Science, Strategy and War: The Strategic Theory of John Boyd (Strategy and History) [Paperback]

Frans P.B. Osinga (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 8, 2006 | ISBN-10: 0415459524 | ISBN-13: 978-0415459525 | Edition: 1

John Boyd is often known exclusively for the so-called ‘OODA’ loop model he developed. This model refers to a decision-making process and to the idea that military victory goes to the side that can complete the cycle from observation to action the fastest.

This book aims to redress this state of affairs and re-examines John Boyd’s original contribution to strategic theory. By highlighting diverse sources that shaped Boyd’s thinking, and by offering a comprehensive overview of Boyd’s work, this volume demonstrates that the common interpretation of the meaning of Boyd’s OODA loop concept is incomplete. It also shows that Boyd’s work is much more comprehensive, richer and deeper than is generally thought. With his ideas featuring in the literature on Network Centric Warfare, a key element of the US and NATO’s so-called ‘military transformation’ programmes, as well as in the debate on Fourth Generation Warfare, Boyd continues to exert a strong influence on Western military thinking. Dr Osinga demonstrates how Boyd’s work can helps us to understand the new strategic threats in the post- 9/11 world, and establishes why John Boyd should be regarded as one of the most important (post)modern strategic theorists.

Editorial Reviews

Review

If you have any interest in war, this is a book your library cannot do without. Just as America cannot do without John Boyd's ideas, although our military has not yet figured that out.
William Lind, Military.com

Osinga provides lucid expositions of the various elements that Boyd synthesized into some truly original formulations and ways of thinking about strategy.

Lawrence Freedman, Foreign Affairs

Osinga’s book should be read by military professionals and academics alike, but also by anyone interested in the social and cultural impacts of science in general, and chaos and complexity theories in particular. Science, Strategy and War will and should remain required reading for years to come.

Sean Lawson, Emergence

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

About the Author

Joint Air Power Competence Centre, HQ SACT, Virginia, USA --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 313 pages
• Publisher: Routledge; 1 edition (December 8, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0415459524
• ISBN-13: 978-0415459525
• Product Dimensions: 6.1 x 0.8 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #385,791 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

66 of 69 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars New Insights into a Modern Classic January 19, 2007

By C. W. Richards

Format:Hardcover

John Boyd's answer to the problem of winning in any form of conflict, the "Discourse on Winning and Losing," is a set of roughly 300 charts, and Dutch AF Col Frans Osinga has set himself the task of guiding his readers through them. It is a formidable assignment. Boyd, you see, did not intend the briefings of the Discourse to be read on their own. For years, he would not give out copies until after the presentation, and it had to be the "whole brief or no brief." It may seem obvious, but it was in briefing format not so much in tribute to Sun Tzu - although The Art of War is, like the Discourse, a set of bullet points - but simply because he didn't feel that there were enough readers inside the Beltway to make it worthwhile.

Osinga accomplishes his mission magnificently. If you are interested in Boyd's problem of how to win regardless, stop right now and order the book. If you have not heard the briefings, my recommendation is to begin with chapter one, then skip back to chapter seven for a summary of Boyd's influence on strategy. Then, download the charts, go back to chapter two, and work your way through the rest of the book. [The briefings are all available on Defense and the National Interest.]

Is it a tough read? Do you know of anything really worthwhile that is easy? Just as there is no royal road to mathematics, there is no royal road to Boyd. I was present at the creation of many of these charts, and I found a lot in this book that was new and helpful in broadening my understanding (for one thing, I have not, as Osinga did, read Boyd's original notes in the source books).

This book is a distilled version of Col Osinga's Ph.D. dissertation, which he completed while serving as a research fellow at the Clingendael Institute of International Relations in The Hague. He has done an excellent job of making academic rigor accessible to the general reader - the only equations, for example, are the ones Boyd used in "Destruction and Creation" - while exploiting the depth of research that a dissertation requires. There are 32 pages of single-spaced notes and 12 of bibliography.

I enthusiastically recommend Science, Strategy and War to all students of strategy, particularly those more concerned with where strategy is going than where it has been.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A MUST READ! October 30, 2007

By J. Scott Shipman

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

Colonel Osinga has written an important book distilling the strategic thinking of one of the 20th century's most important contributors, Colonel John R. Boyd. I began my "Boyd odyssey" a couple of years ago when I read Robert Coram's excellent biography, BOYD, The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War (would recommend this title first to those unfamiliar with Col Boyd). Since reading Coram's book, I've read everything I could find on Boyd and his ideas. Col Osinga's book places Boyd's ideas in an accessible (albeit sometimes dense) format (agree with Col Richards (author of Certain to Win!---a translation of Boyd's strategy into business---and a very good read, as well) that sometimes the best things don't come easy). Col Osinga's book provides Boyd's ground-breaking methods of "how to win" and problem solving---a literal "out-of-the-box thinker"---with emphasis on THINKING.
Personally, after becoming acquainted with Boyd's work (I carry printed copies of his only published work, an essay called Destruction and Creation, in my computer bag read while traveling---giving copies to clients and friends) my business has changed and to a great extent, my life has changed. Boyd's method of synthesizing data from disparate sources has helped me to help clients solve problems and exposed me to areas I would have never investigated otherwise.
This book is important and highly recommended.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars "Hell of an Engineer" October 24, 2010

By Retired Reader

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

This book has the rather ambitious goal of "better understanding the strategic thought developed" by Colonel John Boyd (USAF ret.). For the most part it succeeds in doing this. Since Boyd chose not consolidate his thoughts into one or more books, Osinga was forced to develop his information from Boyd's slides used to brief his ideas and from Boyd's notes. So what does this book tell the reader about the "strategic thought" of Colonel Boyd?

Although Osinga does not address it, John Boyd appears to have had what can only be called the mind of an engineer. The application of scientific principals to practical ends seemed to come naturally to him. He actually received a degree in industrial engineering from Georgia Tech in 1962, but this appeared to have primarily credentialed his existing engineering talent.

Boyd was an experienced and successful fighter pilot from the Korean War and his initial engineering efforts had to do with designing an air superiority fighter. To this end Boyd developed a simple, but revolutionary concept for fighter design namely the relationship of Energy to Maneuverability or EM concept. Once Boyd developed the EM Concept it was obvious, but he was surprised to discover that no one had thought of it before. Application of this concept led directly to the development of the F-15 fighter and to the most cost effective and versatile fighter produced in the last quarter of the 20th Century, the F-16.

Boyd is best known for his brilliant and original concept of command and control (C2) processes, the so-called Observation, Orientation, Decision, Action (OODA) loop. Like the EM concept once somebody thinks of it the OODA loop is obvious, but only after Boyd developed it. The OODA loop describes what are quite complex C2 processes. It was developed directly from Boyd's analysis of physics specifically the Second Law of Thermodynamics, and Quantum Mechanics (especially Heisenberg's Law of Indeterminacy) and their relationship to conflict and war. Because Boyd developed the OODA loop from these broad scientific concepts, it is applicable to tactical, operational, and strategic situations.

With the OODA loop Boyd had developed the precursor of what was later described as "Network Centric Warfare" both in its limited meaning as a Command, Control, Computer, Communications, Intelligence, Reconnaissance, and Surveillance (C4ISR) system and its broader strategic implications as a strategic concept. Boyd emphasized the importance of communications as the foundation of the loop and information management as essential to the Orientation portion of the loop. The OODA strategic applications were related to creating greater flexibility by moving decision making down to the lowest level while creating situational awareness on the highest level. On a grand strategy level Boyd noted the goal of any conflict was to undermine the morale and will of an opponent by "getting inside the opponents OODA loop and creating confusion and uncertainty. In this respect in successfully he transformed the teachings of Chinese strategic thinker Sun Tzu into modern applications.

This book provides considerably more about Boyd's thinking and more importantly his approach to problem solving. The few random notes in this review are meant to give an idea of the breadth and depth of this brilliant engineer and military analyst as revealed by this outstanding study.