Reflexive Control in Operational Art: Designing Emergent Opportunity in the Vicksburg Campaign
Abstract
True victory in military operations arises through the acceptance of defeat by one of the antagonists. Despite this, military decision making frequently devolves into analysis of things over thoughts. Reflexive control theory provides an insight into human cognition that can help address this tendency. Reflexive control is "a means of conveying to a partner or an opponent specifically prepared information to incline him to voluntarily make the predetermined decision desired by the initiator of the action." This scientific theory originated in the Soviet Union from research on human cognition to explore a phenomenon prolific within the human condition. While "reflexive control" is an idea re-emerging from the mists of the Cold War in discussions of "gray zone conflicts" and Russian hybrid warfare, it is in fact present throughout warfare theory and within US Army doctrine. This monograph seeks to answer how military leaders can employ operational art to craft operations and campaigns characterized by deliberate creation of emergent opportunities. It hypothesizes that effective employment of the operational art requires patterns of strategic thought beyond mere "ends-ways-means" framing. Reflexive control offers a way of consciously considering assumptions and risk calculus of actors within the environment, and executing actions to influence adversary decision making by confirming assumptions, creating new assumptions, and overloading decision making processes. To do this, this work employs a US Army historical example of operational art to expand the military study of the reflexive control. It reviews reflexive control theory's Cold War origin in comparison with other military theorists to offer a way to analyze it in military context. It then reframes Grant's Vicksburg campaign of 1863, demonstrating via primary source material, how Grant masterfully manipulated the decision making of his enemy to create emergent opportunity within his environment.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- May 25, 2017
- Accession Number
- AD1038994
Entities
People
- Wilford Iii L. Garvin
Organizations
- School of Advanced Military Studies