Military Thought

Military Thought
Name	Military Thought
Discipline	Strategic studies
Language	Various

Military Thought is the body of theory, analysis, and doctrine concerned with the preparation for, conduct of, and consequences arising from armed conflict. It draws on contributions by theorists, commanders, institutions, campaigns, and texts across eras such as Sun Tzu, Carl von Clausewitz, Antoine-Henri Jomini, Niccolò Machiavelli, and Alfred Thayer Mahan to shape practice in states and non-state actors including United States Department of Defense, People's Liberation Army, Soviet Armed Forces, Royal Navy, and Wehrmacht. The field intersects with studies of Napoleonic Wars, American Civil War, World War I, World War II, and Cold War dynamics while informing policy in contexts like the Yalta Conference, Treaty of Versailles, and Treaty of Westphalia outcomes.

Definition and Scope

The discipline synthesizes theory from figures such as Sun Tzu, Thucydides, Julius Caesar, Alexander the Great, Flavius Vegetius Renatus and institutions like the US Military Academy, Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, Frunze Military Academy, Marine Corps University, and École Spéciale Militaire de Saint-Cyr. It covers doctrine promulgated by bodies such as the NATO Allied Command Operations, Soviet Ministry of Defence, Imperial Japanese Army General Staff, People's Liberation Army Academy of Military Science, and French Ministry of the Armed Forces. The scope also includes analysis of seminal works like On War, The Art of War (Sun Tzu), The Influence of Sea Power upon History, The Utility of Force and campaigns including Battle of Cannae, Siege of Leningrad, Operation Barbarossa, D-Day, and Battle of Stalingrad.

Historical Development

Origins trace to antiquity with contributions from Herodotus, Polyaenus, Xenophon, Hannibal Barca, and Scipio Africanus; medieval developments feature William Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke, Saladin, Genghis Khan, and Khalid ibn al-Walid. Early modern shifts reflect analyses by Niccolò Machiavelli, Maurice of Nassau, Sully (Maximilien de Béthune), and effects from the Thirty Years' War culminating in treatises by Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban and Antoine-Henri Jomini. Industrialization and the Napoleonic Wars provoked strategic revision by Napoleon Bonaparte, Carl von Clausewitz, Helmuth von Moltke the Elder, and naval thinkers including Alfred Thayer Mahan and Sir John Fisher. Twentieth-century transformations were driven by actors and events such as Erich von Manstein, Basil Liddell Hart, Giulio Douhet, Hermann Göring, Isoroku Yamamoto, Operation Desert Storm, Tet Offensive, Battle of Kursk, and intellectual centers like RAND Corporation, Naval War College, and Royal United Services Institute.

Major Schools and Theorists

Prominent schools include the Clausewitzian school associated with Carl von Clausewitz, the Sun Tzu tradition connected to Sun Tzu, the Mahanian maritime school linked to Alfred Thayer Mahan, the Jominian approach tied to Antoine-Henri Jomini, the Air Power school promoted by Giulio Douhet and Billy Mitchell, and the Blitzkrieg doctrine associated with Heinz Guderian and Erich von Manstein. Other influential theorists and practitioners include John Boyd, B. H. Liddell Hart, Andrew Marshall, Thomas Schelling, Colin S. Gray, Yevgeny Zamyatin (policy critic), Sun Pin, Sima Guang, Maurice de Saxe, Baron de Jomini, Friedrich von Bernhardi, Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, Horatio Nelson, T. E. Lawrence, Vo Nguyen Giap, David Galula, Hugo Grotius, Zhang Zhidong, and Clausewitz's contemporaries from the Prussian General Staff system.

Concepts and Principles

Key concepts include center of gravity theory from Carl von Clausewitz, principles of mass and maneuver emphasized by Napoleon Bonaparte and Helmuth von Moltke the Elder, sea control articulated by Alfred Thayer Mahan and Sir Julian Corbett, air superiority advocated by Giulio Douhet and Herman P. Wilenski, deterrence doctrines developed during Cold War theorizing by Bernard Brodie and Thomas Schelling, and counterinsurgency frameworks advanced by David Galula, Robert Thompson (British Army officer), and John Nagl. Operational art evolved in discussions by Soviet General Staff, Alexander Suvorov, Anatoly Nogovitsyn (Soviet theorist), and US Army Training and Doctrine Command, linking tactics from battles such as Battle of Gettysburg, Battle of Midway, Battle of El Alamein and strategic effects seen in Yalta Conference and Potsdam Conference settlements.

Strategy, Tactics, and Operations

Strategic thought spans grand strategies by Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt, George C. Marshall, Charles de Gaulle, Mikhail Gorbachev, and Dwight D. Eisenhower and operational campaign design exemplified by Operation Overlord, Operation Market Garden, Operation Barbarossa, Operation Torch, and Desert Storm. Tactical innovations include storm tactics of Gustavus Adolphus, combined arms practices by Soviet Deep Battle theorists like Mikhail Tukhachevsky, armored warfare by Heinz Guderian, naval tactics at Battle of Trafalgar and Battle of Jutland, and guerrilla methods refined by Che Guevara and T. E. Lawrence. Training institutions such as United States Army War College, Imperial Japanese Army Academy, Bundeswehr University Munich, and PLA National Defence University translate doctrine into exercises and manuals.

Influence on Policy and Doctrine

Thought leaders and organizations shape state policy via National Security Council (United States), Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom), General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, Pentagon, Central Military Commission (China), and multilateral bodies like NATO. Doctrinal publications by Joint Chiefs of Staff (United States), Soviet General Staff Academy, British Army Training and Doctrine and People's Liberation Army Rocket Force inform procurement, force posture, and alliance planning reflected in operations such as Operation Enduring Freedom, Operation Iraqi Freedom, Korean War, and Vietnam War. The interplay with legal frameworks appears in texts by Hugo Grotius, Martens Clause debates, and adjudication in tribunals following Nuremberg Trials and International Criminal Court proceedings.

Criticisms and Debates

Critiques address Clausewitzian abstractions raised by B. H. Liddell Hart and John Keegan, critiques of sea-power emphasis by Julian Corbett rivals, air-power absolutism challenged after Battle of Britain, and debates over nuclear deterrence prompted by Robert Oppenheimer, J. Robert Oppenheimer contemporaries, and Herman Kahn. Ethical and legal disputes involve commentators like Michael Walzer and controversies surrounding My Lai Massacre, Abu Ghraib, and Drone strikes controversies implicating United States Air Force and Central Intelligence Agency. Post-Cold War debates feature asymmetric warfare analyses by Colin S. Gray, Ivan Arreguín-Toft (on insurgency), and technological disruption discussions involving Cyber Command (United States) and thinkers influenced by John Arquilla and David Ronfeldt. Ongoing scholarship from institutions such as International Institute for Strategic Studies, Center for Strategic and International Studies, Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, and Academy of Military Science (China) continues contested reinterpretations of classical texts and contemporary practice.

Category:Military theory