Publisher's Synopsis
This monograph presents the elements and characteristics of the principle of surprise on the modern battlefield. For ages, commanders and theorists regarded surprise as the cornerstone of operations. Given the changing operational environment with the potential for contested domains in the future, the principle of surprise will be pivotal once again in U.S. military planning and operations. The essence of surprise is cunning. The context of surprise in U.S. Army doctrine is no longer clear for the practitioner. Doctrine should provide a holistic concept of surprise that allows for the practitioner to use it as a guide in any situation of war. Surprise is a key element in achieving operational shock. The Soviet theory of Deep Battle highlights that operational shock requires the elements of surprise: preconceptions, deception, secrecy, and response time. The essence of operational art is cunning. The cunning practitioner achieves operational shock by creating depth and novelty on the battlefield. Cunning is not a mechanistic arrangement of the elements of operational art, but an intelligent orchestration of the elements of surprise, along with breaking the rules of form and function to create novelty. The Israeli Defense Force's (IDF) operations in 2002 provide a stunning example of surprise and cunning on a future battlefield.This compilation also includes a reproduction of the 2019 Worldwide Threat Assessment of the U.S. Intelligence Community.In the classic masterpiece, The Odyssey, Homer tells the tale of Odysseus' use of cunning in war. Odysseus led the Greeks to victory not because of superior strength or speed, but because of cunning wit. He understood that the vulnerability of the Trojans rested in their ability to defend themselves behind the famed walls of Troy. At surface level, the premise is simple, deception and surprise allowed Odysseus to achieve victory over a formidable opponent. A more in-depth analysis reveals that he deceived the Trojans by changing the paradigm of battle: through novelty, he turned an army into a wooden horse. A simplistic story, Odysseus' use of cunning highlights the depth of surprise, from the mental sphere of deception to the physical sphere of an object being pushed through the gates of Troy all to achieve an effect in the moral sphere. Homer's classic work The Odyssey came after his masterpiece The Iliad, a tale of the gods where heroic strength prevailed. The Odyssey is a classic work that portrayed a shift in ages, where the Greek concept of metis, or cunning, became the coin of the realm over brute strength. Robert Jervis stated that "because actions change the environments in which they operate, identical but later behavior does not produce identical results. Indeed, history is about the changes produced by previous thought and action as people and organizations confront each other through time." This study is about achieving surprise through cunning. The operational environment is evolving and so are the potential adversaries. Academics and military scholars acknowledge that the character of war is changing as technology develops at a phenomenal rate. The former President of the U.S. Naval War College, Retired Vice Admiral Arthur K. Cebrowksi, emphasized technology's role in creating new metrics in war where "it will reappear in a new and shocking form to challenge our current conception."
