Historical pattern Carl von Clausewitz On War 1832
•Character/nature
of war
•An act of policy to use violence to impose
one’s will upon another
•Duel or
act of human interaction directed against an animate
object that reacts
•Uncertainty
of information acts as an impediment to vigorous
activity.
•Psychological/moral
forces and effects (danger, intelligence, emotional
factors …) either impede or stimulate activity.
•Friction
(interaction of many factors, including those above)
impedes activity.
•Genius
(harmonious balance of mind/temperament that permit
one to overcome friction and excel at the complex
activity of war) changes the nature and magnifies the
scope of operations.
•Strategy
•Exhaust enemy by influencing him to increase
his expenditure of effort.
•Seek out
those centers of gravity upon which all power/movement
depend and, if possible, trace them back to a single one.
•Compress
all effort, against those centers, into the fewest
possible actions
•Subordinate
all minor, or secondary, actions as much as
possible.
•Move with
the utmost speed.
•Seek the major battle (with superiority of number
and conditions that will promise a decisive victory.
Aim
“Render
enemy powerless”—with
emphasis on “the destruction
of his armed forces”