In Pursuit of Military Excellence: The Evolution of Operational TheoryTaylor & Francis, 1997 - 398 pages This work offers and interpretation of the intermediate 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. Shimon Naveh identifies four key landmarks in the evolution of operational theory: nineteenth-century military thought and the roots of operational ignorance; the emergence of the Blitzkrieg concept; the evolution of the Soviet Deep Operation theory during the 1920s and the 1930s; the crystallization of the American Airland Battle theory fifty years later. The profound conceptual developments associated with the Soviet Deep Operation and Strike Manoeuvre theories are used as a yardstick for critically assessing German military theory, from Clausewitz's 'battle of destruction' to the Blitzkrieg. Naveh concludes that the Blitzkrieg lacked any solid conceptual basis and constituted a manipulation of tactical patterns, and hence the German defeat by the Russian Army in the Second World War amounted to the victory of a superior culture of military thinking over an inferior one. Furthermore, it was the Soviet conceptual breakthrough which, in fact, permitted the crystallization in the 1970s of the American Airland Battle theory-a doctrine successfully implemented in the Gulf War. -- From back cover. |
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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 |
Other editions - View all
In Pursuit of Military Excellence: The Evolution of Operational Theory Shimon Naveh Limited preview - 2013 |
In Pursuit of Military Excellence: The Evolution of Operational Theory Shimon Naveh Limited preview - 2013 |
In Pursuit of Military Excellence: The Evolution of Operational Theory Shimon Naveh No preview available - 1997 |
Common terms and phrases
approach armed forces armii armoured Army Group Army Group Centre aspects attack attrition B.H. Liddell Hart Battlefield Berlin Blitzkrieg campaign cavalry centre Clausewitz cognitive combat combined concept conduct context Corps Deep Operation defensive depth desant destruction dynamic echelon element entire field FM 100-5 Operations formations Fort Leavenworth Fort Monroe forward detachment front German Guderian Hitler Ibid idea idem infantry initial Isserson Kadishev Liddell Hart Lind linear logic London Maneuver Warfare manual mass mechanical Military Review military thought mobility Modern Armies Moreover Moscow Nature of Operations offensive opera Operational Art operational command operational level operational manoeuvre operational shock operational theory Operations of Modern operativnogo iskusstva operatsii Panzer patterns principle Razvitie Red Army rival system RKKA Russian Schlieffen Schlieffen Plan Soviet Staff Starry strategic strike synchronization synergy tactical Taktika tank theoretical theoreticians tion tional TRADOC Triandafillov Tukhachevskii udar Voennaia Voenno-istoricheskii zhurnal Voina i revoliutsiia Voprosy strategii warfare Wehrmacht