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

this level, as well as at the strategic and the grand-strategic other dimensions that can bemanipulated span the spectrum of leverage points for manipulating a Complex AdaptiveSystem that were described at the end of chapter 5.This also surfaces when Boyd discusses the three categories of conflicts, which mustbe positioned at the strategic level. Negating time and information is perhaps the necessarymechanism that leads to inadequate reactions, but not sufficient. Other factors need tocombine with lack of time to induce a moral, mental and physical incapability to react.Schwerpunkte, physical and non-physical, need to be attacked as well as Nebenpunkte.Physical as well as non-physical connections, moral bonds, must be severed through thegame of isolation and interaction. Conspicuous and varied actions are necessary and it isthese, combined with the menacing aspect of those actions and impressions that produceparalysis, disintegration and non-cooperative centers of gravity, and that shatter cohesion.The aim of the theme of disintegration and collapse is rendering the adversary powerless bydenying him the opportunity to cope with unfolding circumstances. The temporal dimensionplays a large role here too, but rather within the context of the organism’s ability to adapt,and it plays a much less prominent role than at the tactical level.The abstract aim of Boyd’s method is to render the enemy powerless by denyinghim the time to mentally cope with the rapidly unfolding, and naturally uncertain,circumstances of war, and only in the most simplified way, or at the tactical level, can this beequated with the narrow rapid OODA loop idea. Indeed, it is only at the tactical level thatBoyd actually refers to ‘OODA more inconspicuously, more quickly and with moreirregularity’. So, the view that the rapid OODA loop idea captures Boyd’s work is valid onlyif one confines oneself to the tactical level, but it leaves unaddressed the fact that Boyd alsodealt with the other levels of war, that he dealt with other subjects such as organizationalculture, as well as the fact that at the other levels of war Boyd focussed on other factorsrelevant for adaption.The larger theme: AdaptabilityIf the previous presentations did not do so already, the comprehensive drawing of theOODA loop Boyd developed in his last presentation suggests indeed that there is muchmore to the OODA loop idea than only the (important) insight of “rapid OODA looping”and after a complete reading of his work, it is evident that the theme of adaptation is actuallythe one which is at the heart of Boyd’s work. Maintaining the ability to adapt while negating that tothe opponent is the single all-embracing theme connecting the various parts of A Discourse.‘Adaptability is the power to adjust or change in order to cope with new and unforeseencircumstances’, Boyd noted in Patterns, and ‘in dealing with uncertainty it seems to be theright counterweight’. The dominant and overarching theme in Boyd’s work is not the narrowinterpretation of rapid OODA looping, or “decision superiority”, but rather the ability toadapt to the unfolding, multidimensional events, which occur at different time scales. The“rapid OODA looping idea” in the narrow sense fits in the larger theme of adaptation, andeven this narrow view on Boyd’s work gains meaning if it is expressed within the context oforganizational adaptation.Boyd regards the contestants, the armies, their headquarters and societies in terms ofliving systems, as organisms, that aim to survive and prosper. To that end they – individuals,platoons, brigades, divisions, army corps, nations, and any other type of social system -observe, learn and adapt. Boyd’s theory is about interacting processes of thought, aboutanticipation and feedback loops, about learning and adaptation and about the fatalconsequences of not learning or being constrained in one’s efforts. The OODA loop stands273