analytical structure
to evaluate the human environment and to identify the root cause(s) of
conflict (RCC). To address this analytic gap, the United States Army John F.
Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School and the Johns Hopkins
University Applied Physics Laboratory partnered on a research effort to
identify the key components of the human environment to facilitate
RCC analysis.
Political
climate

Human
Dynamics

Grievances

Drivers and
mitigators

History of
conflict
Religiosity

Resiliencies

The Human Environment
is a series of intersecting systems
and their complex, dynamic,
multidirectional, overlapping,
and mutually influential
relationships.

Activation
factors
Social
structure

Human
Factors

Conflict

Connectors and
dividers

Demographics

Cultural
factors
Identities
Groups

Wealth and power
distribution

Human
Geography

The Human Environment
For analysts to gain an understanding of the human environment, their
research must reveal the elements of the environment—conflict, human
dynamics, human factors, and human geography—as well as their
associated key factors.
These key factors are based in multiple disciplines, including sociology,
psychology, political science, anthropology, criminology, and economics.
It is via careful exploration of the human environment through the
lenses of these disciplines that we define the human environment as
a complex adaptive system with a dynamic nature as well as (often
nonlinear) relationships and links, patterns, and interconnectedness
between its parts.

PoI

PoI

Activation
factors

PoI

Friendly
element action
PoI

PoI

Adversarial
element action

Root cause
of conflict
Condition(s) or perception(s) that prime the
environment for conflict
and generate the
activation factors

Activation
factors

PoI

PoI

Activation
factors

PoI

PoI: Point of influence

PoI

PoI

Friendly
element action
PoI

Adversarial
element response

Today’s Need for an RCC Analytic Tool
Today’s joint, interagency, intergovernmental, and multinational environment
necessitates that a RCC analytic tool do the following:
Provide a common language
• Meet requirements across
organizations
• Make sense of chaotic,
contradictory, and ambiguous
conflict environments
• Nest within existing planning
tools
•

• Incorporate a systems approach
that integrates analysis of all
relevant aspects of the human
environment and their complex
relationships
• Support the integration of other
analytic methodologies
• Include a theory of change that
enables the design of metrics