JPME Ph. I Mod I Strategy & War from USNWC

Ref: Naval War College (Various). JPME Phase I Mod I Strategy & War. Joint Professional Military Education (JPME).

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Military Strategy

Strategy: When, where, with what forces and with what overall concept? Strategy is the relationship between war’s purpose, objectives, ways, and means. It is how military force is used to achieve the goals of policy through conceptually linking means and ends.

  • Operations: How to use the forces (in a series of engagements)?

  • Concepts of Strategy

    • Rationality: concern of political leaders.

    • Interaction: Concern of military leaders.

  • What are the enemy's strategic, tactical, and political goals? COAs? What are their COGs?

  • Ensure you match your strategy to a complex end-policy.

  • No plan survives first contact with the enemy.

  • Military Genius: The ability to recognize your situation and resolve to react quickly.

    • “Above all, self-confidence, trust in experience, and intuition, the ability even in the heat of battle to stick confidently to his original goal (the imperative principle).”-Clausewitz.

Courses of Action (COAs)

  • Choose a COA that will have the effect of inducing the enemy into a self-defeating reaction.

  • Ensure your COAs are tailored to both military-civilian leadership and ensure you consider the political response in addition to the military response.

 

War Termination

  • Know what to demand, politically.

  • Know how far you must go military to get the necessary leverage to achieve the political endstate.

  • Do not go past the culminating point of victory.

  • Plan for mechanisms required for postwar enforcement of peace.

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Carl Von Clausewitz

  • Clausewitz starts with absolute war and what it would look like. And then discusses what actual war is like in comparison.

  • Clausewitz asserts that ALL War is political.

 

  • The Trinity (Legs of War): Carl argues that the behavior of each nation and its capacity to wage war depend on three groups of factors (tendencies as Carl call them): the people, the military, the government. When considering the people, one must examine their motivation, dedication, and support of their government. Of the military, one should ask how good their leaders are, whether they obey government orders, and whether they develop suitable doctrines and are well organized. And as for the government, it is wise to investigate how rational or realistic its policies are, and how effective it would be in mobilizing the peoples support for a prolonged war.

    • People: Passions; primordial violence and hatred (blind natural force).

    • Commander: The play of chance and probability from which the creative spirit is free to roam on the battlefield.

    • Government: The policy objectives for which war is being fought.

 

  • Types of War

    • Unlimited: Intent is complete submission of an enemy.

    • Limited: Intent is to stop an enemy’s behavior or cease territory.

      • War by Algebra: A type of limited war.

      • According to Carl, wars are limited primarily as a result of two considerations: the first is insufficient or limited resources; the second is the set of limitations that the political leadership imposes on the wartime objectives as defined by the national interests.

 

  • Escalation of War to the Extreme

    • Maximum use of force.

    • Aim is to disarm the enemy (the objective of war is a zero-sum game).

    • The maximum Exertion of Strength.

  • War Termination: According to Carl, wars are brought to an end for three possible reasons:

    • The inability to carry on the struggle (defeat).

    • The improbability of victory.

    • Unacceptable cost.

 

  • Moral Forces: Will, Motivation, Creative Genius, Intuition, Patriotism, non-tangible factors.

 

  • Principle of Continuity: War in theory is fought without interruption until one of the sides is victorious. The reasoning is as follows: if one side has achieved an advantage he must or should exploit it until he wins (i.e. disarms the enemy and compels the enemy to do his will).

  • Defense v. Offense

    • Defense: A negative action; you cannot win on defense alone.

    • Offense: A positive action. You need positive action to win.

    • The asymmetry or inherent differences between the offense and defense combined with poor intelligence thus explain why the principle of continuity is ignored in reality.

 

  • Environment of Strategy

    • Problem of Different Interests

    • Role of Policy and Civil- Military Relations

      • Policy must define the type and characteristics of war.

    • Influence of Allies

    • Interaction between People, Government, and Armed Forces is KEY.

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Navy

  • Early US Naval Strategists: Corbett, Mahan.

  • 90% of global commerce travels by Sea.

  • 95% of imports/exports to USA are from sea.

  • 75% of the world’s population within 200 miles of sea.

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Misc Quotes

"The US needs a military whose ability to kick down the door is matched by its ability to clean up the mess and even rebuild the house afterwards."-Gates.

"The lesson which impressed me most deeply when I studied the Russo-Japanese war was the fact that our navy launched a surprised night assault against Port Arthur at the very beginning. I believe this was the most excellent strategic initiative ever envisaged during the war.”-Yamamoto (Feb, 1941).

“Hard fighting, hard riding, and hard drinking elicited far more appreciation from an officers peers than the perusal of books.”

“The vicarious experiences provided through study of the past enable practitioners of war to see familiar patterns of activity and to develop more quickly potential solutions to tactical and operational problems.”

“A properly schooled officer never arrives on a battlefield for the first time, even if he has never actually trod the ground.”

“It’s the enemy who decides when the war is over.”-Clausewitz.

“Military activity is never directed against material force alone; it is always aimed simultaneously at the moral forces which give it life, and the two cannot be separated. But moral values can only be perceived by the inner (intuition).”-Clausewitz.

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Chronology

  • 1880s: The US Naval War College is founded by Stephen Luce.-USNWC JPME.

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