As the TRADOC G-2, McFarland served as the Army’s lead for analyzing the characteristics of future military operations and describing the conditions and threats they might contain. This effort supports the development of concepts, education of leaders, design of new capabilities, training or military units and enables experimentation. In coordination with Joint Forces Command, other governmental agencies and services, and the private and academic sectors, TRADOC G-2 develops the operational environment (OE), which is the Army’s authoritative perspective of the future. As a function of his work on the Operational Environment, McFarland often took unconventional avenues in order to replicate the complexity and uncertainty of the operational environment that his staff defines. He sponsored a