The more I study strategy, the more I'm impressed by two things: (1) the simplicity of enduring strategic principles and (2) our all-too-frequent disregard for those simple principles. This became especially apparent to me when I read Colin Gray's excellent book Fighting Talk: Forty Maxims on War, Peace, and Strategy, which by Gray's own admission is little more than common sense--yet would be revolutionary if we consistently practiced it.
For those who don't have time to read Gray's new article about COIN and strategic theory, I particularly liked this simple list of questions that strategists should always be asking:
- What is it all about? What are the political stakes, and how much do they matter to us?
- So what? What will be the strategic effect of the sundry characters of behavior that we choose to conduct?
- Is the strategy selected tailored well enough to meet our political objectives?
- What are the probable limits of our (military) power as a basket of complementary agencies to influence and endeavor to control the enemy’s will?
- How could the enemy strive to thwart us?
- What are our alternative courses of action/inaction? What are their prospective costs and benefits?
- How robust is our home front?
- Does the strategy we prefer today draw prudently and honestly upon the strategic education that history can provide?
- What have we overlooked?
For those who don't have time to read Gray's new article about COIN and strategic theory, I particularly liked this simple list of questions that strategists should always be asking:
- What is it all about? What are the political stakes, and how much do they matter to us?
- So what? What will be the strategic effect of the sundry characters of behavior that we choose to conduct?
- Is the strategy selected tailored well enough to meet our political objectives?
- What are the probable limits of our (military) power as a basket of complementary agencies to influence and endeavor to control the enemy’s will?
- How could the enemy strive to thwart us?
- What are our alternative courses of action/inaction? What are their prospective costs and benefits?
- How robust is our home front?
- Does the strategy we prefer today draw prudently and honestly upon the strategic education that history can provide?
- What have we overlooked?
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