Term of Reference in the Study of Military History

October 30, 2004

Terms of Reference

National Objectives: Those fundamental aims, goals, or purposes of a nation - as opposed to the means for seeking these ends - towards which a policy is directed and efforts and resources of the nation (or alliance) are applied.

National Policy: A broad course of action or statements of guidance adopted by the government (or alliance) at a national level in pursuit of national objectives.

Defense policy: The assumptions, plans, programs, and actions taken by the citizens of the United States to ensure the physical security of their lives, property, and way of life from external military attack and domestic insurrection. Strategy: the general concept for the use of military force; the art and science of developing and using political, economic, psychological and military forces as necessary during war and peace, to secure national objectives.

The levels of war: strategic, operational and tactical. War as a national undertaking must be coordinated from the highest levels of policy making to the basic levels of execution. Strategic, operational, and tactical levels are the broad divisions of activity in preparing for and conducting war. While the Principles of War are appropriate to all levels, applying them involves a different perspective for each.

a. The Strategic Level of Warfare. The level of war at which a nation or group of nations determines national or alliance security objectives and develops and uses national resources to accomplish those objectives. Activities at this level establish national and alliance military objectives; sequence initiatives; define limits and assess risks for the use of military and other instruments of power; develop global or theater war plans to achieve those objectives; and provide armed forces and other capabilities in accordance with the strategic plan. This perspective is worldwide and long-range. The strategic planner deals with resources, capabilities, limitations, and force postures. He sets broad priorities for allocation of resources and time frames for accomplishment. Working within a broad perspective of forces and capabilities, strategy concerns itself with strategic mobility, mobilization, civil defense, forward force deployments, nuclear deterrence, rapid reinforcements and rapid deployment. Cooperation among the services and allied nations to produce a unity of effort is of vital concern in the strategic arena. Strategic planning is not a military function only. It is formulated by input from the Joint Chiefs of Staff, The National Security Council, members of Congress, and selected advisors to the President.

b. The Operational Level of Warfare. The level of war at which campaigns and major operations are planned, conducted, and sustained to accomplish strategic objectives within theaters of areas of operations. Activities at this level link tactics and strategy by establishing operational objectives, initiating actions, and applying resources to bring about and sustain these events. These activities imply a broader dimension of time or space that do tactics; they insure the logistic and administrative support of tactical forces, and provide the means by which tactical successes are exploited to achieve strategic objectives. (JCS pub 1-02). The operational art of war is primarily the planning and conduct of campaigns and practiced by large field, air, and fleet unity of the services. It involves joint, combined, and coalition forces that maneuver with the objective of defeating the enemy and achieving strategic objectives within a theater of operations, rather than a specific battlefield. Operations take the form of large-scale maneuvers such as penetrations, envelopments, double envelopments, frontal attacks, naval blockades, air interdiction, turning movements, feints, amphibious landings, and airborne assaults. At the operational level, maneuver may be sometimes entirely movement. Operational art: the activity concerned with using available military resources to attain strategic ends in a theater of war; the use of battles to achieve strategic ends; the conduct of campaigns for strategic purposes.

c. The Tactical Level of Warfare. The level of war at which battles and engagements are planned and executed to accomplish military objectives assigned to tactical units and task forces. Activities at this level focus on the ordered arrangement and maneuver of combat elements in relation to each other and to the enemy to achieve combat objectives. (JCS pub 1-02). The objective of the tactical level of war is the detailed destruction of enemy forces of thwarting directly the enemy intentions. Tactics consists of the employment of division size and smaller units in weapons engagements and battles with the enemy. Close support, interdiction, destroying equipment, disrupting facilities, reconnaissance and surveillance, killing or capturing personnel, positioning and displacement of weapons systems, and supply and support are tactical activities. The tactical commander's perspective is one of a battle or engagement when he "executes" a plan of movement with fire support to achieve a specific objective such as clearing an area, blocking enemy movement, protecting a flank, gaining fire superiority, or seizing a location. The room for anticipating opportunities and risk-taking is somewhat limited by the confines of the immediate aspects of the battle and the specificity of the objective. Maneuver at the tactical level is nearly always a combination of movement and supporting fires. These two functions are tightly integrated instead of being somewhat discrete as they may frequently be at the operational level. Movement, instead of resulting from opportunities for positional advantage, is usually an effort to position forces to concentrate fires on the enemy or to escape enemy fires.

Tactical unit commanders depend on their higher operational level commander to move them effectively into and out of battles and engagements. Success or failures at the tactical level, when viewed as a whole by the operational-level commander, are the basis for a wider scheme of maneuver. Small unit actions stimulate the operational-level commander's anticipation for result in victory. The perspective of the tactical commander is somewhat more subjective -- his concern is destruction of the enemy forces in his zone of action and his own force's survival. He must concentrate on executing his portion of the overall operational-level perspective.

Tactics involve the actual conduct of battle, the application of fire and maneuver by fighting units in order to destroy the physical ability and the will of the enemy's armed forces.

Summary

Strategic level: the level of war at which a nation determines national security objectives , develops, and uses national resources to accomplish these objectives
Operational level: the level of war that links the tactical employment of forces to strategic objectives; the use of campaigns to achieve national objectives.
Tactical level: the level of war at which battles are conducted; the employment of units in combat; the ordered arrangement and maneuver of units in relation to each other and the enemy.

What is war?

A conflict carried on by nation states which use force in the form of arms to achieve a desired goal.
An act of violence to force another country to do one's will.
Usually formalized by a declaration of war.
Usually ended by some form of ceremony.
"The continuation of policy by other means." Clausewitz

Total War: A war conducted by a belligerent in which few restraints on means, objective, geographic area, or time are exercised and in which the involvement of all resources of the society are normally committed. War that targets the entire social and economic infrastructure of the state and that kills civilians indiscriminately. Also known as general war. Total subordination of politics to war.

Absolute War. The term used by Clausewitz to describe war as violence in its most extreme form. A philosophical concept, a logical fantasy, impossible to achieve in reality. A benchmark against which one could measure actual developments in warfare. War in the abstract. War that could NOT be made obsolete by evolving events

Real War. The term used by Clausewitz to describe war as experienced. War constrained by limits in the form of the social and political context, by time and space, by practical factors. War in reality. War experienced on a continuum from limited to unlimited war. War with constraints.

Limited War: A war prosecuted by a belligerent who voluntarily exercises restraints on means, objective, geographic area, or time. A war whose objective is less than the unconditional defeat of the enemy. Armed conflict sort of general war. The wars of pre-revolutionary Europe. A war of limited means and aims. (DOD) Armed conflict short of general war, exclusive of incidents, involving the overt engagement of the military forces of two or more nations.

Unlimited War. War that aims at the complete and utter overthrow of the enemy. Not necessarily the same as total or general war, depending on how the resources of the two states are marshaled. War aimed at a political decision, the overthrow of the enemy; the disarming of the enemy through the destruction of his armed forces. (DOD) Armed conflict between major powers in which the total resources of the belligerents are employed, and the national survival of a major belligerent is in jeopardy.

Civil War: violence between parties in a state; a war within a nation between opposing political factions or regions.

Conventional Warfare: War conducted by forces other than special operations forces or forces capable of using nuclear weapons.

Unconventional Warfare: A broad spectrum of military and paramilitary operations, normally of long duration, predominantly conducted through, with, or by indigenous or surrogate forces that are organized, trained, equipped, supported, and directed in varying degrees by an external source. It includes, but is not limited to, guerrilla warfare, subversion, sabotage, intelligence activities, and unconventional assisted recovery. Also called UW War. (DOD)

Revolutionary War: war between factions in a state in the name of an ideological objective.

Coup d'etat: the overthrow of an existing government by an internal faction; does not involve an ideological agenda; the violent overthrow or alteration of an existing government by a small group

Terrorism: The calculated use of unlawful violence or threat of violence to inculcate fear; intended to coerce or to intimidate governments or societies in the pursuit of goals that are generally political, religious or ideological. (DOD Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms, Joint Publication 1-02).

Guerrilla Warfare: Military and paramilitary operations conducted in hostile territory by irregular and primarily indigenous forces. (DOD)

Insurgency: an organized movement aimed at the overthrow of a constituted government through the use of subversion and armed conflict; a condition of revolt against a government that is less than an organized revolution and that is not recognized as belligerency.

Categories of Operations

Offensive: Operations designed to achieve one's purpose by attacking the enemy.
Defensive: Operations designed to cause an enemy's attack to fail.
Joint: Military operations involving more than one service or two or more U.S. military departments.
Combined: Military operations involving the armed services of more than one allied nation.

Forms of Strategy

Exhaustion: A strategy which seeks the gradual erosion of an enemy nation's will or meanest to resist.
Attrition: A strategy that seeks the gradual erosion of the combat power of the enemy's armed forces
Annihilation: A strategy which seeks the immediate destruction of the combat power of the enemy's armed forces.

Factors involved in war:

Political: arms and the resources of the opposing states; as stressed by Clausewitz, war is an act of force to compel our adversary to do our will.
Technological: a force armed with the inventions of art and science; the increasing utilization of gunpowder; industrialization; applied science.
Organizational, institutional, administrative: strategy, tactics, logistics, communications, training.

Fundamental Questions of Military History

Purpose: to discover the forces that shape the military institutions of a society.

How are armies formed?

Militia, conscript, volunteer, mercenary, full-time, part-time soldiers.

Why do wars occur?

Aggression, territorial acquisition, dynastic reasons, defense.

Why do armies fight?

Religion, dynastic interests, nationalism, ideology, discipline.

How do armies fight?

Shock tactics, firepower, linear tactics, employment of masses, mobility, position warfare.

What is the relationship between the armed forces?

Naval defense; the army as the first line of defense; geographic position of the state.

Who directs the employment of the armed forces?

Soldier, king, general, staff, legislature.

How are armies sustained?

Logistics, technology, morale, national style, industrial power.

How are wars ended?

Exhaustion, negotiated settlement, surrender, destruction.

How is a period distinctive?
What non-military factors affected the outcome?

The Threads of Continuity

The study of military history reveals the art of war as an ever-changing phenomenon. Each war is different in some way from those preceding it. Sometimes the changes have been evolutionary; other times, they have been revolutionary. Military leaders must adapt to these changes, often under the pressure of battle. Failure to recognize the impact of these changes, often because reliance upon ideas and concepts that proved successful in the past, has resulted in defeat. On the other hand, there are historical examples of leaders who have accurately judged the impact of these changes, reacted accordingly, and emerged victorious.

Although the art of war has changed from age to age, historians are able to distinguish common factors in different ages, in different societies, and in different armies. These factors that provide a common reference for the study of the changes in the art of war are called threads of continuity. These factors fall into two groups: the internal threads, which are predominantly or exclusively a part of the military profession; and the external threads, which are part of a greater social milieu in which the military exists.

The 11 threads of continuity discussed above do not provide an infallible means of learning about every aspect of the military past. Rather they offer a conceptual framework that seeks to provide a means to reconstruct at least the general outline of the tapestry of the military past. The full meaning and magnitude of that tapestry can be appreciated only after long study or long years of service and significant contribution to the profession of arms

Purpose: to place events in perspective, ways to get at information, a means of organizing military history.

Military theory and doctrine: ideas about war; a generally accepted body of ideas and practices that governs an army's organization, training and fighting The fifth thread of continuity, logistics and administration, is much like strategy, in the sense that even though most of its functions are wholly a part of the profession of arms, many functions are dependent upon and interact closely with civilian-controlled activities. In addition to this similarity with strategy, logistics and administration provide many of the resources that strategy puts to work. Logistics is the providing, movement, and maintenance of all services and resources necessary to sustain military forces. Administration is the management of all services and resources necessary to sustain military forces. Logistics includes the deign, development, acquisition, storage, movement, distribution, maintenance, evacuation, and hospitalization of personnel; the acquisition of construction, maintenance, operation, and disposition of facilities; the acquisition or furnishing of services, such as baths, laundry, libraries, and recreation. Since administration applies to the management of men, material, and services, it is intimately associated with logistics.
Military professionalism: an attitude or state of mind distinguishing the expert from the amateur. The definition of military professionalism is dependent on an understanding of a profession. A profession is an occupation or a calling that requires specialized knowledge of a given field of human activity, that requires long and intensive training, that maintains high standards of opinion, that commits its members to continued study, and that has the rendering of a public service as its prime purpose. Military professionalism as a thread of continuity, then, is the conduct, aims, and qualities of members seeking to create or striving to perfect a profession whose public service is the conduct of war. Attitude thus distinguishes the "professional" members of the military from those who are not professionals. Those who are seeking to create or striving to perfect the procession of arms are military professionals. Those who practice or think about the conduct of war solely for personal glory or material gain are not military professionals.
Generalship: the art of command at high levels. This thread of continuity that is wholly or largely a part of the profession of arms in generalship, is defined as exercising the qualities and attributes necessary to command major units. Generalship involves strategy, that is, an ability to use all means and resources available to achieve an assigned goal. It involves tactics - the formation and control of ordered arrangements of troops when training for the clash of arms or the clash of arms is imminent or underway. It involves logistics - that is, a concern for services and material and administration, the ability to control and manage all the resources available to a senior commander. And it involves military theory and doctrine - the formulation of new ideas about war, their evolution, and acceptance or rejection. Generalship also connotes a deep under-standing of the conduct, aims and qualities of members of the military profession. Generalship involves leadership at the highest levels of command and represents a deep understanding of the value of morale and esprit to the profession.
Strategy: the preparation and the waging of war; getting to the battlefield rather than action on the battlefield. This thread of continuity, strategy, no longer belongs entirely to the military profession, for today's military leaders generally work closely with government officials in the field of strategy. "Strategy" is derived from the Greek strategos, which means the art or skill of the general, and this definition remains useful in understanding modern definitions of the term. Until late in the 18th and early in the 19th centuries, the specific tasks of generals differed little from the tasks of subordinate commanders or from the tasks of politicians, and no specific term was used to describe the art or skill of the generals. Political and military leadership of a group was often vested in the same individual, and the resources of small unit leaders on the battlefield differed little from the resources of the general in overall command. By the late 18th century the existence of a resource available to higher ranking leaders was recognized and given the name "strategy"; a ruse or trick that gives an advantage to one side in battle or war. By the early 19th century, "strategy" referred to the use of resources of the particular tasks of war that were peculiar to the high-ranking officer. It was defined as the preparation for war that took place on the map or the use of battles to win campaigns. Since the modern appearance of the term, however, no precise definition has approached universal acceptance. Yet the term continues to be widely used, and it finds itself among the vital concepts used to examine and describe the evolution of the profession of arms. The following definition attempts to facilitate the student's quest; the student should also be aware that many other thoughtful definitions exist. Strategy is the long-range plans and policies for distributing and applying resources to achieve specific objectives. Strategy allows the achieving of adopted goals. But because conditions in was and peace are constantly changing, strategy must be modified as it is being executed, and at times even the goals of strategy must be altered. Strategy, like tactics can be further refined by restricting modifiers. For example, grand strategy is the strategy of a nation or of an alliance. The goal of grand strategy is formulated by heads of state and their principal political and military advisors. Grand strategy is more accurately called national strategy if the goals of a single nation are being sought. A third refinement or level of strategy is military strategy, which is a strategy where the means and resources are those of the armed forces of a nation and where the goal of strategy is the securing of objectives consistent with national policy through the application of force or the threat of force. Military strategy can be formulated by military commanders at all levels, but commanders below general officer rank are rarely involved in strategy that affects national policy. A fourth level of strategy is campaign strategy, which is the strategy of commander of a force of considerable size that is acting independently. Its immediate goals are generally the occupation of territory of the defeat of all or a significant part of the enemy armed forces; its long term goal remains to support political goals.
Operations: Operations involves the planning and conduct of campaigns designed to defeat an enemy in a specific space and time with simultaneous and sequential battles. While this thread of continuity can be used to analyze even the earliest campaigns, its origins as a separate field of study date only from the era of Napoleon. The two theorists who are most famous for their analysis of Napoleon's success, Karl von Clausewitz and Henri Jomini, both discerned the difference between Napoleon's conduct of the battle and the actions that preceded and followed it. They believed these techniques differed enough from the conduct of the battle to merit separate study by the beginning of the 20th century most military writers accepted this distinction, although they differed on terms and limits. "Grand tactics" and "military strategy" have both been used in the past to describe what is now termed "operations." The Prussians and later the German Army made the most systematic studies of the subject, while it is relatively new concept in the American army. FM 100-5 Operations had identified "operations" as the link between strategy and tactics which governs the way campaigns are planned and conducted. As a result, operations is concerned with using available military resources to attain the objectives in a specific theater of war. Therefore, operations seeks to attain the objectives of strategy while at the same time addressing the way in which campaigns are planned and pursued in a theater.
Tactics: the preparation for combat and the actual conduct of combat on the battlefield. This thread of continuity that is strictly a part of the military profession is tactics. Tactics are the specific techniques smaller units use to win battles and engagements. This includes activity out of enemy contact that is intended to directly and immediately affect such battles and engagements. The word tactics is derived from the Greek taktos, which means ordered, or arranged; modern usages restrict the word to ordered arrangement, to include the positioning of supporting weapons, that facilitates the defeat of a rival in battle. In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, "tactics" was further refined by the adjectives "grand" and "minor". Grand tactics were the tactics of large organizations and minor tactics were of small or of organizations consisting of entirely of one arm (infantry, cavalry, or artillery). Grand tactics are now included in the operational level of warfare.
Logistics and administration: the relationship between the state's economic capacity and its ability to support military forces. The fifth thread of continuity, logistics and administration, is much like strategy, in the sense that even though most of its functions are wholly a part of the profession of arms, many functions are dependent upon and interact closely with civilian-controlled activities. In addition to this similarity with strategy, logistics and administration provide many of the resources that strategy puts to work. Logistics is the providing, movement, and maintenance of all services and resources necessary to sustain military forces. Administration is the management of all services and resources necessary to sustain military forces. Logistics includes the deign, development, acquisition, storage, movement, distribution, maintenance, evacuation, and hospitalization of personnel; the acquisition of construction, maintenance, operation, and disposition of facilities; the acquisition or furnishing of services, such as baths, laundry, libraries, and recreation. Since administration applies to the management of men, material, and services, it is intimately associated with logistics.
Technology: the application of science to war; ideas techniques and equipment and their application; the relationship of certain technology to societal values and political influences. Political, social, and economic factors provide the foundations of power, and technology often provides the limits to power. Technology is the using of knowledge to create or improve upon the practical objects or methods. Within the military profession, technology leads to progressive advancement in such important areas as transportation, weaponry, communications, construction, food production, metallurgy, and medicine. Technology has an undeniable influence on strategy, tactics, logistics, military theory and doctrine and generalship; when a group's technology is superior to its adversary's, it greatly enhances the probability of success in military endeavors.
Political factors: characteristic elements or actions of governments affecting warfare. This thread of continuity, logistics and administration, is much like strategy, in the sense that even though most of its functions are wholly a part of the profession of arms, many functions are dependent upon and interact closely with civilian-controlled activities. In addition to this similarity with strategy, logistics and administration provide many of the resources that strategy puts to work. Logistics is the providing, movement, and maintenance of all services and resources necessary to sustain military forces. Administration is the management of all services and resources necessary to sustain military forces. Logistics includes the deign, development, acquisition, storage, movement, distribution, maintenance, evacuation, and hospitalization of personnel; the acquisition of construction, maintenance, operation, and disposition of facilities; the acquisition or furnishing of services, such as baths, laundry, libraries, and recreation. Since administration applies to the management of men, material, and services, it is intimately associated with logistics.
Social factors: elements affecting warfare that result from human relationships; race, gender, and class. The activities or ideas emanating from human groups and group relationships that affect warfare are social factors. These factors involve such diverse concepts as popular attitudes, the role of religious institutions, level of education, roles of educational institutions, psychological warfare, reactions to and roles of mass media, interracial and minority rights questions, combat psychology, standards of morality and justice, and ultimately the will of a people to resists. In total war social factors are objectives that can be as important as terrain objectives or the destruction of the military forces in the field.
Economic factors: elements affecting warfare that result from the production, distribution, and consumption of the resources of the state. Those activities and ideas that involve the production, distribution, and consumption of the material resources of the state are economic factors. Different types of economies, for example: capitalist, communist, laissez-faire, industrial, agrarian, commercial, subsistence, or common market, affect warfare differently. Economic war, which takes such forms as blockade or boycott, is a part of total war, but it can also occur when war as a general condition does not exist. The interrelation of political, economic, and social factors is generally complex, especially in modern societies, and the detailed study of one alone is often impossible. Together, these factors provide the foundations of national power.

Questions About A Specific War

What are the origins of the conflict?
Why did the U.S. go to war?
Who were its allies?
What non-military alternatives were considered?
What did the U.S. seek to accomplish?
What were the costs in terms of treasure and human lives?
What role did technology play?
What was the role of the media?
What were the consequences of the war?

The Principles of War:

MASS: Concentrates combat power at the decisive time and place
OBJECTIVE: Directs military operations toward a defined and attainable objective that contributes to strategic, operational, or tactical aims. OFFENSIVE: Dictates that we act rather than react and dictate the time, place, purpose, scope, intensity, and pace operations. The initiative must be seized, retained, and fully exploited.
SURPRISE: Strikes the enemy at a time or place or in a manner for which he is unprepared.
ECONOMY OF FORCE: Creates usable mass by using minimum combat power on secondary objectives. Makes fullest use of forces available.
MANEUVER: Places the enemy in a position of disadvantage through the flexible application of combat power.
UNITY OF COMMAND: Ensures unity of effort for every objective under one responsible commander.
SECURITY: Protects friendly forces and their operations from enemy actions which could provide the enemy with unexpected advantage SIMPLICITY: Avoids unnecessary complexity in preparing, planning, and conducting military operations.

"MOOSE MUSS" Mass, Objective, Offensive, Surprise, Economy of Force, Maneuver, Unity of Command, Security, Simplicity