Colonel (retired) Arthur F. Lykke was a faculty instructor in the Department of National Security and Strategy at the U.S. Army War College in the late 80's and nearly...
Theories of War and Strategy
This tag relates to all articles, podcast episodes, and features related to the resident program course Theories of War and Strategy, which covers both the theories and the key theorists of war and strategy (e.g., Clausewitz, Jomini, Sun Tzu, and so on). It excludes the implementation of the theories in matters of policy and national strategy (explored in National Security Policy and Strategy).
The charter was…to look at preparation of the Navy for the defense of maritime security and the coasts In the early 1900’s the U.S. Navy found itself creating strategy...
In this episode in our Great Strategists series, U.S. Army War College historians Bill Johnsen and Con Crane present one of the more enigmatic figures in military theory, Baron...
Would a cyberattack that takes down the Texas power grid in the peak of summer be an act of war? “There is no spoon.” The 1999 film, The Matrix,...
One weakness of the way we view strategy … is that we neglect the environment Professional military education (PME) plays a vital role in preparing military leaders to fight...
The ritual of retaliation codified what makes you legitimate [as a combatant] and what makes you not legitimate How did combatants enforce the lawful practice of war prior to...
Propagandists now exercise increasing sophistication in their communications In February 2019, in (Indian-administered) Southern Kashmir, a Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terrorist cell attacked an Indian paramilitary convoy with an improvised explosive...
Prototype warfare is more than the rapid prototyping of technology … It is a mindset In motor racing there is very little time to either celebrate or dwell on...
These two commanders, Scipio Africanus vs. Hannibal … demonstrated [strategic leadership] to a great degree A BETTER PEACE continues the Great Captains series with the sequel to a previous...
Misusing protected persons in war presents real and present challenges in the Middle East Remember Saddam Hussein’s use of human shields during the Persian Gulf War? His illegal and...
It’s natural to ask what can we gain from this ‘old war’? … You can read [history] in a book, but when you actually walk the field, it rams...
Conflicts, both in Afghanistan as well as at home, will continue to have both a complex civilian and military character When the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) finally closed...
‘Is Remote Warfare Cheaper?’ ‘So that’s a really hard question to answer. … We actually have very little data’ A BETTER PEACE explores the implications of NATO members’ ongoing...
What if we spent one day on Herodotus, one day on Thucydides, and one day on Xenophon [at the War College]? Students with a basic foundation of ancient military...
attributes essential for field army command: professional competence, courage (physical and moral), initiative, self-confidence, and intuition, the ability to see and feel things in the context of time and...
The great benefit of looking at John Warden’s system is that it [employed] effects-based objectives [for] attacking an enemy A BETTER PEACE continues the Great Strategists series with a...
Right now, AI programs struggle to beat capable human adversaries, but it is only a matter of time During maneuvers, the 5-20 Infantry battalion staff begins planning an attack...
We don’t have a sophisticated genre about what do militaries do in the wake of victory What is the role of the military in consolidating victory? This has been...
Fundamentally in asymmetric conflicts, the struggle is over information that comes from the [local] population. This is different from the traditional ‘hearts and minds’ view A BETTER PEACE welcomes...
The OODA loop kinda represents how … humans and organizations learn, grow, and survive A BETTER PEACE continues its series on Great Strategists with a look at airpower theorist...