Patterns of Conflict was an immensely influential briefing by strategist extraordinaire Col John Boyd (available here), from December 1986. Regarded as the dominant part of his three-briefing set known as the Discourse on Winning and Losing, it laid out a number of influential ideas, first and foremost the three dimensions - moral - mental - physical - of conflict. Its question was simple, yet important: how do we prevail in a changing world? Its answer:
Evolve and exploit insight/initiative/adaptability/harmony together with a unifying vision, via a grand ideal or an overarching theme or a noble philosophy, as basis to:
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- Shape or influence events so that we not only amplify our spirit and strength but also influence the uncommitted or potential adversaries so that they are drawn toward our philosophy and are empathetic toward our success,
yet be able to
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- Operate inside adversary’s observation-orientation-decision-action (OODA) loops or get inside his mind-time-space as a basis to:
- Penetrate adversary’s moral-mental-physical being in order to isolate him from his allies, pull him apart, and collapse his will to resist.
Boyd’s ideas presented in Patterns of Conflict and the rest of the Discourse spawned the Defence Reform Movement that shaped the face of today’s conception of military engagement. Those ideas have, however, not been restricted to the theory of armed combat: management, political strategy, law enforcement and a number of other fields, some related closer to the original point than others, are discovering Boyd’s theory.
The purpose of this blog (I’m told the proper term is ‘tumblelog’!) is to allow for the discussion of ideas that are too long to fit into tweets (I twitter about law, war, computers, geeky stuff, photography and food here).
