ISSUE 152 : Jan/Feb - 2002 - Australian Defence Force Journal

44AUSTRALIAN DEFENCE FORCE JOURNAL NO. 152 JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2002strategy is implemented by assigning missions,tasks and resources to tactical operations withina designated area of responsibility.” 9 It ischaracterised by a significant emphasis onmilitary capabilities as the means to achievestrategic ends. 10 The operational level of conflictis where integration of joint assets occurs and isthe level at which decision can be achieved.“The tactical level of conflict is concernedwith the planning and conduct of battle. It ischaracterised by the application of concentratedforce and offensive action to gain objectives.” 11This level of conflict is focused on militarymeans to achieve operational or campaign ends.It embodies ownership of assets in a relativelydefined battlespace for the achievement ofspecific missions that contribute to thecampaign objective”. 12Strategic ManoeuvreIn order to understand strategic manoeuvre,one must first understand the nature ofstrategy. “Strategy is an art rather than ascience. It is an art because it involves: thecollision of adversarial wills, the clash ofasymmetrical forces, and is guided by imperfecthuman beings.” 13 Luttwak describes five levelsof strategy: “the technical (the interplay ofweapons), the tactical (the planning of battles),the operational (the construction of campaigns),theatre strategy (the execution of campaigngoals) and grand strategy (the integration of alllevels to fulfil national policy)”. 14 GrandStrategy encompasses war on two separate, butinterrelated levels. “That of method, in theclassical warfare tradition of seeking decision inthe field, and policy, as part of a broader warstrategy which may involve many non-militaryfactors.” 15“At the level of military method, strategicmanoeuvre concerns generalship (the collisionof military forces in the field) and operationalart.” 16 Hans Delbruck, the German militaryhistorian, argued that classical generalship wasdominated by two strategic methods.Niederwerfungsstategiethe strategy ofannihilation, and Ermattungsstrategethe strategyof exhaustion. 17 Alexander and Napoleon wereproponents of the great encounter battle, andthus characteristically attritionists, whereasFrederick the Great was a proponent of battleand manoeuvre, and thus characteristically amanoeuvrist. However, manoeuvre warfare isnot about being a manoeuvrist opposed to anattritionist. The British military historian, BrianHolden Reid observed that “manoeuvre warfareand attrition are complementary elements,which contain both offensive and defensiveforms whether forces are on the move or at thehalt. Thus the elements of manoeuvre warfareapply under both defensive and offensiveconditions”. 18Strategic manoeuvre as a military method isabout moving one’s forces skilfully so as tomultiply their operational effectiveness. It is theability to inflict attrition by striking selectivelyat a point and time of one’s choosing. This is theessence of Liddell Hart’s strategy of the indirectapproach. 19 Strategic manoeuvre as a militarymethod is only one of several means ofattaining the political ends of the war, however,it is the level of conflict at which politicalobjectives are integrated.At the level of policy technique, strategicmanoeuvre can be equated with diplomaticmanoeuvre, in which all actions are coordinatedin order to achieve a coherent national, orinternational, approach to conflict. 20 AndreBeaufre argues that at this level strategicmanoeuvre ceases to be a pure military method.“It broadens to include the full range of a state’spower, including: diplomacy, economic pressureand psychological factors that may be used –directly or indirectly – with military force tosecure victory.” 21 Beaufre defines the idea oftotal strategy as “not something military, but anessential government technique covering theentire phenomenon of coercion in internationalaffairs”. 22 He believes that the key tounderstanding strategy as an essential techniquein statecraft lies in the mastery of the concept ofmanoeuvre, especially at the level of strategic