PRINCIPLES OF WAR
The fundamental principles upon which rest all good combination of war
have always existed and to them all others should be referred for the
purpose of arriving at their respective merits. These principles are
unchangeable; They are independent of the arms employed, of times,
and of places.
- Jomini
The aim of military study should be to maintain a close watch upon the
latest technical, scientific and political developments, fortified by a sure
grasp of the eternal principles upon which the great Captains have
based their contemporary methods, and inspired by a desire to be ahead
of any rival army in securing options for the future.
- Sir Basil Liddel Hart
Although Clausewitz himself speaks loosely of certain “principles” to be
observed and followed, …… he specifically rejected the notion that there
could be any well defined body of particular rules or principles that
universally dictated one form of behaviors rather than another …. It
was not until the twentieth century that various army field manuals would
attempt to encapsulate centuries of experience and volumes of reflection
into a few tarsely worded and usually numbered “principles of war”.
Clausewitz would have been appalled at such attempts, and not
surprised at some of the terrible blunders that have been made in the
name of these principles.
- Bernard Brodie
INTRODUCTION
For centuries many military organizations have subscribed to the idea that there exists
a set of guiding principles or ideas that guide the conduct and study of war. These
guiding principles are known as Principles of War. There has never been universal
agreement on one common list of principles. Most nations have their own list of
principles based on their military culture, experience and heritage.
Principles of War is a guide to actions concerning the application of combat power,
rather than an unquestioned truth with universal application to every single operation.
They help provide a better understanding of warfare but these are guidelines only and
not prescription, formula, recipe or checklist for success.
The Principles of War were developed over time and reflect the manner in which we
fought and planned to fight during 20th century industrial age. With the present
global security environment of the 21st Century, exponential growth of Information
Technology in the information age, introduction of nuclear weapons in the Indian
subcontinent and China, increased influence of irregular warfare, proxy war and non
state actors and other changes caused some to question the values of existing
Principles of War. The foremost military thinker of our age John Keegan wrote during
the second decade of the Cold War, “ One of the purposes behind the principles has
been to make new and strange circumstances comprehensible, to draw a thread from
