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

Theme for Disintegration and CollapseSynthesisLethal effort:Tie-up, divert, or drain-away adversary attention andstrength as well as (or thereby) overload criticalvulnerabilities and generate weaknesses.Maneuver:Subvert, disorient, disrupt, overload, or seize thosevulnerable yet critical connections, centers, and activitiesas basis to penetrate, splinter, and isolate remnants ofadversary organism for mop-up or absorption.Moral:Create an atmosphere of fear, anxiety, and alienation tosever human bonds that permit an organic whole to exist.IdeaDestroy adversary’s moralmental-physicalharmony,produce paralysis, andcollapse his will to resistAimRender adversary powerless by denying him the opportunity to cope withunfolding circumstancesHis holistic approach, and his view of the adversary as a complex adaptive system, becomeseven more manifest in the subsequent slides, which lead him to formulate nothing less thanthe Theme for Vitality and Growth. Boyd continues to strip down and recombine his ideas,focusing in particular on the element of cohesion. Not the manifestation of force but thecohesion that produces it should be the focus of planning. For Boyd asserts that the“underlying insight” of the Theme for Disintegration and Collapse, is that 122 :unless one can penetrate adversary’s moral-mental-physical being, and sever those interactingbonds that permit him to exist as an organic whole, by being able to subvert, shatter, seize,or otherwise subdue those moral-mental-physical bastions, connections, or activities that hedepends upon, one will find it exceedingly difficult, if not impossible, to collapse adversary’swill to resist.Boyd then homes in on the meaning of the word “penetrate”. Seen from a different angle,the observation above can be rephrased to produce the name of the game as 123 :122 Ibid, p.137.123 Ibid.222