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The Principles of War for the Information Age Robert R. Leonhard

Synopsis by Hernan Cortes

The Law of Humanity Warfare is an outgrowth of the human soul; all human conflict is founded upon the nature (physical, psychological, and spiritual) of mankind.

The Law of Economy Man’s reach always exceeds his grasp. Further, the supreme danger of armed conflict causes it to be an exceedingly wasteful enterprise. Therefore, to prevail in conflict, one must economize as much as possible.

A weapon is effective only insofar as it influences the morale of the enemy. That quality is what makes military weapons politically relevant.

The Law of Duality There are two parts of conflict: subjective and objective. Subjective conflict is fighting a like opponent where and when he is strong. Objective conflict is fighting an unlike opponent when and where he is weak.

Subjective question: What will I do when I am no longer opposed by my counterpart?

Objective question: What will I do when I am opposed by my counterpart?

All weapon systems are originally designed with unlike targets in mind.

The Principle of Knowledge and Ignorance Knowledge concerns the information that we have or intend to have about ourselves, the enemy, and the environment. Ignorance is the converse of knowledge, and it deals with what we do not know, what we cannot know, or what we choose not to know.

Information has a cost associated with it. Truth costs time, lives, and supplies.

Knowledge and ignorance compose the independent principle of war, upon which all other principles rely for application.

Principles of Aggression The principles of aggression deal with what we intend to do to the enemy to accomplish our goals.

Dislocation and Confrontation Dislocation is the art of rendering enemy strength irrelevant. Confrontation is the direct, systematic engagement of enemy strength. Effective warfighting rests upon the skillful combination of dislocation and confrontation.

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Dislocation is asymmetrical, and, according to the dual nature of conflict, it is objective in its approach to warfare. Dislocation is an extremely economical means of defeating the enemy, because it sets aside the enemy’s strength, rather than expending time, lives, and treasure to destroy it.

Dislocation comes in four forms:

Positional dislocation seeks to render the enemy’s strength irrelevant by causing it to be out of position, oriented the wrong way, or in bad terrain.

Functional dislocation renders enemy strength irrelevant by causing a key element of it to be dysfunctional.

Moral dislocation causes enemy strength to be irrelevant, due to the unwillingness of his soldiers or leaders to fight.

Temporal dislocation renders enemy strength irrelevant through the manipulation of time, attacking the enemy when he is unready.

Confrontation is the subjective part of warfare. It is extremely uneconomical. Confrontation seeks to account for enemy strengths and intentions. Because warfare is competitive, it is illogical to assume that the enemy force will permit continual and uninterrupted dislocation of his strength. Rather, he will oppose us vigorously and continuously. Therefore, we must confront his strength in order to facilitate our dislocation activities.

The purpose of confrontation is to immobilize, delay, and attrite the enemy’s strength. We achieve this effect primarily through symmetrical engagement.

Distribution and Concentration Concentration involves the gathering of combat power with a view to application of that combat power in a specific place and time. Concentration sacrifices time in order to garner combat power, with a view to attacking a ready enemy.

Spatial distribution is the active dispersion of combat power according to purpose throughout the battlefield, theatre of operations, or theatre of war to accomplish specific purposes in the most economical and precise way possible. Temporal distribution (preemption) sacrifices combat power to achieve a temporal advantage, with a view to attacking an unready enemy.

The greater our knowledge, the more effectively we can distribute combat power. The greater our ignorance, the more we have to concentrate in order to compensate for uncertainty.

Principles of Interaction The principles of interaction address the interplay between the friendly and enemy force acknowledging that the enemy is determined and capable, and that our warfighting must account for his aggressive actions.

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Activity and Security Security consists of those measures taken to protect the friendly force from enemy action. Activity is all other friendly action that advances the commander’s plan.

The goal is to allocate precisely enough resources to security to counter the enemy attacks, and no more. The commander reserve as many resources as possible for activity, because it is through activity that he will prevail in conflict.

The greater out knowledge, the more economically we can secure ourselves. The greater our ignorance, the more we must secure against the unknown.

Opportunity and Reaction Opportunity is the freedom to act. The garnering of opportunity results in a multiplication of options for positive activity. An army with opportunity has great freedom of action.

Reaction aims at the destruction of enemy opportunity. It takes cognizance of the fact that at times the enemy will have the opportunity to act against us. Reactive warfare accounts for enemy freedom and mobility and attempts to control it, limit it, and eventually destroy it, thereby recapturing opportunity for the friendly force.

When an army in conflict has great knowledge, opportunity is the dominant form of warfare. Knowledge-based armies should spend most of their time exploiting opportunity. When an army has great ignorance, reactive warfare is the norm.

Armies must develop and nurture a strong balance between opportunity and reaction. They must be adept at exploiting opportunity when they have it, rather than frittering it away in idleness and inertia. Conversely, they must be skilled in creating opportunity through the prosecution of reactive warfare, through the destruction of enemy opportunity.

Principles of Control The principles of control address how we manage the friendly force.

Option Acceleration and Objective Option acceleration seeks to delay the decision concerning the desired end state of a conflict, and then capitalizes on the flexibility to achieve a precise and high-payoff end state. The commander uses combat power to rapidly create tactical, operational, and strategic options at a rate that overturns enemy plans and reactions. The strengths of option acceleration are agility in action, and the ability to exploit unforeseen opportunities.

Objective seeks to make an early decision concerning the desired end state of a conflict, and then capitalizes on that decision through the selection of a stable and achievable goal prior to combat operations. The strengths of objective are the ability to prepare thoroughly, to stay unified and focused throughout the force, and to garner political will.

The greater the knowledge the superior authority has, the greater the potential for option acceleration. Conversely, the more ignorant the superior authority is, the more it must rely upon objective.

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Command and Anarchy Command is the legal and procedural exercise of authority over subordinates. Anarchy calls for the orchestration of the activities of separate entities. On the extreme command side of this principle, we have a well-defined hierarchy, institutionalized with accepted rules and practices. On the extreme anarchy side, we have coequal, independent bodies with no legal or procedural connections at all.

Command seeks unity of effort through authoritative direction. Although it tends to gain from efficiency of control, it tends to lose efficiency of interaction with the enemy. The command side leads to rapid, economical decision making, but it suffers from imposing uneconomical constraints upon the activities of subordinates.

Anarchy seeks success through skillful integration of efforts. Anarchy tends to gain efficiency of interaction with the enemy, but it loses efficiency in control processes. Anarchy leads to economical optimization of subordinate activities, but it suffers from uneconomical decision making.

The greater the knowledge of the higher headquarters, the more it can and should effectively employ command. The greater the ignorance of the higher headquarters, the more it can effectively use anarchy.