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

preconceived battle plan depends upon his evaluation of the unfolding situation. By beingformless, that is: without having a recognizable configuration, this evaluation becomes ratherdifficult. Thus being formless also implies being unfathomable. False appearances kept secretin turn help being unfathomable. Formless can also mean that one lacks an identifiable massand the enemy cannot discern a pattern or a main body, again perhaps due to the truephysical dispersion of our forces or through being unfathomable and employing deceit andbeing successful in deception activities. Not knowing our position and in order to defendwhat he treasures or to cover the possible routes we can go he must disperse his forces 88 .Speed, Rapidity. These tactics aim at getting the opponent dislocated and confused.To enhance the creation of confusion, and being unfathomable, one should also use superiorspeed and rapidity. Speed, rapidity of movement and attacks help in shaping the opponentand wear him down 89 . The same holds true for the concepts of Variety and flexibility. This isreflected in:Men all know the disposition by which we attain victory, but no one knows the configurationthrough which we control the victory. Thus a victorious battle (strategy) is not repeated, theconfigurations of response to the enemy are inexhaustible 90 .A particular kind of this is captured in the concept of The orthodox (cheng) and theunorthodox (ch’i). There is one set of polar opposites whose multitude of variations is alsoinexhaustible and which also leads to the enemy being completely wrong footed. This is theconcept of using the orthodox (cheng) and the unorthodox (ch’i). It is an important set of polaropposites and one Boyd would frequently refer to. They can be translated as the‘straightforward method and the crafty method’ or ‘the direct method and the indirectmethod’. Ch’i and Cheng must be understood in the widest sense as meaning energy,strategy, ideas, forces (moral, mental and physical). The point is that one can use force (andnot forces as in specific types of units) in both conventional, traditional or imaginativeunconventional ways in dealing with an opponent. Nothing in itself is either straightforwardor crafty, direct or indirect. Characteristic of the concept is the fact that the unorthodox canbecome the orthodox. Whether it is one or the other depends on what one thinks one’sopponent will expect in the particular circumstances of the battle.The concept of ch'i and cheng is about conceptualizing, characterizing, manipulatingforces within, and by exploiting, an enemy's expectation. When a frontal attack is expected, aconclusion derived from one’s previous strategy and tactics and one’s disposition of forces atthat particular moment, then that is the orthodox and an enveloping movement will be theunorthodox. The concept also refers to the functions of forces; to fix the opponent is theorthodox but the coup the grace will be delivered by the unorthodox in a flanking attack 91 .88 This is mirrored in: ‘if I determine the enemy's disposition of forces while I have no perceptibleform, I can concentrate my forces while the enemy is fragmented. If we are concentrated into a singleforce while he is fragmented into ten, then we can attack him with ten times his strength. Thus we aremany and the enemy is few. If we attack his few with our many, those whom we engage in battle willbe severely constrained’. And furthermore in: ‘the location where we will engage the enemy must notbecome known to them. If it is not known, then the positions that they must prepare to defend arenumerous. If the positions the enemy prepares to defend are numerous, then the forces we engagewill be few’ 88 .89 Ibid, ch.11, p. 220.90 Ibid, ch.6, p.193.91 See Sawyer ch.5, p.187: ‘In general in battle one engages with the orthodox and gains victorythrough the unorthodox [….] the changes of the unorthodox and orthodox can never be completely62