Rethinking the Principles of War—One Year On

One year ago this month, Proceedings published our "Rethinking the Principles of War." Intended as a call to reflection, the article generated considerable action. A survey at this juncture offers a measure of the continued interest—and critical engagement—in the questions we posed. That prompts us to tighten the focus and suggests further actions.

We argued that the first principles common to the doctrine of all armed services—and in that of most of our coalition partners—provide a platform for examination and evaluation of the new ideas generated by rapid changes in the ways of war. Our aim was to provoke a discussion. Let us again be clear; our purpose was not to draft a new list of principles. That activity was and remains the proper province of the Navy Warfare Development Command or the Marine Corps Combat Development Command and their counterparts across the services.

Instead, we saw in the principles a powerful heuristic device. Yes, they still are the purest distillation of a common language of war from the enduring lessons of the past. But how might they help us choose wisely among competing visions for the future? We wondered if a greater contemporary significance might be found by applying them more rigorously to the Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA)/Transformation debates. Could rethinking the principles of war clarify some of the theoretical clutter? Our thought was not to weigh the merits of the principles per se, but to employ them as time-tested optics for assessing novel concepts that purport to define a new American way of war.

With support from the Office of the secretary of the Navy and the Office of Force Transformation, we enlisted the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, the Naval Institute, and the Royal United Services Institute in a partnership to broaden the conversation. With counsel from faculty in each of the service war colleges, the partnership has fielded three national-level activities now in progress.

During this year and into early 2005, we are conducting a senior seminar series on the "Rethinking" themes. An open forum, each discussion session is anchored by leading figures in military affairs—Army Major General Robert Scales, Army lieutenant General James Dubik, Royal Navy Admiral Sir Ian Forbes, and Navy Vice Admirals Arthur Cebrowski and Timothy Keating among them. The attendee list is more than 300 and growing. For schedule and other information visit: http://www.jhuapl.edu/POW.

Concurrently, the Naval Institute is conducting a national-level essay contest. The general theme is reconsideration of the Principles of War. With a total purse of $35,000, the contest is getting attention. The winning writers will see their efforts published in Proceedings. Additional information on the contest can be found at the Naval Institute website: http://www.usni.org/contests/contests.html#principles. A particularly rich source of inspiration and background material on the subject can be found at the site maintained by the Office of Force Transformation: http://www.oft.osd.mil/initiatives/pow/.

The third program element is an anthology of essays building on the "Rethinking" themes. Scheduled for publication by the Naval Institute Press next September, the volume is designed to serve as a text for the service academies, war colleges, and private-sector graduate programs in national security. Contributors will take up the continued RMA debate, intelligence reform, transformation, and emerging ways of war-both conventional and irregular.

Beyond these initial programs, the original "Rethinking" partnership recently started planning to broaden participation through joint activities with the faculty and leadership of a number of institutions. Academies, staff colleges, and specialized service schoolhouses have expressed interest. Beyond the walls of professional military education, advocates for clarity on first principles now are making their cases in proposals and white papers on subjects as diverse as intelligence community reform and the future of counter-insurgency. The spark that unites them is a core belief in the importance of thinking first about how we think. By doing so, they are raising the bar for the acceptance of proof.

Last October we wrote, "The imperative for reevaluation reaches far beyond the next revision of the basic texts for U.S. military doctrine." Today, we believe that events have only rendered that imperative more urgent. We also wrote, "the debate this time will be equally vigorous." And so it has been. What we most need now is for each of you to rally your peers and engage in the dialogue. To the operators, engineers, academics, and policymakers who already have chimed in, we say, "Welcome aboard!" Together, we can take the "Rethinking" challenge to the next level.