U.S. Armed Forces and the Operational Level of War

<p>This monograph examines the operational level of war a concept rediscovered by the United States Army with the publication of the 1982 version of FM 100-5 and reinforced by the appearance of the succeeding version in 1986. Military doctrine and theory is examined to determine what components and conditions constitute operational level warfare. A paradigm of operational level war is proposed and compared to U.S. military experience in World War II Korea and Vietnam to establish the key theoretical aspects of operational art that were present or absent in each historical example. The final portion of the paper compares current U.S. force structure and doctrine with the model to ascertain whether we understand operational art and are prepared to wage war successfully at that level. The monograph concludes that there are significant shortcomings in our ability to be successful at the operational level and it provides recommendations for the correction or mitigation of these shortcomings.</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>