In Pursuit of Military Excellence: The Evolution of Operational Theory

Front Cover
Routledge, 2013 M04 3 - 424 pages
This book offers a scientific interpretation of the field of military knowledge situated between strategy and tactics, better known as operational art', and traces the evolution of operational awareness and its culmination in a full-fledged theory. The author, a Brigadier General (ret.) in the Israeli Defence Forces and Doctor of History, King's College, London, clarifies the substance of operational art' and constructs a cognitive framework for its critical analysis. He chronicles the stages in the evolution of operational theory from the emergence of 19th-century military thought to Blitzkrieg. For the first time the Soviet theories of Deep Operations' and Strike Manoeuvre' that emerged in the 1920s and 1930 are discussed. The author argues that it is these doctrines that eventually led to the crystallization of the American Airland Battle theory, successfully implemented in the Gulf War.

From inside the book

Contents

Operational Art and the General Theory of Systems
1
Mass and Operational
30
Destruction and Operational
70
The Blitzkrieg Concept
105
Reflections
128
The Evolution of Soviet Operational Thought
164
School of Operational Thought
177
Paradigm
191
The Deep Operation Theory Glubokaia operatsiia
209
From Tactical Destruction to Operational Manoeuvre
250
From Central Battle to Airland Battle
287
FM 1005 1986
305
Bibliography
332
Index
393
Copyright

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

Bibliographic information