Makers of modern strategy have an unprecedented challenge in our complex world. American strategists have been criticized for strategic failures since World War II. Congressional investigations have been initiated to examine the strategic education...
In the aftermath of World War II, many Western armies studied the German Blitzkrieg success. They concluded that the German mission command philosophy was a cornerstone to lead and command troops in fluid and uncertain combat situations. This...
Gen. Helmuth von Moltke, the Chief of the Prussian General Staff during the Franco-Prussian War, defined Auftragstaktik as the actions a subordinate took in the absence of orders that supported the senior commander's intent. The use of mission...
This monograph is meant to inspire military professionals to approach Prussian military history as a source of concepts with enduring relevance for modern armed forces. Reference point for the examination is the Bundeswehr (German armed forces) and...
In the aftermath of World War II, the Supreme Allied Commander, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, so loathed yet respected the Great German General Staff that he called for its complete destruction on at least two separate occasions. Regardless of...
This study investigates the reasons for the success of the Sixth Coalition against Napoleon in 1813. Four critical principles emerge from U.S. joint doctrine that provide a means to examine coalition warfare: national goals, unity of effort,...
This monograph examines the dynamic relationships between the strategic, operational, and tactical levels. Current Army doctrine in FM 100-5, Operations depicts the relationships of the levels with a vertical hierarchy, defining the operational...
The German General Staff launched Operation Barbarossa in June 1941 assuming the eastern campaign would last only three months. However, within six months after the initiation of hostilities the Red Army blunted the Wehrmacht’s attack outside the...
A new environment, a new paradigm faces United States policy and decision makers. The bipolar world of superpower control and confrontation has been replaced with an unipolar world lead by the United States. A rapid evolution is occurring. A...
The authors of AirLand battle doctrine, realizing the importance of decentralized command and control on the modern battlefield, incorporated Auftragstaktik in US Army doctrine to deal with the uncertainty of war. Despite the importance of...
This is volume 5 of 30 volumes concerning the training and development of German General Staff officers. Contents include the origin, tradition, formative forces, methods and performance, German theory of war, weakness of the general staff, and an...
This study analyses the influence of the German idealist philosopher G.W.F. Hegel (1779-1831) on the method and thought of the Prussian military theorist Carl von Clausewitz (1780-1831). The study contends that a complete understanding of the...
This monograph explores the US Army's recently announced goal of quick decisive victory. This concept has emerged in the wake of US victories in Operations JUST CAUSE and DESERT STORM and reflects one of the National Military Strategy's principles...
Helmuth von Moltke’s alleged statement the U.S. Civil War was an affair in which two armed mobs chased each other around the country and from which no lessons could be learned underlines a grave misjudgment of this war in contemporary Germany....
Throughout the history of warfare, there have been periods when technological developments have dramatically affected the balance between firepower and maneuver on the battlefield. When the new technology enhanced the effectiveness of firepower,...
The purpose of this monograph is to examine the adequacy of the current national military command and control structure, analyze examples of various European general staffs, and determine whether a general staff system would best suit America's...
Artillery has gone through two previous evolutions in employment methodology. The first, starting in 1670, saw it evolve from primarily a siege engine, to a precision mobile direct fire support platform. The second evolution in methodology began in...
Service culture affects how military branches organize, train, equip, and survive as separate institutions of the US military. The culture of a service includes the persistent, patterned way of thinking about operations and relationships. The...
The General Service Schools, The General Staff School
This volume consists of copies of documents relating to the Jena campaign which are in the library of The General Service Schools at Fort Leavenworth. As the library does not contain all of the important documents relating to this campaign, this...