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

disposal. They should however operate with the overall systemic fitness and goals in mindwich requires the maintenance of cohesion, i.e., the maintenance of sufficient connectionsbetween the subsystems and layers. Moreover, the system will need operate on explicit andimplicit guidance. This way can a system hope to survive and prosper in the face of complexchange and uncertainty.To adapt means to create and maintain a fit with the environment and that is exactlywhat one wants to deny one’s opponents, whether it is through conventional warfare orthrough guerrilla warfare. Based upon the analysis of ancient and modern military history,Boyd identifies four key qualities of successful operations-- initiative, harmony, variety, andrapidity. Collectively, these characteristics allow one to adapt to and to shape the uncertain,friction-filled environment of war. That same set of qualities enables one to create friction,uncertainty and ambiguity, and to exploit mismatches, thus disabling the opponent’s capability toadapt. Friction, uncertainty and ambiguity, are closely related in Boyd’s work. All are threatsand potential weapons. Although related, intertwined even, each performs a specific role toachieve specific effects. Friction is directly connected to Boyd’s insistence on tempo. Tempoworks on the OODA loop and the adequacy of reactions through friction, that Clausewitzianterm that denotes the myriad factors that cause real war always to proceed differently thanwe expected or planned for. A high tempo will increase the friction in the opponent’sorganization that needs to react constantly.While not a novel term of course Boyd adds to Clausewitz’ idea the notion of SunTzu that friction can be used to shape the conflict in one’s favor by creating and exploitingthe frictions faced by one’s opponent. Friction is a tool in the hands of an able commander.The military commander can manipulate friction in two supplementary ways. First, he mustminimize his own friction through initiative and harmony of response. Boyd relates this ideaof minimizing friendly friction and maximizing enemy friction to his key qualities ofinitiative, harmony, variety, and rapidity. To minimize friendly friction, one must act andreact quicker than one’s opponent. This is best accomplished by the exercise of initiative atthe lower levels within a chain-of-command. This decrease in friendly friction acts to tightenhis own loop (i.e., to speed up his own decision-action cycle time). Another key to attaining afavorable edge in OODA loop speed and accuracy (and, hence, to winning instead of losing)is efficient and effective orientation.Second, he must maximize his opponent’s friction through variety and rapidity ofresponse. This increase in enemy friction acts to loosen the adversary’s loop (i.e., to slowdown his decision-action cycle time). To maximize enemy friction, one should plan to attackwith a variety of actions, executed with the greatest possible rapidity in a variety of tempo’s.Variety in one’s actions and strategy in terms of dimensions, areas, forces, tactics, method, intiming or in rhythm, precludes the opponent from recognizing a pattern in one’s actions.Getting inside the opponent’s loop requires that you remain fluid, that, like water, you followthe path of least resistance and least expectation, flow through the environment and usestrength against weakness. Make your opponent react. Be menacing and threaten what hevalues most. This lethal combination of varied, rapid actions (which can be physical, mentaland/or moral), serves to overload the adversary’s capacity to properly identify and addressthose events which are most threatening. Together, these “friction manipulations” assureone’s continuous operation within the enemy’s OODA loop in menacing and unpredictableways. Initially, this produces confusion and disorder within the enemy camp. It dissolvescohesion. Ultimately, it produces panic and fear, which manifest themselves in asimultaneous paralysis of the ability to cope and willingness to resist.Friction is thus a crucial concept for Boyd. It is a weapon as well as a threat. Theidea of friction as a weapon flows directly from the recognition of uncertainty as the one275