The Art of War, Nonlinearity and, Coping With Uncertainty.

Abstract

Abstract : This monograph offers a definition of discusses military art's relationship to the commander's management of battlefield uncertainty, and uncertainty's relationship to nonlinearity. Using the terms of art, uncertainty, and nonlinearity, the monograph builds a model of military art not only linking these terms, but also putting the terms in relation to US Army doctrine through the use of the battlefield operating system (BOS) Command and Control (C2). The context for the model of military art is the context of war, specifically Clausewitz's elements of war: danger, exertion, chance and uncertainty. In building the model, and applying Clausewitz, the monograph also offers definitions for the terms, chance, fog and friction. Additionally considered and incorporated into the model of military art are the terms and vision. The monograph concludes that military art is the commander's skill as guided by the principles of war in using military means for the attainment of an endstate. Military art begins where military science ends. It is characterized by synthesis, judging, and creativity. As military science is the practice of reducing battlefield uncertainty, military art is the practice of coping with battlefield uncertainty. The military artist's principal virtue is that of intuition, a virtue firmly grounded in experience and education. The principal manifestation of military art is vision, marked by the command's ability to agree upon its endstate and the methods of that endstates acquirement.