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DIMEFIL: Instruments of Power

January 2024

Instruments of Power Overview

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To advance national interests, appropriate government officials, often with National Security Council direction, employ the instruments of national power to achieve strategic objectives. These instruments include diplomatic, informational, military, economic, financial, intelligence, and law enforcement (DIME-FIL) activities. Each instrument of national power works most effectively when it is supported by and operates harmoniously with the other elements. (The Joint Team, 2022)

The tabs above will guide you to Air University Library resources on each of the instruments of power. Items listed below address the DIMEFIL concept as a whole, or how two or more instruments of power interact or relate to one another.

This research guide is not a comprehensive listing of sources but is intended to be a starting point from which students can begin their research according to their specific needs.

Access to AUL subscription databases is limited to current Air University faculty and students.

Materials

The links below will provide search results of items produced at Air University on:

"Instruments of Power"

Countering Unrestricted Warfare: Preparing to Compete Against China's Actual Strategy by Victor Norris.
Maxwell AFB, AL, Air War College, March 2020. 37 p.
Center of Gravity Analysis and Operational Design: Ensuring a Logical Linkage among National Strategic Objectives; Diplomatic, Informational, Military, and Economic Instruments of Power; and the Military Campaign by Jacob Barfoed.
Maxwell AFB, AL, Air University Press, March 2009. 32 p.
Using the Instruments of Power in Post-Regime Change Operations: A Comparative Study of Antigonus the One-Eyed and George W. Bush in Mesopotamia by Matthew K. Lince.
Maxwell AFB, AL, Air Command and Staff College, April 2007. 32 p.
The Instruments of Power: A Computer-Assisted Game for the ACSC Curriculum by Lynn P. Anderson.
Maxwell AFB, AL, Air Command and Staff College, April 2005. 60 p.
Coercive Complementarity: Integrating the Military and Economic Instruments of Power by Harry A. Foster.
Maxwell AFB, AL, School of Advanced Air and Space Studies, June 2003. 85 p.
DIME Operations: The Ultimate Form of War for the United States in the 21st Century by Albert E. Rice.
Maxwell AFB, AL, Air Command and Staff College, April 2003. 34 p.
Air and Space Power - Decisive Instruments of National Power: A Research Paper by Marguerite J. Palmer.
Maxwell AFB, AL, Air Command and Staff College, March 1997. 67 p.
Abstract and Inherent Air Power Limitations as Associated with Instruments of Power by Elmo K. Ballard.
Maxwell AFB, AL, Air War College, May 1957. 38 p.

More books and documents on:

"Instruments of Power"

Books are available electronically and/or in print at AU Library.

Proliferation of Weapons- and Dual-Use Technologies by Margaret E. Kosal (Editor)
Call Number: 327.174 P9644
Publication Date: 2022
Orchestrating the Instruments of Power by D. Robert Worley
Publication Date: 2015
Integrating Instruments of Power and Influence in National Security by Robert E. Hunter and Khalid Nadiri
Call Number: 355.033073 H946ia
Publication Date: 2008
The East European Political System: Instruments of Power by Baruch A. Hazan
Call Number: 320.947 H4281e
Publication Date: 1985

Powering the DIME: Unlearned Lessons of Asymmetric National Power in Cyberspace by Michael Klipstein and Pablo Breuer.
The Cyber Defense Review 7, no. 1:129-135 Winter 2022.
DIME by Matthew L. Higgins.
Marine Corps Gazette 105, no. 7:64-67 July 2021.
Putting the "FIL" (Finance, Intelligence, and Law Enforcement) into "DIME" (Diplomatic, Informational, Military, and Economic): Growing Joint Understanding of the Instruments of Power by Cesar Augusto Rodriguez and others.
Joint Force Quarterly 97, no. 2:121-128. 2nd Quarter 2020.
A General Theory of Influence in a DIME/PMESII/ASCOP/IRC² Model by T Kodalle and others.
Journal of Information Warfare 19, no. 2:12-26 2020.

Comprehensive National Security: Contemporary Discourse by Ehsan Mehmood Khan.
Institute for Strategic Studies, Research and Analysis, National Defence University, Islamabad, Pakistan, 2022. 17 p.
The Joint Team (Purple Book) by United States Air Force.
2022. 39 p.
Challenges to Coordinating the Instruments of National Power by Andrew H. Armstrong.
Baltimore, MD, John Hopkins University, May 2019. 115 p.
Understanding the Instruments of National Power Through a System of Differential Equations in a Counterinsurgency by Cade M. Saie.
Wright-Patterson AFB, OH, Air Force Institute of Technology, March 2012. 141 p.
On Strategy: Integration of DIME in the Twenty-First Century by John G. Krenson.
Carlisle Barracks, PA, U.S. Army War College, February 2012. 28 p.
Diplomatic, Information, Military and Economic Power (DIME): An Effects Modeling System by Newton Howard.
Cambridge, MA, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2012. 4 p.
DIME Elements of Jihad by Shirley J. Lancaster.
Carlisle Barracks, PA, U.S. Army War College, December 2010. 32 p.
Rebalancing the Regional D.I.M.E. by John Wilcox.
Carlisle Barracks, PA, U.S. Army War College, March 2010. 32 p.
National Strategic Planning: Linking DIMEFIL/PMESII to a Theory of Victory by John P. McDonnell.
Norfolk, VA, Joint Forces Staff College, Joint Advanced Warfighting School, April 2009. 103 p.
Integrating Instruments of Power and Influence: Lessons Learned and Best Practices by Robert E. Hunter and others.
Santa Monica, CA, RAND Corporation, 2008. 110 p.
Pushing a Rope: Balancing the DIME Within Geographic Theaters by Walter S. Morgan.
Newport, RI, Naval War College, November 2007. 24 p.
Balancing the Instruments of National Power at the Operational Level in the GWOT by Arie C. Richards.
Newport, RI, Naval War College, May 2007. 25 p.

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