Principles of Warfare



Principles of Warfare

Introduction

There is an engineering approach at most military colleges. This is good for the promulgation of doctrine, but it also creates conformity and groupthink, the opposite of what Clausewitz called genius. When the principles of war are hammered home this way, they become a sort of religion, a fetish, like jointness. The principles of war can make the idea of war, the plan, become scripted, like a football team that enters a game knowing the order it will run all its plays. But war is a duel. You have to react. And victory is often a perception. Saddam after all managed to convince large numbers of people that Iraq won the first Gulf War.

Analysis

The nine principles do not account for everything, nor did Clausewitz himself intend that they should. For instance, Al Qaeda's morale is still high despite the fact that two thirds of its leaders are dead or imprisoned. Principles are means not ends. The Army Field Manual, written in 1921, enshrines the nine principles. The United States is still in the second generation with lines and conventional forces using mass and fire. Other nations have learned not to fight the United States this way. There is a lot of evidence that Saddam had figured this out, and intentionally spread out arms to prime the insurgency. The Defense Department had not anticipated this sort of reaction. There was also consideration of an eleventh principal: agility, a quality we invent unmanned aerial vehicles and Future Combat Systems to acquire. But this concept is captured by maneuver. The four most important principal are:  

Economy of force

Unity of command

Security

Maneuver

Economy of force

The principle of economy of force is an essential part of that strategic vision and this military concept translates very well into the business world. For over several thousand years, military strategists have analyzed warfare and developed some fundamental principles which, when properly applied, lead to success. Using the principles of economy of force, a business can effectively determine where, when, and how to deploy its resources.

Economy of Force as a Strategic Weapon

In the military, economy of force means to allocate minimum essential combat power to secondary efforts. If the translation to a business context is not done well, there can be some danger here for a business though. Sometimes a business can get so focused that it gets tunnel vision. Economy of force, if applied properly though, can ensure that the secondary projects, programs, systems, customers, etc. get sufficient resources to guarantee success. The need here is to build into the plan the necessary evaluation process to ensure that the 360-degree risks are addressed. In war there are never enough soldiers, supplies, munitions, or just plain will. If those things were abundant then war would not be an art and generals not so necessary. It would be a science rooted in math and logic and much less skill and understanding would be necessary to manage ...