Science, Strategy and War The Strategic Theory of ... - Boekje Pienter

Patterns of Conflict is a prime reflection of Boyd deep study of military history andstrategic theory. In the first half of the presentation Boyd takes his audience first through theexploits and ideas of Sun Tzu, Alexander, Hannibal, Belisarius, Genghis Kahn andTamerlane. He also discusses the 18 th century French theoreticians Saxe, Bourcet, Guibertand Du Teil. His study of Napoleon and his interpreters brings him to the disastrousdevelopments in the 19 th century. This investigation then leads him to WW I and Germaninfiltration techniques, T.H. Lawrence’s theory of guerrilla warfare, the revolutionary warfaretheories of Marx, Lenin ands Mao, J.F.C. Fuller’s work on maneuver warfare, the GermanBlitzkrieg doctrine, and modern guerrilla and finally to counter-guerilla and counter-blitzmethods, indicating his view on strategy as a dialectic interactive process.Boyd recognized a fundamental similarity among the processes that producedsuccess at the tactical level and at the grand tactical level (what we would call the operationallevel) in guerrilla warfare, in the swarms of Genghis Kahn that raided Europe, and in theBlitzkrieg concept (and in the second part of his presentation he extrapolates this idea to thegrand strategy level). Boyd sees parallels between the theories about, and practitioners ofthese concepts. Regarding these concepts as superior he uses them as contrasts to thedevelopments in the 19 th century and WWI, the ‘attritionist’ era.In the second half of the presentation he moves from the descriptive into toprescriptive/suggestive sphere and attempts to abstract his thoughts in a more universalmodel. Altogether it is an interesting tour de force, a great survey of military history andstrategic theory. On the other hand, it is also a biased approach to military history. Notunlike Liddell Hart, Boyd wants to convey a message, an argument, and not necessarily writea proper military historical overview according to established principles of investigation. Thisagenda becomes evident in the first pages of Patterns when he outlines the mission of thepresentation.MissionThe mission of Patterns of Conflict is fourfold:to make manifest the nature of Moral-Mental-Physical Conflict;to discern a Pattern for successful operationsto help generalize Tactics and Strategyand to find a basis for Grand strategy.And the intent is nothing less than ‘to unveil the character of conflict, survival andconquest’ 31 . He starts with presenting his audience with a number of impressions. First, heintroduces his point of departure which are the fast transients of fighters as discussed in ANew Conception of Air-to-Air Combat. Next he introduces the OODA loop for the first time.The idea of fast transients, according to Boyd, suggests thatIn order to win we should operate at a faster tempo or rhythm or, better yet, operate insideadversary’s Observation-Orientation-Decision-Action time cycle or loop 32 .31 Patterns of Conflict, p.2, underlining as in original. Where used in the following chapters, underliningdirectly follows Boyd’s text.32 Ibid, p.5.185