Evolution of Strategic Thought

 For any strategy 2 broad approaches exist: Cooperation/Competition

 Example – we want to achieve security. We can either cooperate and make
ties or compete. And in IR theory, either strategy has political
consequences.
 Military Strategy: Achieving your goals via use of force.
 Military Strategy must be default strategy if the other state is aggressive
(I.e., cooperation not possible). This scenario is the focus of this course.
 Strategy post WW2 evolved to subdue without force (armed conflict). This
was because 1. Nukes developed and now its essential to prevent
escalation of conflicts due to MAD doctrine. 2. The fact that not all things
can be achieved by force was universally emphasized after WW2.
 But ‘not all things can be achieved by force is actually one of the oldest
concepts of strategy’

Evolution of Strategic thought:

1. Sun Tzu - Art of War
2. Kautilya – Arthashastra
3. Machiavelli – The Prince
4. Carl von Clausewitz
5. Jomini
The Art of War – by Sun Tzu
 Oldest work on military strategy (~500BC)
 Very concise and easy to read, ~ 5000 words and 13 chapters
 Very relevant to modern post WW2 era because it stresses the importance
of avoiding conflict/prolonging it, introduced ideas to subdue without
fighting (like much of Eastern philosophy in general)

Main ideas/Summary:
 War is always used to achieve political ends. It's never an end, it’s a means
to an end. That end could be material gains/ideological supremacy.
 Approach differs from traditional Western philosophers I.e., he considers
war as bad and must not be the principal method, only as last resort
 All warfare is based on deception
 Preparedness, knowing yourself and the enemy, ground situation/changes,
link btw leaders and lowest ranks are the deal breakers for victory in battle

Chapter 1: Laying Plans

 Sun-Tzu explains the importance of being prepared.

 He points out five essential elements of war: moral influence, weather, terrain,
command, and doctrine.

Chapter 2: Waging War

 This chapter includes highly specific details, including how many horses and troops are
required for battle.
 The author emphasizes the utmost importance of advanced preparation so a soldier
can act quickly when the time comes.

Chapter 3: Attack by Stratagem

 Sun-Tzu focuses on preventative measures such as subduing the enemy without a fight.
 Five situations are given as predictions for victory:.
1. The leader has full awareness of themself, troops, and the opposition.
2. The leader knows how to use small or large forces.
 3. The leader knows how to unify the ranks with a common purpose.
4. The leader knows how to be patient while the opposition is impatient.
5. The leader's authority does not cloud judgment.

Chapter 4: Tactical Dispositions

 Victory should never be assumed or taken for granted.

 The elements of war are presented and include measurement of space, estimation of
quantities, calculations, comparisons, and chances of victory.

Chapter 5: Energy

 When dealing with troops, a group of people should be unified into a single force.
 The troops should be well-organized according to a chain of command.

Chapter 6: Weak Points and Strong

 Look like an easy target to make enemies assume an easy victory.

 Use mixed tactics to keep the enemy guessing and vulnerable.

Chapter 7: Maneuvering

 Strike a balance between confusing the enemy and teaching troops to obey seemingly
futile commands.
 Arrive on the battlefield early and organized.
 Actions should be clear and coordinated.

Chapter 8: Variation in Tactics

 Specific tactics apply to specific situations. For example, not every city needs to be
attacked.
 A general can fail in several ways, including being careless, acting in haste or afraid,
being easily provoked, and worrying excessively about troops rather than victory.

Chapter 9: The Army on the March

 Marches and alignment of troops are of utmost importance in defeating the enemy.
 Weather conditions and geographic features of the land should be taken into
consideration and used to the troop's advantage.

Chapter 10: Terrain

 Physical terrain and psychological terrain are equally important.

 Poor leadership cannot make up for well-trained troops; well-trained troops cannot
make up for poor leadership.

Chapter 11: The Nine Situations

 Certain grounds should not be involved in the conflict:

  dispersive ground - ground within one's land
 frontier ground - just inside enemy lines
 key ground - ground that is advantageous to both sides.
 Skilled troops should fight on the following lands:
 communicating ground - fortified land
 focal ground - land surrounded by three other states or potential allies.
 far inside enemy territory.
 Lands to avoid include:
 difficult grounds - rough terrain or swift rivers
 encircled ground - being pushed into difficult terrain by the enemy
 death ground - desperate situations.

Chapter 12: The Attack by Fire

 Fire is one of the most powerful weapons of war.

 With proper timing and conditions, fire can be used to destroy supplies and wreak
havoc on the enemy.

Chapter 13: The Use of Spies

 Different types of spies can be useful in providing information about the enemy and
evading unnecessary wars.
 Deceitful spies must be put to death

Arthashastra by Kautilya
 Almost as old as Sun Tzu (~3000BC – around the time of Greeks)
 Was main advisor to King Chandragupta
 Wrote Arthashastra, a book on war and strategy

Main ideas:
 This book was intended to teach a king how to govern so it is a treatise on
political science as well as foreign policy
 analysis of which kingdoms are natural allies and which are inevitable
enemies. A natural enemy is one's immediate neighbor.
 was a political realist, assumes every nation acts to maximize power and
self-interest. Moral principles have no force
 It’s good to have an ally but an alliance will only last as long as it's in allies
self-interest
 diplomacy is a subtle act of war
 regarded all allies as future conquests if time is ripe
 make treaties to break, no moral scruple
 use of secret agents to kill/disunite enemy leaders
 Women used as weapons – morale/entrap enemies
 use of religion and superstition to bolster troops and demoralize enemies
 spread of misinformation and use of deception
 humane treatment of conquered and subjects

The Prince by Machiavelli

 Recent, post Enlightenment, European (Kautilya and Tzu were both classical
>2000 years)
 Sun Tzu was a defensive realist, Kautilya an offensive realist (expansionism,
maximization of power). But Machiavelli introduced a whole new
dimension: amorality
 Machiavellianism is centered on manipulativeness, callousness, and
indifference to morality
 This influenced European colonialism (evident in how Brits used cunning to
conquer India etc)

Main Ideas:
 Europe used hired soldiers (mercenary armies) which consisted of private
individuals who fought wars for warring kingdoms merely for profit. They
were often outsiders and had no personal affiliation to the
war/people/king/homeland. The kingdoms were many in number and very
small (castle towns). They were akin to princely states. So, keeping a
regular/standing army was too expensive.
  Machiavelli criticized this practice because soldiers had no morale,
were not interested in fighting one another, often knew one another
and viewed war as only a business.
 He suggested the use of local people to solve problems of morale. If a
state lacked financial resources, instead of hiring foreign soldiers it’s
always better to use local people. Even in this scenario, a state
doesn’t need to keep a standing army and it would help morale
problems as people are more willing to fight for their homeland if not
their king.
 An army comprised of locals may not perform as well as a
professional army, but it can be trained and developed. {That shows
even Machiavelli realized the inherent importance of morale}
 The rest of his treatise is concerned solely with the principles of politics and
governance. E.g., if a king is opting brutal practices it is justified (ends justify
the means). A king should be feared and not loved.
 He coined the term ‘realpolitik’
 His principles of governance are not applicable in modern democracies, but
modern dictatorships are closer to his ideas.

Carl von Clausewitz

 War is an act of force to compel an enemy to do your will
 war is a serious risky business so use it for vital issues only, otherwise it
may damage your international image, your diplomacy and your economy
 throughout the war the fate is uncertain, and will remain so
 war has a theoretical aspect and a practical aspect AKA friction in war
 use of maximum force, disarm the enemy - obviously you won't use your all
if the objective that you have to achieve is small… that's why don't wage
war until the objective that we have to achieve is sufficient enough
 There are some moderating factors which prevent a war from going to an
extreme
1. War is never an isolated act. There are sociological political historical
reasons
 2. war does not consist of a single strike blow. you cannot incapacitate
an enemy just by one strike
3. the result is never final. only the dead have seen the end of war
 Difference in defense and attack - defense is superior because
number one it's your own territory and #2 attack uses more
resources
 Timing of strategy is important because culminating point
when defense changes to attack and vice versa
 War is a serious means to a serious end
 the clash with Sun Tzu is that Clauswitz considered war to be a
continuation of policy whereas Sun Tzu does not want it to be
policy
 war compromises of three main factors: the government,
army, civilians. They must be in harmony.
 The government decides feather it's worth it to fight or not but
must be in harmony with the people.
 law of combat - other factors constant those who have more
firepower will win

Jomini

 Post French Revolution (1770s) era

 Served Napolean as one of his strategists (Napolean
conquered half of europe using his strategy)
 make instruction easier, because it makes operational
judgment sounder, and mistakes less frequent
 a single unified line of operations is best
 all strategic "combinations" are faulty if they do not conform
to the basic principle "of operating with the greatest
possible force in a combined effort against the decisive point
 Attack is essential; the initiative must not be left to the
enemy
 Once committed to action, the commander must not
hesitate. He and his officers must, by their boldness and
courage, inspire their troops to the greatest possible effort.
 If beaten, the enemy must be pursued relentlessly.
 If victory for some reason should elude the commander, he
must not expect it from any other system, but must try
again, using sound principles - amassing, attacking,
persisting
 decisive point: where attack can seriously weaken the
enemy – and wait for it and only attack then
 Almost always it’s the enemy flanks (rear guard) and the
supply line would define the decisive points for attack (in
most armies the flanks have the supplies); an army could not
survive without supply and to threaten its base would
compel it to fight, no matter how unfavorable the
circumstances
 Napoleon and all victorious commanders always attack with
massed forces against some enemy point judged to be
"decisive."
 Aggressive, offensive action deprives the enemy of time to
think and act, while superior force at the time and place of
battle is the best guarantee of ultimate victory
 As simple as this strategy may seem, he repeated this
throughout his writings because in the actual conduct of
warfare they were so often ignored, with disastrous
consequences
 Does not believe in bringing politics into war (war is not an
extension of policy)
 Now we will focus on important strategists specialized in
each branch of the armed forces (spec Navy, Air Force)

Alfred Mahan (Naval Strategy)

 American Naval Officer (1860s)

 ‘He who rules the seas rules the world’
 Was the first to recognize that America must stop its
isolationist policy (‘whether they like it or not Americans
must begin to look outward. The growing production of the
country demands it’)
 And for that to happen, any country needs to invest and
develop navy but America especially, since the continent is
so far from most of the world’s countries
 Seas are vital for any country’s economy due to trade and
commerce
 According to Mahan, it was the economic strangulation of
France by naval blockade that forced Napoleon to retaliate
by attacking Russia which led to his defeat
 So wars are won by the economic strangulation of the
enemy from the sea – and this should be the chief objective
of navies
 Mahan was influenced by Jomini’s operational strategy that
a concentrated attack is the best method of naval warfare
(don’t spread the fleet too thin, and never divide it). In the
American Civil War, the South Confederation were wealthier
and more equipped, but its Navy was less unified than the
Northern Union
 He gave the idea of US Coast Guard – the principal job of
navy should be offensive. Coast guard is a defensive factor,
and it may be distracting. Ie Navy has other missions to
focus on. Eg: French Navy made a mistake when they used
their fleet for defense action. This caused the Brits to
dominate. Like Jomini, Mahan stresses offensive action
 Believed that even if you don’t directly attack an enemy, just
constantly harassing its commerce is enough to crush them
 Argued that America is going to be backward compared to
UK because like France it neglects navy for inland
development, does not have any major colonies beyond its
territories and unless this changes it will never be a power
(this did change after WW1 though)
 As for UK, after WW1, it lost the money to support its naval
bases/colonies and gradually its power weakened

Guilio Douhet (Aerial Strategy)

 Fairly recent (lived to see WW1)

 Early proponent of using airplanes in warfare (before that no
one thought of using them in war)
 Douhet suggested that while it was important to attack the
enemy’s military forces and industrial capacity, it was far
more important to destroy cities tactically (such as govt
centers) to weaken morale
 This would pressure citizens into asking their governments
to surrender. The logic of this model is that exposing large
portions of civilian populations to the terror of destruction,
 or the shortage of consumer goods would damage civilian
morale into submission
 Because bombing would be so terrible, Douhet believed that
wars would be short. As soon as one side lost command of
the air it would capitulate rather than face the terrors of an
air attack.

Modern Military Strategy

 Military strategy changes with technology
 With the development of nuclear weapons there is a possibility of
mutual catastrophic destruction
 Before that a lot of manpower and bombs were needed
 Using nukes in a short time we can cause quick destruction on a
large scale (and just 1 weapon used)
 so, the new strategy is deterrence - acquire power only to prevent
misuse of power
 If they must be used the first striker must ensure he has
destroyed all retaliatory capability of the opponent (no 2nd strike
possible – which is almost impossible)
 The first striker must also have a larger supply - because he needs
to annihilate not only the nuclear arsenal of the enemy, but also
their industrial hubs and city centers – so very few countries can
claim that power

Guerilla Warfare
 A modern technique, used fairly recently
 also known as irregular warfare or asymmetric warfare
 more common now than conventional warfare – its increasing in
popularity because its effective and because of deterrence
everyone avoids a full-scale war
 more prevalent in developing world and weak states
 difficult terrain is the key element of guerilla warfare – it aids the
fighters best and makes sabotage possible
 may b intrastate or interstate – or proxy groups supported by
enemy states
 often its external support which props up the insurgents
 often has revolutionary ideology – aim to transform/overthrow an
existing system
 proactive and causes more damage – pk lost more people post
war on terror than wars of 65 and 71 combined
 Mao Tze Dong founded China through guerilla warfare against
nationalist army’s forces
 Taliban defeated the most well-equipped army of the world using
this technique