Principal's Of War Essay

War is still very much a part of the human species as we enter the 21 century. Our world is comprised of multiple civilized ‘cultures’, yet, we have state-actors (and non-sate actors) utilizing war for political means. War is still a political tool, “thus an act of force to compel our enemy to do our will.” As military leaders engage into warfare, "Principal’s of War" provides fundamental guidelines that must be executed. As an athletic team of any sport engages into play with another, it’s the basic execution of the fundamental that triumphs. As Antoine-Henri Jomini wrote, "War is always to be conducted according to the great principles of the art....Military science rests upon principles which can never be safely violated in the presence

As we analysis modern warfare, we are evaluating both classical and contemporary philosophies and theories. We have investigated and scrutinized every microscopic element of our planning and execution of the engagement. From our analysis, there are five guiding principles that I believe is critical to adapt as our fundamental strategies and tactics that must be followed as we commit to physical conflict. This report has identified and speaks on the five most critical guiding principles: 1) Accepting and Incorporating the ‘Spirit of the Age’ (‘Character of War’), 2) Mobile and Transitional Volunteer Force (‘Forms’ and ‘Strategies’ of Warfare), 3) Civil-Military Relationship, 4) ‘Just War’ Doctrine, and final 5) ‘War Termination’ (Peace Transition)

The second critical guiding principle for military leaders of modern warfare is having the ability to quickly determine the needs to fulfill the political goals, and quickly adapt/adjust the volunteer military force to the best ‘form’ and ‘strategy’ solution to achieve the political goal - Mobile and Transitional Volunteer Force. We can’t be held to ‘only’ the traditional ‘Western Way of War’ with its Napoleon's influence. We need to keep an array of strategies that we can quickly adjust too. It could be a traditional strategy of maneuvering and mobility on the battlefield such as the Napoleonic ‘decisive victory’ (to end a war in one bold, victorious offensive), Fuller’s “dislocation strategy” and/or Liddell Hart’s “indirect approach”. Both deterrence, positional warfare (stalemate), and/or ‘Constabulary missions’ may be a proper solution as well. Along with the different forms, we have different strategies, with the same goal to achieve the ‘end result’ to break the opponent’s will to resist. Clausewitz refers to this as “wearing down the enemy.” A couple of such strategies include ‘annihilation’ (which seeks to the overthrow of the enemy’s military power), and the ‘strategy of attrition, exhaustion, or erosion’ (indirect approach, which seeks the gradual reduction of an enemy’s military strength through combat,