Strategic Paralysis: An Airpower Theory for the Present.
Abstract
The fundamental costs of making war have driven military strategists to search for a quick and inexpensive victory. The limits of technology have allowed for only so much innovation on land and sea. Aircraft have never achieved the inexpensive or decisive victory their advocates sought. It has been only recently that airpower technology, employment, and doctrine has been up to the task. There is broad agreement about the final objective sought in any military conflict. The end, ultimately, requires a change in the enemy government's behavior. What is not clear is how this change is to be achieved and the role airpower plays in it. This paper suggests an independent strategy for the application of airpower and its goal of strategic paralysis. The method or objective of strategic paralysis is to attack or threaten selectively those strategic or national level targets that most directly support the enemy's war making ability and its willingness to continue with current behavior. Strategic paralysis warfare should result in a change in the enemy's behavior at lower costs as airpower assets, not ground troops, are the primary weapons. It is the only weapon that can provide the near simultaneous shock to the enemy's central nervous system necessary to induce strategic paralysis. Strategic targeting should consider the interaction of all societal elements of the enemy. The National Elements of Value model is such an approach.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Feb 01, 1994
- Accession Number
- ADA290652
Entities
People
- Jason B. Barlow
Organizations
- Air University