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

difficult) subordinates that accept danger, demonstrate initiative, take risks, and come-upwith new ways toward mission accomplishment. Finally, they must manifest a dedication andresolve to face-up to and master uncomfortable circumstances that fly in the face of thetraditional solution.From Cyril Falls’ book Boyd extracts insights concerning the reverse issue: whendoes moral strength evaporate. Boyd tells how during the First World War in East EndLondon air raids caused a tendency to panic in the latter part 1917. Moreover, whether therewas an air raid or not, some 300.000 people crowded each night into the undergroundrailway stations and slept on the platforms. Although a single German airship did cause amillion pounds worth of damage in a raid, the success of airship attacks was mainly moraland measured in terms of absenteeism in factories and sensational drops in production inwarlike material. A similar effect was noted by German Blitzers in their employment of divebombers,to which the German Armies owed much in their victories in Poland, Belgium andFrance. Acting in close support to the armor and infantry, they often put hostile artillery outof action, not through destruction but by driving the detachment from their guns. Thosesuccesses were won for the most part by moral rather than material effect. To troops unusedto them, these dive-bomber attacks proved extremely unsettling 107 .Boyd leads his audience in deriving implications from these examples from history.Cyril Falls’ comments suggest, according to Boyd, that moral effects are related to themenace posed by the Zeppelins and dive-bombers, and the uncertainty associated with notknowing what to expect or how to deal with this menace. Put simply, moral effects arerelated to menace and uncertainty. This also offers a preliminary suggestion that moralstrength represents mental capacity to overcome menace and uncertainty.One element is still missing however: the element of trust. As was discussed above,guerrillas stress the use of propaganda, civil disorders, selected terrorism, etc., as the basis togenerate mistrust and discord. Balck emphasized the importance of trust for cohesion. Andas both guerrillas and Blitz commanders work in a hostile environment (of menace anduncertainty), which naturally breeds mistrust, it is clear that moral effects must include thisfactor. This suggests that moral strength represents mental capacity to overcome menace,uncertainty and mistrust 108 . From these insights Boyd develops five notions related to moralconflict 109 :- moral strength: mental capacity to overcome menace, uncertainty, and mistrust.- Moral victory: triumph of courage, confidence, and esprit (de corps) over fear,anxiety, and alienation when confronted by menace, uncertainty, and mistrust.- Moral defeat: triumph of fear, anxiety, and alienation over courage, confidence, andesprit when confronted by menace, uncertainty, and mistrust.- Moral values: human values that permit one to carry on in the face of menace,uncertainty, and mistrust.- Moral authority: person or body that can give one the courage, confidence, andesprit to overcome menace, uncertainty, and mistrust.107 Ibid, p.119.108 Ibid, p.120.109 ibid, p.121. Boyd explicitly refers to Clausewitz' concept of friction in the use of the words fear andanxiety.214