5-3. Once a mission is assigned, Army commanders and staffs have to understand their mission within the context of the land domain. Large-scale combat operations take place within a broader context that includes the political arena, joint operations, and other Service operations. It is in the political arena and higher level joint headquarters, the strategic level of warfare, that the overall political and military objectives are defined. Once the military objectives are defined, specific instructions are issued to joint task forces operating at the operational level of warfare, which in turn assign tasks to, among others, the land component. Understanding this context is necessary to ensure that large-scale combat operations are part of a coherent and cohesive whole.