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

The general underlying idea of Counter-Blitz, according to Boyd, is thus to:Pull adversary apart and bring about his collapse by causing him to generate or projectmental images that agree neither with the faster tempo/rhythm nor with the hidden form ofthe transient maneuver patterns he must compete against 137 .After a 17 page discussion of the German Blitz campaigns, and the successful RussianCounter-Blitz, which serves to illustrate this underlying idea, Boyd arrives at the section ofPatterns of Conflict, in which he ties the various key insights together in 5 pages and produces aconclusion of Boyd view on the art of success.Wrap Up, or coming full circleWhat ‘getting inside the enemy’s OODA loop means. The wrap-up is a highlyconceptual synthesis and reformulation of all of his previous arguments, ideas and themes. Itincludes direct reference to his earliest intuitive remarks as well as his last argumentconcerning the importance of shaping the opponent’s perception. Here Boyd abandons thedivision in tactical, grand tactical and strategic levels but combines them. He does not referto attrition, maneuver or moral conflict anywhere, but merges the essence of the latter two.He attempts to strip away and recombine even further than before to arrive at the mostconcise formula for explaining success and failure in conflict. In a sense the wrap-up isBoyd’s way of proving he has validated the assertions he made in the first section of Patternsof Conflict. On page 12 he had asserted that ‘variety, rapidity, harmony and initiative seem tobe the key qualities that permit one to shape and adapt to an ever-changing environment’. Inthe ‘Wrap Up’ he focuses on these four elements in particular to arrive at the most conciseconceptualization of “The Art of Success”. According to Boyd, the message thus far isthat 138 : He who is willing and able to take the initiative to exploit variety, rapidity, and harmony –as basis to create as well as adapt to the more indistinct - more irregular – quicker changesof rhythm and pattern, yet shape focus and direction of effort – survives and dominates.or contrariwiseHe who is unwilling or unable to take the initiative to exploit variety, rapidity, andharmony…goes under or survives to be dominated.The Game, Boyd has pointed at, is to:Create tangles of threatening and/or non-threatening events/efforts as well as repeatedlygenerate mismatches between those events/efforts adversary observes or imagines(Cheng/Nebenpunkte) and those he must react to (Ch’i/Schwerpunkt)as basis toPenetrate adversary organism to sever his moral bonds, disorient his mental images, disrupthis operations, and overload his system, as well as subvert, shatter, seize or otherwise137 Ibid, p.156.138 Ibid, p.174.228