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

the context within which the situation has taken place. Perhaps stretching Boyd’s work intounwarranted dimensions, one could assert that war is thus a strategic contest, an interactiveexercise in, or better, a competition in deconstruction in which each side attempts to gaugethe other’s background, his way of thinking, his experience, his interpretations of events, hisimage of the opponent, etc.Both Giddens’ work and the deconstructionists offer the view that there is noobjective absolute truth. Reality – facts, actors, behavior - is in large part a socialconstruction. Through dialogue, exploration, criticism and using various perspectives apicture can be painted that gives us enough confidence to momentarily base our decisionson. Both lead to views that closely correspond with the views Boyd put in his graphic of theOODA loop.It is tempting to compare the deconstructive method with the way Boyd constructshis argument; the way he makes sudden connections between seemingly disconnectedinsights, the way he frequently tears texts apart only to recombine them in a slightly differentorder than before, and his deliberate refusal to “finish” a briefing but instead altering theslides all the way up to 1995. Moreover, when Boyd concludes that the way to survive andprosper is ‘by an instinctive see-saw of analysis and synthesis across a variety of domains, oracross competing/independent channels of information, in order to spontaneously generatenew mental images or impressions that match-up with an unfolding world of uncertainty andchange’ 57 , he attempts to solve the problems posed by the following characteristics of thesocially constructed world:1. We know the world only as we perceive it;2. Our perceptions are based on learned interpretations;3. This learning is social: we learn from and among persons in social interactions4. The main vehicles which convey meaning are:a. symbols, including languageb. cultural mythsc. the structure and practice of our institutionsd. our rules for congruent action5. These vehicles of meaning together construct:a. our world view: how the world works, causality in it, what is valuableb. our sense of ourselves, our identity and purposec. our ideologies6. Our selves, our societies and institutions change continually through interaction 58 .Post-modern security studiesThis post-modern notion of the social construction of reality parallels Boyd’s ideas, whoseunderstanding on the nature of strategic behavior is very much in tune with developments insecurity and strategic studies during the nineties, developments stemming from post-modernideas, adding another justification to regard Boyd as a post-modern strategist 59 . In the past57 Boyd, Strategic Game of ? and ?, p. 58.58 Richardson, p. 22.59 This is based on Steve Smith, ‘The Increasing Insecurity of Security Studies: ConceptualizingSecurity in the Last Twenty Years’, in Stuart Croft and Terry Terriff (ed), Critical Reflections on Securityand Change (London, 2000), p. 76. John Mearsheimer, ‘Back to the Future: Instability in Europe afterthe Cold War’, International Security, vol. 15, no.1 (1990), p.9; David Mutimer, ‘Beyond Strategy: CriticalThinking and the New Security Studies’ , in Craig Snyder, Contemporary Security and Strategy, London,296