Tag: Operational Art

The unfortunate operational level: Five good reasons to review our operational level structures.

To see in the New Year, Defence-in-Depth is re-publishing its three most-viewed posts of 2019. At No. 2, a post from the MRes programme on the evolving concept of the operational level, and its utility in operational planning processes today. JONATHAN L This post is the second of two articles on the operational planning process… Read More The unfortunate operational level: Five good reasons to review our operational level structures.

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The unfortunate operational level: Five good reasons to review our operational level processes.

JONATHAN L Jonathan is a French officer on the Advanced Command and Staff Course and a KCL MRes student. The Statesman who yields to war fever must realise that once the signal is given, he is no longer the master of policy, but the slave of unforeseeable and uncontrollable events. Let us learn our lessons. Winston Churchill… Read More The unfortunate operational level: Five good reasons to review our operational level processes.

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The Operational Level as Military Innovation: Past, Present and Future

DR STUART GRIFFIN As Defence-in-Depth once again spends time exploring the concepts of the operational level and operational art, it seems an appropriate time to relate my previous contribution on the subject to the other research strand that I have previously blogged about: military innovation. Though the popular focus of military innovation tends to be… Read More The Operational Level as Military Innovation: Past, Present and Future

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Operational Art and the Operational Level: The Case for the Defence

The operational level of war and the operational art are key concepts of Western military doctrine and consequently form important areas of study in staff colleges around the world. To stimulate discussion and debate about these important ideas, authors from the Defence Studies Department are exploring the continued utility of these concepts. In this second… Read More Operational Art and the Operational Level: The Case for the Defence

Robert T. Foley3 Comments

Operational Level and Operational Art: Still Useful Today?

The operational level of war and the operational art are key concepts of Western military doctrine and consequently form important areas of study in staff colleges around the world. To stimulate discussion and debate about these important ideas, authors from the Defence Studies Department will explore the continued utility of these concepts in two posts.… Read More Operational Level and Operational Art: Still Useful Today?

Robert T. Foley4 Comments

The Instrumentalisation of History

by DR HUW J DAVIES History is a dangerous thing. Parallels between contemporary events and history are all too easy to arrive at. In unskilled hands, historical events can be manhandled to seemingly deliver lessons and solutions to apparently intractable contemporary problems. This is ‘instrumentalising’ history. In reality, history can be misleading, its so-called ‘lessons’… Read More The Instrumentalisation of History

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The Operational Level of War and the Operational Art

by DR HUW J. DAVIES and DR ROBERT T. FOLEY In recent years, particularly since difficulties have been encountered in Afghanistan and Iraq, military thinkers and practitioners have begun questioning the existence of the operational level of war. Some argue that the articulation of the concept was a distraction from adequate attention to the tactical… Read More The Operational Level of War and the Operational Art

Robert T. Foley5 Comments