Campaign Plan Formulation and the Deliberate Planning Process

<p>The campaign planning process is the essential link between the strategic and operational levels of war. Since the final large unit operations of World War II the American military has lost its expertise in campaign planning. The study examines the deliberate planning process of World War II and the contemporary Joint Operations Planning System (JOPS) in relation to campaign plan formulation. The study begins with the development of a theoretical construct to analyze the campaign planning process. The study then proceeds to analyze the strategic and operational deliberate planning process of World War II by tracing the formulation of the campaign plan to defeat the Japanese in the Pacific theater of war. The study progresses to an analysis of the contemporary JOPS and its ability to link the strategic and operational levels of war through the process of campaign planning. A comparison and contrasting of both deliberate planning mechanisms yields insights and conclusions that are applicable to the current status of campaign planning. Some insights and conclusions derived from this study are: the current JOPS does not formally recognize nor adequately support the campaign planning process and that the process of campaign planning is just as important as the actual campaign plan itself. Furthermore the study concludes that an unrestrained thought process similar to the World War II strategic and operational planning paradigm not a restrained thought process like the contemporary JOPS is a prerequisite in developing a viable campaign planning process. The study concludes with considerations and implications for a contemporary campaign planning process linking the strategic and operational levels of war in support of the operational art.</p><p>This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore you will see the original copyright references library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world) and other notations in the work.</p><p>This work is in the public domain in the United States of America and possibly other nations. Within the United States you may freely copy and distribute this work as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.</p><p>As a reproduction of a historical artifact this work may contain missing or blurred pages poor pictures errant marks etc. Scholars believe and we concur that this work is important enough to be preserved reproduced and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.</p><br>