JP 1, Doctrine for the Armed Forces of the United States - Defense ...

Theory and Foundations
aspects. The forms of warfare are applied not in terms of an “either/or” choice, but in
various combinations to suit a combatant’s strategy and capabilities.
4. Forms of Warfare
a. Overview. A useful dichotomy for thinking about warfare is the distinction between
traditional and irregular warfare (IW). Each serves a fundamentally different strategic
purpose that drives different approaches to its conduct; this said, one should not lose sight of
the fact that the conduct of actual warfare is seldom divided neatly into these subjective
categories. Warfare is a unified whole, incorporating all of its aspects together, traditional
and irregular. It is, in fact, the creative, dynamic, and synergistic combination of both that is
usually most effective.
Note: It is recognized that the symmetry between the naming conventions
of traditional and irregular warfare is not ideal. Several symmetrical pair
sets—regular/irregular, traditional/nontraditional (or untraditional), and
conventional/unconventional—were considered and discarded.
Generating friction in the first two instances was the fact that most US
operations since the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks have been
irregular; this caused the problem of calling irregular or nontraditional
what we do routinely. In the last instance, conventional/unconventional
had previous connotation and wide usage that could not be practically
overcome.
b. Traditional Warfare. This form of warfare is characterized as a violent struggle for
domination between nation-states or coalitions and alliances of nation-states. This form is
labeled as traditional because it has been the preeminent form of warfare in the West since
the Peace of Westphalia (1648) that reserved for the nation-state alone a monopoly on the
legitimate use of force. The strategic purpose of traditional warfare is the imposition of a
nation’s will on its adversary nation-state(s) and the avoidance of its will being imposed
upon us.
(1) In the traditional warfare model, nation-states fight each other for reasons as
varied as the full array of their national interests. Military operations in traditional warfare
normally focus on an adversary’s armed forces to ultimately influence the adversary’s
government. With the increasingly rare case of formally declared war, traditional warfare
typically involves force-on-force military operations in which adversaries employ a variety
of conventional forces and special operations forces (SOF) against each other in all physical
domains as well as the information environment (which includes cyberspace).
(2) Typical mechanisms for victory in traditional warfare include the defeat of an
adversary’s armed forces, the destruction of an adversary’s war-making capacity, and/or the
seizure or retention of territory. Traditional warfare is characterized by a series of offensive,
defensive, and stability operations normally conducted against enemy centers of gravity.
Traditional warfare focuses on maneuver and firepower to achieve operational and ultimately
strategic objectives.
I-5