Romanian Military Thinking

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Romanian Military Thinking ~ 4/2007
to work under the Tsar definitively. For this
reason he was accused of treason by the
French Generals. He was nominated
by the Tsar as General of Division,
aide-de-camp and his adviser and went with
him to International Meetings. In addition,
he became preceptor of the Russian crown
prince. Finally, after having retired to private
life in Belgium and then in France, he
suggested to Napoleon III the plan aimed
at winning the French-Piedmontese war
of 1859 against Austria.
The period he spent at the Tsar’s service
was very fruitful. In 1830 he published
«Tableau Analytique des principales
combinaisions de la
guerre et des leurs
rapports avec la politique
des Etats», where the art
of war is divided into five
branches: the politics
of war (which artificially
distinguishes itself from
the military policy),
strategy (or art/science of moving the
masses in the theatre of war), the great
tactics of manoeuvres and fighting
(which involves moving the armies in the
battlefield), the art of the engineer including
the attack and the defence of strongholds
and the tactics of detail. Both the strategy
and the «great tactics of manoeuvres
and fighting» are summarized in the
concentration of forces at a crucial point.
The strategy concerns the compilation
of the plan of campaign, which involves the
analysis of 15 factors; the plan of campaign
is carried out by «the great tactics». Strategy
– unlike the tactics – is an exact science,
more than an art. The «tactics of detail»
includes the training of personnel and the
employment of minor units in the fighting.
“Both Jomini and
Clausewitz are real
interpreters of the
Napoleonic model and
both of them consider
strategy as dependent
on politics”
In «Tableau», h e
introduced for the
first time the term
“logistics”, but this
new branch was not
considered as a part
of the art/science
of war yet and he
gave it the role
of «handmaid of French infantry at Waterloo
strategies», which consists in organizing
the movement and the stationing of troops
according to the strategy. The current
contents of logistics are included in the
military administration, whereas the
branches of artillery
and Corps of Engineers
maintain a logisticaladministrative
organization.
The most important
and complete work
is «Précis de l’art de la
guerre ou nouveau
tableau analytique des principales
combinaisions de la stratégie, de la grande
tactique et de la politique militaire» (two
volumes – 1838). In disagreement with
Clausewitz (who is not cited in the opening
chapter when he refers to the masters
of the art of war), but making concessions
to his anti-dogmatism, he confirms and
deepens the contents of his previous works
and, for the first time, defines logistics as
an autonomous branch of the art/science
of war, which for him is more science than
art – contradicting himself – and has as
immutable basis, as point of reference
that should always be considered,
some principles motivated by historical
experience. This process makes the
formulation of a complete theory of war