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Science, Strategy and War: The Strategic Theory of John Boyd (Strategy and History Series)

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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.

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.

The benefits of a book like this (the hardcover edition) lies not only in its scope and intelligence, but also in its physical weight. Where the words themselves fail to penetrate the skulls of second-generation military minds, a sharp blow from above with this book will work wonders in a language they understand. It is only on rare occasions in life that any of us are privileged to be even dimly aware of being in the presence of true greatness. This magnificent work will confirm John Boyd's reputation and enhance - deservedly - that of its highly respected author. It is a book I shall have to read and re-read for some time to get the full benefit, and what a pleasure that is. It is impossible for me to rate this work too highly.

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.

Contrary to several reviewers of Osinga's book, I found it easy to read. Tthe presentation of Boyd's concepts is lucid, logical, and leads the reader through some of the less obvious aspects of Boyd's work with commendable aplomb.
The recent growth of interest in COL. Boyd's work led to certain mystification of it ("One has to be Boyd to understand Boyd" - as if one had to be Einstein to understand the Theory of Relativity!). It should not be so. As a matter of fact, the work of Boyd is straightforward and, like all general theories, relatively simple. Like any good general theory, it applies to essentially all situations and environments encountered within the field for which that theory has been created. In the case of Boyd, the field is practically all that pertains to any form of creative human activity. Hence, the major drawback of many analyses of Boyd's work (including the work of Osinga) is placing intellectual restraints on Boyd's Discourse, and consequent the insistence that it belongs only to the realm of military strategy and its lesser expressions. In reality, Boyd applies, and his work has been admirably fitted to, domains as varied as business, healthcare, homeland security, education and training etc.
Boyd is a full and exhaustive precursor of what somewhat faddish business terminology describes nowadays as "adaptive leadership". His work goes, however much farther than that that, and in order to learn how to lead oneself, organizations, or even nations in turbulent, dynamically changing environments, one really needs not go further than Boyd's analyses. The greatest attribute of Osinga's book is making that point abundantly clear.
Boyd IS simple, and it is this simplicity that often baffles the students of Boyd's work - it is that very same simplicity that leads to a profound synthesis of the exceedingly complex subject. Osinga helps the reader to understand these relationships, and helps the reader to understand that understanding Boyd's work leads to a higher form of knowing and interacting with the surrounding environment. It was the breadth of knowledge and intellectual curiosity rather than narrow professional specialization that allowed Boyd to see relations among facts and disciplines that have been entirely missed by others. It was the spirit of a generalist that allowed him to present his quintessential analysis of patterns which constitute the basis of our responses to all, not only the military, challenges. Osinga's work provides a most needed bridge between those seeking solutions to these problems and John Boyd who provides seemingly simple, yet profound answers.

This is an extraordinary work.

There is no doubt that John Boyd was a brilliant strategist and thinker. He was a prolific lecturer and given to meticulously constructing slide presentations (which we now call Power Point presentations). Yet a slide deck is a poor substitute for a "thick" narrative. And, unfortunately, Boyd did not publish. There are no books, there is no opus.

Now the gap has been filled. Frans Osinga's book is not only excellent, it is probably as "good as it's going to get" when it comes to the definitive work on Boyd. It is a scholarly work (the footnoting is meticulous); and represents the old style academic tradecraft that, unfortunately, has become a lost art in the age of the Internet. An enormous amount of time, effort, and intellectual depth was required of the author - for Osinga literally fills in the contextual blanks around complexity theory, chaos, Sun Tzu, and a dozen or more other esoteric subjects that influenced the intellect of John Boyd.

I recall a comment made by a gentleman who had written a piece about John Boyd: "To understand Boyd you need to become Boyd." Meaning that you had to immerse yourself in the array of literature that influenced Boyd, i.e., quantum physics, ecology, military history, epistemology, etc.; AND, I might add, to concurrently develop more than a passing understanding of how all this fits together before you can make sense of it for a willing reader.

If I had to choose one book to rescue from my burning library, this is it. Brilliant work, Col. Osinga!

Highly recommend! Frans Osinga's Science, Strategy, and War was a rich and esoteric examination of John Boyd's conceptualizations. Not for the faint of heart! Osinga's work remains far above the fray of hagiography, a common critique of Boyd biographies, which highlights a common strategy of ad hominem, too cowardly or simpleton to adequately counter Boyd's theories directly. Osinga does well to present the reader with the context and background that were the catalysts for Boyd's body of work.

The USAF, the service to which Boyd dedicated his career and life to, has hardly sought to purposefully encapsulated his concepts. For those areas where the USAF has attempted, it grossly missed the mark. The "big Air Force" fearfully revolted at Boyd's requirement for deep and challenging thinking (Sun Tzu, "know thyself" much?). Ergo, the raison d'ętre for Osinga's examination. Let me clear: this was fortuitous, for had the USAF not significantly dismissed Boyd's presentations and limited writings, Osinga wouldn't have needed to write his book (based upon his thesis for School of Advanced Airpower & Strategic Studies, the Air Force's preeminent center for strategic learning).

Osinga's work embarks upon the deep dive beyond the USAF's limited understanding of the Observe-Orient-Decide-Act (OODA) Loop. Osinga himself describes this succienctly:

"[The] common perception is incomplete, as the OODA loop contains more elements for success than only tempo and information. This integral rendition of his work thus indicates that the popular notion of the 'rapid OODA loop' idea does not adequately capture what Boyd meant by it, and that Boyd must be remembered for more than only the idea that one can gain military victory by more rapidly OODA looping than the opponent."

The greatest value of Osinga's work is three-fold. First, Osinga places into words the deeply vast concepts that John Boyd only presented in person in presentation form. This is rather impressive, as Boyd would give his presentations only in one-sitting, typically lasting for several hours or a whole day. Osinga is meticulously sourced, with pages and pages of endnotes supporting his presentation of Boyd's concepts, often pointing out Boyd's own notes from the margins of his own primary sources. Clearly, Osinga's book is as near-to the writing that Boyd largely chose not to perform (although he had his reasons).

Second, Osinga places Boyd's theories within the context of a very learned man. In fact, this is probably the most illuminating aspect of this work: marching the reader through the rationale of Boyd's own conclusions, carefully demonstrating the philosophical and scientific tools by which Boyd made his logical leaps. Osinga masterfully leads the reader through Boyd's zeitgeist, which serves to highlight the synthesis of the ideas of Popper, Polanyi, Kuhn, Capra, Priogogine, Waldrop, Skinner, Monod, Gell-Mann, van Creveld, Sun Tzu, Clausewitz, Liddell-Hart to name just a few (as the 'select bibliography' is no less than 12 pages in length 10-point font) but most importantly the ideas encapsulated within Heisenberg, Godel, and the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics. Understand this: without that vast and learned background, with particular emphasis upon the last three, there is no OODA Loop. This eclectic background is fascinating, but extremely esoteric, and Osinga arranges this knowledge fruitfully and masterfully for the discernment of the dedicated reader.

Finally, and most importantly, Osinga's book emphasizes Boyd's true novel contribution to humankind is in learning theory. This is refreshing as my previous frame of reference hinged upon a very poor impression of OODA through my USAF professional military education. While not ignoring OODA, but contrary to the USAF's educational focus, Osinga more appropriately focuses upon Boyd's fundamental of how we as human orient ourselves to our unpredictable and chaotic surroundings. Further, Osinga provides the reader Boyd's methodology for perceiving the world and creatively innovating mental models to successfully adapt and overcome unpredictability and chaos. Uncertainty is constant, and the ability to learn to adapt and overcome uncertainty equates to winning. Boyd's lesson is clear, constant learning portends success. Boyd explains it succienctly:

"Since survival and growth are directly connected with the uncertain, ever-changing, unpredictable world of winning and losing we will exploit this whirling (conceptual) spiral of orientation, mismatches, analysis/synthesis, reorientation, mismatches, analysis/synthesis ... so that we can comprehend, cope with, and shape, as well as be shaped by that world and the novelty that arises out of it."

With these tools, the reader is better prepared in my opinion to do as Boyd says:

"...to survive, and to survive on one's own terms, or improve one's capacity for independent action. Due to forced competition for limited resources to satisfy these desires, one is probably compelled to diminish their adversary's capacity for independent action, or deny him the opportunity to survive on his own terms, or make it impossible to survive at all.

Life is conflict, survival and conquest."

This is a deep and introspective-creating book by Frans Osinga. It will challenge your cognitive abilities. However, if you do not fear difficult and deep thinking you will be well served by it.

As a student of strategy (business), I've always been fascinated by the influence of military strategy on management. Frans manages to capture the intellectual journey and accomplishments of John Boyd. The amazing thing about this book is the authors ability to combine an easy to read narrative with the rigor of academic scholarship.

The journey contains a fascinating synthesis of the different influences that shaped Boyd's work - ranging from strategy classics to the paradigm debates that shaped much of the philosophy of science in the later part of the 20th century. This is a must read book for anyone seeking to understand the unique influences and creative synthesis that led to not just Boyd's OODA loop but also his much broader perspective on military strategy.

Even though I have two engineering degrees, this was not an easy read. The author, Frans Osinga, roams the intellectual landscape in search of the mind of John Boyd, soldier, scholar, and maverick. For those of us who are fans of Col. Boyd and wished that he had left a book as his legacy, this is as close as we'll get. Osinga used the Boyd bookcase to try to reconstruct the evolution of Boyd's philosophy as Boyd distilled it in thousands of overhead projector briefing slides.

The author takes the reader on a journey through chaos theory, the Second Law of Thermodynamics, the writings of the ancients, philosophy, physics, and paradigms ending up in the grand theory of Boyd's hallmark -- the OODA loop.

I will no doubt reread this book -- at least once again, if not many times. The first read was like drinking from a fire hose.

I had the opportunity to meet with Colonel John Boyd while has was a "consultant" at the Pentagon in 1977 and subsequently hear four of his presentations to Mariines at Headquarters, Marine Corp and at Quantico in the 1977-1979 time frame. The book is a great refresher course of these earlier presentations and it then takes Colonel Boyd's strategy development on to a higher level. A great read.