As the preceding chapters have shown, the development of air and space power has been swift. In little more than a century of heavier-than-air flight, aircraft have moved from being capable of spending little more than five minutes in the air to possessing the ability to spend more than a day aloft; the speeds which military aircraft can attain have gone from under 100 miles per hour (160 kilometres per hour) to over 2,000 mph (3,218 kph) and the loads they are capable of carrying have increased dramatically. By the end of the Vietnam War, it was possible for fighter aircraft to routinely engage enemy aircraft with missiles (although the success rate of such weapons in Vietnam was low), while attack aircraft with precision-guided munitions (PGMs) could use one weapon to destroy a target when it might have previously taken several aircraft using over a dozen bombs to achieve the same result. Between the early 1900s and 1989, air and space power had a clear role, directed against potentially hostile nation states or alliances, with regular diversions into ‘small wars’. It became something of a mantra, particularly after Vietnam, to note that high-speed fighter-bombers and attack aircraft, designed to fight a possible Third World War, were not best-suited for this sort of ‘brushfire’ war, not least since their speed and relative lack endurance over a target area meant that it was difficult for aircrew to locate targets. Although a prominent and repeated charge – and not without reason, particularly in the 1950s and 1960s, prior to the development of targeting pods and PGMs, as well as technology which allowed ground troops to accurately direct aircrews’ attention to the target which needed to be struck – the fact that air transport and reconnaissance were critical contributions to such campaigns often went unremarked. The constant fear of a major state-on-state war, notably between NATO and the USSR, meant that the development of high-technology fighter aircraft largely went unquestioned.

Introduction

Warfare on land has been pivotal to military outcomes throughout history. This is because human beings live on land; therefore, the capacity to seize and control territory often carries with it decisive political consequences. As the strategist Colin Gray has noted, ‘the inherent strength of land warfare is that it carries the promise of achieving decision’.

The next three chapters explore the key ideas, concepts, principles and debates associated with conventional, high-intensity land warfare in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. At the heart of these chapters lies the idea of the so-called ‘modern system’ of land warfare. During the twentieth century, armies faced a range of problems resulting from the interaction between various forces for change, including the effects of increasing firepower and the problem of moving, feeding and supplying larger armies. Incrementally, armies found potential solutions for these problems by manipulating some of the core areas of continuity in land warfare, not least the nature of the land environment itself and the basic characteristics of armies. These solutions created a dominant set of themes in the conduct of land warfare: dispersal, combined arms, fire-and-manoeuvre, depth and close co-operation with air and maritime forces (joint operations). Collectively, these themes constitute modern-system land warfare.

As with the later parts of this book on maritime and air warfare, our discussion of land warfare begins with an exploration of some of the key concepts that lie at the heart of the subject. This provides an essential background to the development of the modern system of land warfare both in terms of explaining the problems facing armies at the beginning of the twentieth century but also how important continuities, such as the effect of terrain and the flexibility of armies, have shaped potential solutions. Building on the concepts explored in this chapter, chapter 5 then explores how and why the modern system evolved during the twentieth century. Whereas the modern system is essentially an evolutionary and adaptive development, more recent debates have often focused on the potential for revolutionary changes in the conduct of land warfare.

The current era of irregular warfare begins with the end of the Second World War and decolonisation or, rather, had its genesis during the Second World War. American President Franklin Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill could not possibly have known how truly strong and problematic the future whirlwind would be when they issued the Atlantic Charter in August 1940. Although most of its points appeared innocuous, the third point – the right of all peoples to self-determination – would cause the greatest difficulties. In particular, the leaders of socialist or nationalist movements in colonial territories interpreted the Atlantic Charter as the basis for declarations of independence once the war was over. The most famous example occurred in French Indochina in September 1945, where Ho Chi Minh declared Vietnam independent using language borrowed from the US Declaration of Independence.

The previous chapter suggested that there has been a considerable degree of continuity in thinking about naval warfare; concepts and principles articulated in the nineteenth century continue to be employed in the twenty-first. Over the same period there have been many obvious changes in the conduct of naval warfare, particularly in the tactics adopted and in the technology used. No navy today maintains a fleet of wooden sailing ships similar to those employed by Admiral Nelson in 1805 nor do any possess pre-dreadnought battleships akin to those used to good effect by Admiral Togo a century later. No modern commander would deploy their fleet in battle in the same way as did either Nelson or Togo and to do so would be to invite disaster. It is legitimate therefore to question whether principles articulated in Togo's era, which were often derived from an examination of Nelson's, are still useful today when platforms, weapons and sensors have changed so much and where the general strategic context has been transformed. This chapter will address that question.

Unfortunately there is not the space here to provide a detailed history of the evolution of naval warfare over the past century, still less can we examine the very rich history before this period. The reader is fortunate that there are numerous good books that already do precisely this and some of these are introduced in the ‘Further reading’ guide at the end of this chapter. The aim here is not to present a comprehensive history but rather to illustrate some of the ways in which naval warfare has changed over time, and also some of the continuities. There will be a particular focus on the past 150 years, roughly the time at which steam, steel and shellfire replaced the ‘wooden ships and iron men’ of Nelson's era.

Introduction

In this final chapter on land warfare, we turn our attention to the future. The two preceding chapters have highlighted the evolutionary underpinnings of the ‘modern system’ approach to land warfare. Can we assume similarly that future land warfare will look much like that of the past? This is clearly a crucial question for land forces around the world. Governments do not have the luxury of perpetual analysis: given the time taken to generate effective military power, choices have to be made now about the sorts of land forces that will be required for the future – their size, structure, equipment, training and doctrine. But these choices carry risks: while we need to know that we are preparing for the right future, history suggests, as the previous chapter has illustrated, that we often do not get the sorts of wars that we expect.

Sadly, for those tasked with generating future land power there is no consensus on what the future of land warfare holds. This chapter looks at the issue of future land warfare through the lens of three of the key contending schools of thought on the issue: the Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA); new wars; and hybrid warfare. Each takes the view that the character of warfare is changing; each has implications for the kind of land forces required to fight it; but each is also the subject of important critiques.

The Revolution in Military Affairs

The Gulf War of 1991 cast a long shadow over subsequent debates on the character and future of land warfare. The then US secretary of defense, Richard (‘Dick’) Cheney, argued that the Gulf War ‘demonstrated dramatically the new possibilities of what has been called the “military–technical revolution in warfare”’.

Chapters 7 and 8 argued that despite continuing change at the tactical level of naval warfare there has been a considerable degree of continuity in the roles that navies fulfil. It is not necessarily true that this will always remain the case. It is possible that naval roles might change to reflect political, economic or technological developments. Even if existing roles do remain, navies might be forced to change their forms in order to meet future challenges. Thus, new roles may evolve (and old ones disappear) in the face of new challenges while alternative means may be needed in order to sustain those roles that endure. This chapter will examine these issues and will discuss the nature of naval warfare today and into the future.

Naval warfare: changing roles?

Traditional interpretations suggest that naval warfare revolves around the use or denial of the use of the sea for military or economic purposes.

Understanding modern irregular warfare through the lens of the past

The study of irregular warfare historically presents a number of unique challenges. Although the history of irregular warfare, in the form of bandit raids or other unconventional tactics, arguably existed long before more organised, conventional warfare by fielded armies, there are relatively few memoirs, much less theories of violence, by those conducting irregular warfare against militarily superior opponents prior to the nineteenth century. Classic texts on ancient warfare from across the globe, including Maurice's Strategikon (Byzantium), Sun Tzu's The Art of War (China) and Kautilya's Arthasastra (India), addressed unconventional methods of fighting such as raids, ambushes, stratagems and ruses as a method of gaining an advantage over an opponent prior to or during battle. Other ancient texts, including epic poems, theological texts and historical narratives, suggest that irregular tactics were used to overcome formidable defences. The most famous example remains the Trojan Horse in Homer's Iliad, but far more accounts describe a common subterfuge: taking walled cities by using traitors inside to open gates for armies waiting outside. In addition, some texts discuss the specific fighting qualities, or what scholars now call ‘stra-tegic culture’ or ‘way of war’, of irregular or barbarian opponents. Indeed, some scholars have gone so far as to suggest that civilisations have distinct styles of fighting, either as a result of geography or as an explanation for their political and economic success.

Introduction

Now that we have identified the need to develop an analytical approach to the subject, we must begin our exploration with some key definitions of strategy and its various levels. Having illuminated the essence of strategy, this chapter will analyse the various factors that make it difficult. In particular, the chapter will explore strategy's multidimensional nature; disharmony amongst the levels; the paradoxical logic; nature of war; friction; human participation; and war's polymorphous character. It is hoped that by the end of this chapter the reader will have a better understanding of the challenges involved in strategy, and how these can be dealt with so that the use of military force can best serve policy objectives.

Strategy defined

Extant strategic literature contains various definitions of strategy. For Clausewitz, it can be understood as ‘the use of engagements for the object of the war.’ Similarly, Gray defines strategy as ‘the use that is made of force and the threat of force for the ends of policy’, whereas Andre Beaufre highlights the dynamic interaction between belligerents: ‘the art of the dialectic of two opposing wills using force to resolve their dispute’. This work defines strategy as the process that converts military power into policy effect (see Box 2.1). Importantly, this definition identifies the key relationship in strategy: that between policy and the military instrument. Furthermore, it acknowledges strategy as process. The latter is recognition of that fact that strategy is not tangible, but is dynamic and does have manifest effect.</p

As noted, the core relationship within strategy is that between military force and the policy objective. Gray describes this relationship as a bridge that links the military and political worlds. Alternatively, Eliot Cohen described this relationship as an ‘unequal dialogue’ (see Figure 2.1). In this sense, we can regard strategy as a process by which military force creates political effect. Although the supremacy of policy is established and well understood, and thereby military force must serve policy, it is not simply a case of the political leadership demanding what it requires from the military instrument.

This chapter examines concepts and theories associated with naval warfare. It begins with a discussion of the nature of the maritime operating environment, and the notion that navies have particular attributes that they derive from this. It then introduces traditional theories of maritime strategy, focusing first on the dominant ‘Anglo-American’ tradition before examining some alternative approaches. The discussion here sets the context for the examination of the conduct of naval warfare over the past century, in chapter 8, and the analysis of current practice and future possibilities in chapter 9.

The particular characteristics of the sea and of naval forces, discussed below, have led to the development of a series of concepts and principles peculiar to naval warfare. In order to understand naval warfare and, in particular, to understand the thought processes that lie behind much modern naval activity, it is necessary to be conversant with distinctly naval concepts and principles. This, in turn, requires familiarity with the work of the traditional maritime stra-tegists who first articulated and popularised such concepts. The impact of the most notable of these, Alfred Thayer Mahan, was reflected in the 1940s by the former US secretary of war, Henry Stimson, when he complained that the Navy Department frequently ‘seemed to retire from the realm of logic into a dim religious world in which Neptune was God, Mahan his prophet and the United States Navy the only true Church’. While this may not now be a fair reflection of Mahan's impact on the US Navy it is true to say that the concepts that he and others advanced have continued to influence naval thought and practice through to the present day.

This book focuses on modern warfare. It examines the conduct of war in its different environments and forms and provides an introduction to the issues, ideas, concepts, context and vocabulary necessary to develop an understanding of the subject. It is not a history book, although relevant historical examples are used throughout to illustrate the analysis. Rather, the book is designed to equip the reader with a sophisticated introduction to the concepts, issues and debates that will help them to understand current concerns and future possibilities and also to unpick past campaigns.

This subject is an important one. War and warfare have had a pervasive and often a pernicious influence on human affairs throughout history. Optimistic claims that we are evolving towards a less violent international system do not appear to be entirely borne out by recent events. Despite this, the conduct of war as an academic field of enquiry is not a subject that everyone is comfortable with. It requires one to study a phenomenon that many disapprove of and to think about things that some prefer to ignore. That such study is often encouraged or supported by armed forces eager to derive ‘lessons’ intended to improve future performance has done little to endear it to liberal academics. Insofar as they study war at all most Western universities prefer to focus on ‘war and society’, examining the impact that war has had on wider society rather than focusing explicitly on warfare. The result has been a demilitarisation of the topic within much of academia, what Michael Howard called a ‘flight to the suburbs’. This is not a suburban book. It self-consciously focuses on the central activity of armed forces and on the urban centre of the subject, on warfare. It does so in recognition that this does not address the totality of war, which is about more than just warfare, but is based on the notion that one cannot understand modern war unless one also understands modern warfare.

The book is also based on the judgement that such understanding is important. To paraphrase Sun Tzu, the conduct of war is of such importance, quite literally the province of life and death, it is vital that it be studied carefully.

This is a book about warfare. It focuses on the conduct of war in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. It is designed to be read by anyone with an interest in the subject and the reader requires no specialist prior knowledge. Indeed, the first edition of this book had its origins in an unsuccessful search by the authors to find a source that could provide an authoritative yet accessible introduction to the theory and practice of modern warfare. There are numerous good books devoted to an examination of aspects of modern warfare and even more that address its history over the centuries. Despite this we found none that offered the reader, in a single volume of manageable proportions, a thorough grounding in the critical issues, ideas, concepts and vocabulary necessary to develop and articulate an understanding of the conduct of war in its various forms and in its different operating environments. Understanding Modern Warfare was intended to fill this gap and was written accordingly.

The first book was well received but, inevitably, some aspects of the analysis have now been overtaken by events and a work that was up to date in 2008 now requires some revision. Thus, in this second edition we have updated the original text in order to accommodate developments in military thought and practice and to reflect the march of events. As has always been the case in the study of warfare, some things have changed a little, some have changed a lot and others have remained broadly the same and this is reflected within the text. In addition, and based on feedback on the first edition, we have restructured the book in order to make it more accessible. Whereas previously we had six large chapters we now have six Parts, which correspond to the previous chapters, and each Part now has two or three shorter chapters devoted to specific aspects of these subjects. A seventh and final Part constitutes the book's Conclusion. All this should make the book easier to use while also providing a useful vehicle for the overall analysis. If this encourages readers to engage with the subject then it will have served its purpose. That this remains important is sadly all too evident given the continued propensity for peoples to engage in, or prepare for, warfare of one form or another.