The Strategic Theory of John Boyd - Project White …

1 Science, Strategy and WarThe Strategic Theory of john BoydFrans Osinga The cover illustration depicts the comprehensive rendering of the OODA loop which features in john Boyd s final presentation titled The Essence of Winning and Losing. Cover design: Hermkens Design, Amsterdam ISBN 90 5972 058 X Eburon Academic Publishers Box 2867 2601 CW Delft The Netherlands Phone: +31 (0)15-2131484 / Fax: +31 (0)15-2146888 / 2005 F. Osinga. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission in writing from the , Strategy and War The Strategic Theory of john BoydProefschrift ter verkrijging van de graad van Doctoraan de Universiteit Leiden, op gezag van de Rector Magnificus Prof.

2 Dr. Breimer, hoogleraar in de faculteit der Wiskunde enNatuurwetenschappen en die der Geneeskunde, volgens besluit van het College voor Promoties te verdedigen op dinsdag 11 januari 2005 klokke uur doorFrans Osinga geboren te Leeuwarden in 1963 PROMOTIECOMMISSIEP romotorProf. Dr. A. van Staden Referent Prof. Dr. R. de Wijk Overige leden Prof. Dr. Hammond Prof. Dr. Ir. G. Ooms Prof. Dr. Voorhoeve De totstandkoming van dit proefschrift werd financieel mogelijk gemaakt door de Koninklijke Luchtmacht. We are survival machines. Richard Dawkins Strategy is the mode of survival of a society. Henry Kissinger First Lt. john Boyd in the cockpit of an F-86 during the Korean War (USAF photograph) viiCONTENTS1. 1 Who is john Boyd and what is A Discourse ? ..1 Why study Boyd? ..3 Objective and thesis .. ON STRATEGY AND Strategic Theory .

3 14 Making good strategy is difficult ..17 Strategic The Theory in Strategic scope of Strategic Theory ..20 Strategic Theory and practice ..24 Why Strategic theorizing is difficult ..26 HOW Strategic Theory DEVELOPS:FORMATIVE Sources of inspiration and for understanding ..31 Experience, predecessors and pressing and Strategic Theory ..34 The formative factors of Boyd s A Discourse ..383. THE SEEDS OF A Theory AND THE FERTILE 40 THE SEED OF A Theory ; BOYD'S MILITARY Flying fighters ..43 READING Rediscovering old masters ..47 Rediscovering flexibility and fluidity .. Indirect Approach ..52 Boyd s conceptual father: Sun Tzu ..56 FERTILE SOIL: THEUS Turbulent environment ..68 Adaptive Marines ..69 Boyd and DISCOURSE AS PRODUCT OF 4. SCIENCE: BOYD S 78 BOYD AND A new s Evolutionary Epistemology.

4 84viiiPolanyi and the tacit dimension ..85 Paradigms and revolutions ..90 PARADIGM Beyond Newton ..94 The end of certainty ..96 THE EMERGING SYSTEMS VIEW OF THE , not parts ..100 Cybernetics ..103 General Systems Theory ..105 SYSTEMS structure of the brain ..106 The cognitive ..112 BOYD AND THE FIRST STAGE OF THE PARADIGM new view ..116 Boyd and the systems view of life ..117 Strategy, creativity, doctrines and mental modules ..118 Conclusion ..1195. COMPLETING THE SHIFT ..121 RIDING THE non-linearity of nature ..126 Phase space, stable basins and forks in the chemistry to life: and cognition ..131 BEYOND OPEN EN CHAOTIC SYSTEMS:COMPLEXITY Adaptive Systems ..133 Emergent order and ..136 Levels of adaptation ..138 Eco-systems and fitness landscapes ..140 Perpetual novelty ..142 CHAOS , Chaos and organizational life.

5 147 Managing complex ,CHAOS,AND non-linearity of the social world ..154 The non-linear nature of war ..158A DISCOURSEAND THE SCIENTIFIC , Strategic Theory and thinking strategically ..166 Boyd s military strategies of Complex Adaptive Systems ..171 Conclusion ..1726. CORE 173A DISCOURSE IN ..174 BOYD S ABSTRACT OFA AND Abstract ..176 Goal ..176 Environment ..177 Need for Concepts .. and consistency ..180 Indeterminacy and Uncertainty ..181 Entropy and the Second Law of and Creation ..182 PATTERNS OF ..185 Historical Snapshots ..187 The Blitzkrieg Concept ..198 The Modern Guerrilla nucleus of victory: the themes of Blitzkrieg and guerrilla warfare ..207 Categories of : pattern for successful operations ..216 Theme for disintegration and collapse ..221 Theme for vitality and growth ..225 Application.

6 226 Wrap Up, or coming full circle ..228 CONCLUDING EXPLORATION AND FOR COMMAND AND for command and control ..234 The Big O: communication and organizational heat-death ..237 Redefining command and GAME OF ?AND ?.. , or building to Essential Elements ..250 Strategic Perspective ..251On isolation and interaction ..254A Moral Design for Grand Strategy ..257 The meaning of strategy and the art of ..260 Simple minded Message ..263 Underlying dynamics ..263 Final step: why novelty matters ..265 Deeper OF WINNING AND real OODA loop ..270 BEYOND THE RAPID OODALOOP the narrow larger theme: Adaptability ..273A new synopsis ..274 Conclusion ..2798. CONCLUSION .. new and Strategic Theory : uncertainty and general Theory of organizational survival ..284 Beyond rapid OODA looping ..285 BOYD AS THE FIRST POST-MODERN STRATEGIST?

7 286 The name of Boyd s Zeitgeist ..286An interesting combination: Lyotard and Theory ..292 Boyd as deconstructionist?..295 Post-modern security studies ..296 BOYDIAN CONCEPTS AND POST-MODERN VISION OF FUTURE rise of the post-modern warform ..299A revolution in postmodern military asymmetric response ..311 CLOSING THE A : BIBLIOGRAPHY OF DESTRUCTION AND 317 ANNEX B: BIBLIOGRAPHY OF PATTERNS OF 318 BIBLIOGRAPHY .. 323 CURRICULUM 33911. INTRODUCTION To flourish and grow in a many-sided uncertain and ever changing world that surrounds us, suggests that we have to make intuitive within ourselves those many practices we need to meet the exigencies of that world. The contents that comprise this 'Discourse' unfold observations and ideas that contribute towards achieving or thwarting such an aim or purpose john Boyd, A Discourse, Who is john Boyd and what is A Discourse ?

8 The general objective of this study is to provide a better understanding of the ideas concerning conflict and military strategy john Boyd developed and laid down in A aims to correct and complement the common interpretation of his work, while in addition showing the impact of this body of Strategic thought on military doctrine and defence policy of the past two and a halve decades. An answer to the question who john Boyd was and what A Discourse comprises may start with some sections of a tribute written two days after Boyd s death on 9 March 1997 which describes him asa towering intellect who made unsurpassed contributions to the American art of war. Indeed, he was one of the central architects in the reform of military thought which swept the services, and in particular the Marine corps, in the 1980 s.

9 From john Boyd we learned about the competitive decision making on the battlefield-compressing time, using time as an ally. Thousands of officers in all or services knew john Boyd by his work on what was to be known as the Boyd Cycle or OODA loop. His writings and his lectures had a fundamental impact on the curriculum of virtually every professional military education program in the United States-and many abroad [..]he was the quintessential soldier-scholar - a man whose jovial outgoing exterior belied the vastness of his knowledge and the power of his was a strategist, a person who, according to Colin Gray, sees, even though he or she cannot possibly be expert in, all dimensions of the big picture of the evolving conditions of war2.

10 john Boyd was an officer in the United States Air Force who lived from 1927-1997. He saw combat action as a fighter pilot, flying the F-86 Sabre during the Korean War. In the fifties and sixties he developed air combat tactics and trained pilots at the Fighter Weapons School at Nellis Air Force Base near Las Vegas. During the sixties, posted at the Pentagon, he was closely involved in the design of the F-16 and the F-15 fighter aircraft. He retired as a colonel in 1975. He continued his involvement with military affairs as a (virtually non-paid) consultant. In this capacity he was involved in attempts to reform the US defense establishment and the acquisition process at the Pentagon that he considered a stifling bureaucracy. The period from retirement to 1995 marks the gestation period of A of his biographers states that most of his real education occurred after he retired from 1 General Krulak, Commandant of the Marine Corps, Inside the Pentagon, 13 March 1997, 2 Colin Gray, Modern Strategy (Oxford, 1999), p.