Customer Reviews

The Scientific Way of Warfare: Order and Chaos on the Battlefields of Modernity (Columbia/Hurst)

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This book is an excellent description of the application of scientific theories primarily from the fields of mathematics and physics to military theory and practice. Bousquet's approach is original, if somewhat eccentric, and he succeeds in clearly explaining both complex scientific theories and their influence on military strategies and tactics.

He divides what he terms "techno-scientific regimes" into four categories that more or less follow the historical development of technology. Thus he argues that the development of a reliable mechanical clock was reflected in military thinking by the introduction of synchronized battle drill and orderly, if often complex, planning and execution of strategy and tactics. Bousquet considers that the identification of the rules of thermodynamics directly influenced the military doctrines of rapid, dispersed, and unpredictable movement that culminated in WWII with such tactical and operational formulations as the German Blitzkrieg. His treats the third regime the computer and its military counter-part "cybernetic warfare" as the introduction of large quantities of information and rapid telecommunications as well as command and control systems as establishing the means of reducing the normal uncertainty and chaos of battle. This was the age of operations research and systems analysis which, as Bousquet notes, came to grief in the Vietnam War. His fourth regime is derived from "chaos theory" and the concept of networked type of organizations in which decision making is dispersed down to the smallest possible unit. This regime's application to military theory essentially embraces chaos rather than minimizing it and uses it to confuse and confound the enemy.

It is in this fourth regime that Bousquet has a number of really interesting ideas. He gives credit to the increasingly recognized ideas of Colonel John Boyd (USAF ret. 1927-1997) who deliberately used such scientific theories as the Second Law of Thermodynamics and Chaos Theory in his military thinking. Using these theories, Boyd for example developed his famous Observe, Orient, Decide, Act (OODA) "loop" which is a very accurate conceptual model for all command and control (C2) systems. By using these theories, Bousquet was able to clearly describe the concept of Network Centric Warfare (NCW) as originally conceived and advocated. He notes that NCW was information driven and designed to thrive on the chaos of war. There was a rather vague strategy derived from NCW, but it was never really developed. The original NCW concept incorporated the concept of non-hierarchical network type of organizations in which information sharing allowed situational awareness information was pushed to the highest levels of command while decision making was pushed to the lowest level possible. NCW was founded on an advance command and telecommunication system called, "Command. Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance" (C4ISR). All forms of C4ISR systems are designed as information management systems specifically for the high flows of information produced by 21st Century information acquisition and forwarding systems.

This book would be a good companion to "Science, Strategy, and War" by Frans P.B. Osinga which is a careful examination of the scientific origins of Boyd's theories.

Antoine Bousquet has written what I am sure will become a classic in the field of military theory and thinking. Simply put, Bousquet has picked up where Clausewitz and Fuller have left off concerning the scientific basis for warfare and has updated that thinking through the modern era of, as he calls it, "chaoplexic warfare." This is a magnum opus, well documented, and exceptionally well-written. It also has the value of being concise, coming in at less than 250 pages.

For any serious or casual student of the military arts, this book must be considered essential. It could easily have been the book that John Boyd would have written - and yes, there is a lengthy discussion of Boyd's thinking and application of it to warfare.

I cannot emphasize enough how important this book should be, except to write: READ THIS BOOK NOW!! And like Clausewitz and Sun Tzu, wait a couple of weeks and re-read it. Bousquet's ideas have the legs for extended discussion and elaboration.