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

strikes, maneuver, planning, communication, and supply’ 129 . And in postmodern war, ‘timewill be the key element. Postmodern militaries will attempt to use speed and knowledge tobring the conflict to quick resolution 130 . Boyd would not care much about those whoemphasize the technological aspect of post-modern war, but he certainly would agree withthe doctrinal and organizational tenets and the operational and strategic benefits accruingfrom it.The asymmetric responseBoyd would however also have agreed with those who argue that, precisely because the Westhas unsurpassed conventional military power, future opponents will revert to unconventional- asymmetrical - methods. War is a contest of ideas, and the highly visible western pattern ofoperations make the West predictable. In dialectic fashion a response can be expected, and infact one author discerns a counter-revolution in militaire affairs. Not only will trusted tacticssuch as camouflage and dispersion be vigorously employed to negate the advantage ofprecision stand-off weapons, but opponents are likely to turn the Western conceptualizationof war against itself. If civilian casualties are to be avoided by Western militaries, opponentswill aim to cause the West to inflict massive and highly visible civilian casualties. The use ofhuman shields and using schools, mosques, cultural objects and hospitals as hiding places formilitary equipment are examples of this mode of thinking that have been witnessed duringDesert Storm, Allied Force, Enduring Freedom, Iraqi Freedom and the ensuing stabilizationoperations. Additionally, adversaries can employ non-military forms of combat such asinformation war, extortion, bribery, etc.This asymmetric countering of the West is developing into a deliberate attempt touse the Clausewitzian paradigm against the West. To illustrate this, in a remarkable bookpublished in China, titled Unrestricted Warfare 131 the authors, serving senior officers of theChinese armed forces, unveiled their view on how to counter the Western style of warfare. Itbegins with a thorough examination of the way the West, and in particular the US, hasfought wars in the past decade. They recognize the pattern. In response their approach ismulti-dimensional and deliberately not confined to the military dimension. In the followingtable are listed the domains in which war can be waged according to the authors.They advocate nonmilitary means such as Information Warfare related concepts,such as the use of hackers, the mass media and financial information terrorism. Rules andconventions, such as the Laws of Armed Combat are not adhered to, while the West’spolitical, moral and military restraints that fighting according to these rules imply, are fullyexploited. The key is the unique alignment and integration of psychological, diplomatic,resource and other warfare techniques. Weapons and combat methods are not necessarilyrelated to military hardware or military organizations.129 Steven Metz, Armed Conflict in the 21 st Century: The Information Revolution and Post-Modern Warfare (USArmy Strategic Studies Institute, Carlisle Barracks, April 2000), p.24.130 Ibid, p.87.131 Qiao Liang and Wang Xiangsui, Unrestricted Warfare (Beijing, 1999), p.156. In the past decade, andin particular in the past five years a large number of papers have been published on asymmetricwarfare. See for instance Robert Scales, ‘Adaptive Enemies: Dealing With the Strategic Threat after2010’, Strategic Review, vol.27, no.1, 1999; and Daniel Byman, Kenneth Polak and Matthew Waxman:‘Coercing Saddam Hussein: Lessons from the Past’, Survival, vol. 40, no.3, 1998. For an overview ofthe debate on this topic and some notable studies, see Frans Osinga, ‘Asymmetric Warfare;Rediscovering the Essence of Strategy’ in Olson (2002).311