Fresh thinking to deal with ‘not quite wars’ (part 1) | The Strategist

"The new doctrine appears to encourage an approach to thinking in ‘cumulative’ terms over the linear. This harks back to a less well-known strategic thinker, but one with many lessons for today, J.C. Wylie.

In his Military strategy: a general theory of power control, Wylie proffered a useful approach to military campaigns, postulating that military forces should focus on asserting control where possible to create strategic advantage. That is in sharp contrast to conventional linear thinking about war as a loss of equilibrium that must be regained, and about war and peace as a black-and-white dichotomy. Wylie believed that thinking about control, as opposed to a war versus peace, would result in better long-term decisions, and thereby a greater comparative advantage strategically.

Wylie’s theory of control has two categories of strategies, sequential and cumulative. Sequential strategies are offensive assertions of control, typically in a linear campaign, that strive for finality. An example might be the series of engagements that would ultimately seize and occupy a capital city, à la the coalition forces’ march on and seizure of Baghdad in 2003. On the other side, cumulative strategies are a defensive aspect of control that take the strength of an adversary, effectively denying its ability for decision or finality. This then creates an overwhelming series of actions that exhaust the enemy."