This monograph searches for an answer to the question: "What is the relationship between strategies and operational culminating points?" It begins by examining the theoretical position of Hans Delbruck and his dual strategies of annihilation and...
This monograph analyzes the Iran-Iraq War to determine the role of society--the government, the people, and the army--in forming a state's strategy and action in war. It applies the writings of two classical theorists--Clausewitz and Delbruck--to...
The German General Staff launched Operation Barbarossa in June 1941 assuming the eastern campaign would last only three months. However, within six months after the initiation of hostilities the Red Army blunted the Wehrmacht’s attack outside the...
The current revolution in military affairs includes a confluence of changes that are forcing the US military to reexamine its methods of warfare. Significant advancements in informational technologies and precision weapons are providing an...
This paper addresses the current misunderstanding surrounding the term known as strategic maneuver. Strategic maneuver is considered many different things to include: preclusion operations, moving units from theater to theater, and the use of...
This study analyzes the concepts of dominant maneuver and precision engagement at the operational level of war as defined in Joint Vision 2020. The analysis begins by establishing the relationship between today’s geostrategic environment,...
Operational pauses are part of campaign design and remain relevant in 21st century expeditionary warfare. The United States should maintain the military in a subordinate role as only one element of national power. Where this is infeasible, use of...
General Schwarzkopf was unhappy with the tempo of the VII Corps attack during Operation Desert Storm. Likewise, a recent Rand study of over 115 NTC battles highlighted the technique of overwatch as a significant detractor to sustaining tempo in the...
The attached monograph, 'Grant's Final Campaign: A Study in Operational Art', examines General Grant's 1864-65 campaign as an example of combat at the operational level. The monograph begins by presenting the strategic setting--international and...
Since the dawn of the age of science, man has attempted to find in technology simple solutions to the difficult problems of warfare. Modern developments in information technology continue this history, offering to provide ways to simplify some...
In 1982, the US Army began its renaissance of the operational level of war with the publication of a revised Field Manual (FM) 100-5, Operations. The rediscovery of this level and the subsequent experimentation with it strained the very limits of...
In the complex modern environment, the importance of doctrine to a single national service is obvious. It is the glue that binds the military together in the face of an ever widening spectrum of conflict, ever more influential technology and an...
Throughout the history of warfare, there have been periods when technological developments have dramatically affected the balance between firepower and maneuver on the battlefield. When the new technology enhanced the effectiveness of firepower,...
During the past several decades, numerous authors have written on the subject of an American way of war. These include works by Russell Weigley, Max Boot, and Brian Linn. The apparent differences between these works have stimulated debate among...
This monograph discusses the increased logistical dependency of the modern battlefield at the operational level of war. Given this dependency, the monograph examines whether a counterlogistics fight at the operational level of war has become the...
This monograph offers a definition of "military art," discusses military art's relationship to the commander's management of battlefield uncertainty, and uncertainty's relationship to nonlinearity. Using the terms of art, uncertainty, and...
The US Air Force, and the U.S. armed forces separate service air arms, have historically wrestled with how to apply air and space power to non-traditional forms of warfare, such as insurgency and counterinsurgency. While the airplane was used as...
After World War Two the United States moved into a position of global pre-eminence. The Bush doctrine of pre-emptive and preventive action, expressed in the 2002 and 2006 National Security Strategies, holds that this level of relative power...
This monograph examines the moral domain of AirLand Battle-Future. The focus is on the nature of combat at the tactical level. Military tactics have traditionally been, first and foremost, a contest of wills. Any battle, past, present, or future...
War, diplomacy and economic sanctions are three cornerstones of strategy that have, in the past, successfully coerced rogue regimes to capitulate. However, it may be time to look beyond these persuasion techniques and develop a new method that can...