Although the world has changed considerably since Sun Tzu wrote this passage well over two thousand years ago, much remains the same. Todays loose conglomeration of interdependent societies only appears highly advanced by comparison. Even a cursory review of history suggests that many of the same political, economic, religious, ethnic, cultural, and ideological differences that drove people to fight in Sun Tzus age still prevail. Friction and conflict, it seems, are inevitable facts of life. Consequently, the seemingly innocuous term “peacetime competition” is simply a euphemism that describes the low end of a very real conflict spectrum.
As individuals tasked...
Given the importance of the process aspect of strategy described in chapter one, how do we structure our effort to force our opponent to change his original decision? More specifically, is there some part of an opponents decision process that may be particularly vulnerable to a coercive counter-strategy action? One seldom considered aspect invites further study and involves the pivotal role organizations can play in a decisions outcome.
Our investigation necessarily begins by developing a broad sense of how governments determine policy. Although much has been written on this subject, Graham Allisons analysis of the Cuban missile crisis provides several...
Armed with a conceptual decision framework that identifies the importance of organizations in consensus policy-making, this chapter addresses the question, How can we use a coercive air strategy to affect this framework. By using a comparative construct that mirrors the systems analysis paradigm (fig. 3),1 we will start by examining how several prominent air theorists and strategists attempted to tackle this problem. A brief description of each component should help the reader understand the practical methodology that underpins our approach.
Beginning at the end, the outcome is quite simply the political result the strategist seeks to achieve. This desired endstate...
The previous two chapters presented the conceptual background and theory for a coercive air strategy aimed at undermining an opponent’s internal support for a particular policy decision. While this theoretical base forms an essential part of the entire proposal, it is difficult (if not impossible) to assess the “value” of this strategy solely on its theoretical merits. We need to make an assessment of the strategys practical “value” to define the conditions that suggest its future applications.
The Czechoslovakian crisis that gripped Europe in the summer and fall of 1938 highlights many of the same situational characteristics we see today...
This paper has discussed strategy—coercive air strategy. Although other definitions exist, strategy is a decision process that links ways and means to a desired end. Many modern air strategists tend to concentrate solely on the ways and means side of the strategy equation. However, we have used Sun Tzus know your enemy and yourself axiom, and his attack an opponents strategy corollary, to propose an approach that seeks to influence the decision process aspect of strategy.
From the outset, we contended that there is no single, universally applicable approach that will always yield success. With this proposition in mind,...
