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, 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...
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 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...
Napoleon's rise to power in the late eighteenth century occurred at a time when the structure of most European armies was based on the paradigm army of Frederick the Great. Napoleon, however, changed all of this and in a few short years transformed...
The French Army corps during the Napoleonic era was a combined arms organization, designed as a self-sustaining combat unit which could operate independently from the rest of the army. One corps was designated as the advanced guard to the French...
Consists of personal observations and reports on the war from 1866-1870 by Baron Stoffel as directed by the Emperor. Statistics on cavalry, military forces, weapons, transportation, and communication are included in the reports. The duties 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...
Education has been the foundational cornerstone to every profession and continues to be so in the 21st Century. As a profession, the military is obligated to conduct not only training but also education of the keepers of the profession, the officer...
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...
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...
History shows that the U.S. Army can fight and defeat its opponents using centralized command concepts, but the challenges of the contemporary operating environment place a premium on the abilities of subordinate commanders to act independently and...
The purpose of this monograph is to search for, identify, and discuss the emergence of elements of operational art during the Napoleonic wars. James Schneider has tied the emergence of operational art to the technological advances of the industrial...
The monograph analyzes maneuver and proposes these questions. What is maneuver? What is maneuver, in the Joint Vision (JV) 2010 sense, and what makes it dominant? To answer these questions, the monograph studies three stages in the evolution of...
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...
Contains a description of the staff, army organization, the different branches of the service and their role in war, training, education, and troop formations and tactics. By a Prussian general. Translated from the corrected edition by permission...
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...
The decentralized command and control system required to execute AirLand Battle Doctrine presents a significant challenge to tactical leaders. Incapable of predicting the critical place on the battlefield or occupying multiple vantage points...
This is a study on public safety in Germany. Table of contents includes: combined command of the security and Order Police; the Order Police; the security police and the security service of the SS; auxiliary police; and special police.