I have been exploring military doctrines of a number of western democracy with a view to understanding the concept of doctrine and its relationship with strategy.
Firstly, what is military doctrine?
The NATO definition of doctrine is:
"Fundamental principles by which the military forces guide their actions in support of objectives. It is authoritative by requires judgement in application."
Canadian Army definition:
"Military doctrine is a formal expression of military knowledge and thought, that the army accepts as being relevant at a given time, which covers the nature of conflict, the preparation of the army for conflict, and the method of engaging in conflict to acheive success... it is descriptive rather than prescriptive, requiring judgement in application. It does not establish dogma or provide a checklist of procedures, but is rather an authoritative guide, describing how the army thinks about fighting, not how to fight. As such it attempts to be definitive enough to guide military activity, yet versatile enough to accomodate a wide variety of situations."
Soviet definition:
A doctrine is "a state's officially accepted system of scientifically founded views on the nature of modern wars and the use of the armed forces in them... Military doctrine has two aspects: social-political and military-technical. The social-political side encompasses all questions concerning methodology, economic and social bases, the political goals of war. It is the defining and the more stable side. The other side, the military-technical, must accord with the political goals. It includes the creation of military structure, technical equipping of the armed forces, their training, definition of forms and means of conducting operations and war as a whole."
British definition:
The doctrine is "a guide to anyone who wants to learn about war from books; it will light his way, ease his progress, train his judgement and help him to avoid pitfalls...[doctrine] is meant to educate the mind of the future commander...not to accompany him to the battlefield." In setting out the fundamental principles by which military forces guide their actions, doctrine draws on the lessons of history, on original thinking and on experiences gained from training and operations.
The world over, militaries have defined doctrine in a hierarchy, with the top level doctrine being called the "capstone doctrine", on the basis of which single services could define single-service doctrines.
Firstly, what is military doctrine?
- Military doctrine is the concise expression of how military forces contribute to campaigns, major operations, battles and engagements.
- It is a guide to action, not hard and fast rules.
- A doctrine provides a common frame of reference across the military to help standardize operations and facilitate readiness by establishing common ways to accomplishing military tasks.
- Doctrine is not a projection of military thinking into the future, it links theory, history, experience and practice.
- Its objective is to foster initiative and creative thinking.
- Doctrine provides the military an authoritative body of statements on how military forces conduct operations and provide a common lexicon for use by military leaders.
The NATO definition of doctrine is:
"Fundamental principles by which the military forces guide their actions in support of objectives. It is authoritative by requires judgement in application."
Canadian Army definition:
"Military doctrine is a formal expression of military knowledge and thought, that the army accepts as being relevant at a given time, which covers the nature of conflict, the preparation of the army for conflict, and the method of engaging in conflict to acheive success... it is descriptive rather than prescriptive, requiring judgement in application. It does not establish dogma or provide a checklist of procedures, but is rather an authoritative guide, describing how the army thinks about fighting, not how to fight. As such it attempts to be definitive enough to guide military activity, yet versatile enough to accomodate a wide variety of situations."
Soviet definition:
A doctrine is "a state's officially accepted system of scientifically founded views on the nature of modern wars and the use of the armed forces in them... Military doctrine has two aspects: social-political and military-technical. The social-political side encompasses all questions concerning methodology, economic and social bases, the political goals of war. It is the defining and the more stable side. The other side, the military-technical, must accord with the political goals. It includes the creation of military structure, technical equipping of the armed forces, their training, definition of forms and means of conducting operations and war as a whole."
British definition:
The doctrine is "a guide to anyone who wants to learn about war from books; it will light his way, ease his progress, train his judgement and help him to avoid pitfalls...[doctrine] is meant to educate the mind of the future commander...not to accompany him to the battlefield." In setting out the fundamental principles by which military forces guide their actions, doctrine draws on the lessons of history, on original thinking and on experiences gained from training and operations.
The world over, militaries have defined doctrine in a hierarchy, with the top level doctrine being called the "capstone doctrine", on the basis of which single services could define single-service doctrines.
No comments:
Post a Comment