Defending America's Center of Gravity

Defending America's Center of Gravity
Author: Ehrich D. Rose
Publisher:
Total Pages: 18
Release: 2006
Genre: Communication policy
ISBN:

The National Defense Strategy states "America is a Nation at War", but unless the United States effectively employs strategic communications and secures the National Will, the ability to maximize military power to achieve national security objectives is jeopardized. Where once the military domination of land, sea, and air were sufficient to bring victory, warfare in the twenty-first century now requires information dominance to preserve the United States' Center of Gravity (COG). Using Colonel Harry A. Tomlin's COG construct, this project was able to demonstrate the United States' strategic vulnerability to achieving policy objectives as well as the corrosive effects of non-kinetic firepower from both foreign and domestic propaganda. As a result, unless the United States recognizes this vulnerability and develops a strategy nested in the National Security and National Defense strategies, we may win every tactical fight on the battlefield, but lose the strategic fight for the political objective that motivated the decision to go to war.

Addressing the Fog of COG

Addressing the Fog of COG
Author: Department of Defense
Publisher:
Total Pages: 169
Release: 2017-09-27
Genre:
ISBN: 9781549846335

This book examines multiple insurgent areas of operation and the dynamic and varied nature of multiple insurgent operational centers of gravity, recognizing and accounting for the notion that insurgency can form a complex, shifting mosaic. More specifically, many insurgencies conduct different types and combinations of operations at the local or tactical levels. For example, in one area an insurgency can be weak and consequently conducting small-scale operations, where forces of the same insurgency in an adjacent area can be strong and conducting larger-scale operations. From a macro or theater perspective, these variations form a mosaic not of small colored tiles, but of areas of varying insurgent efforts. This contextual understanding of the mosaic nature of most insurgencies and their multiple operational centers of gravity facilitates equally nuanced and tailored efforts to effectively counter insurgency. Similarly, conducting effective counterinsurgency depends on recognizing when there are multiple insurgencies operating in the same area. The first section is a review of key literature on centers of gravity, insurgency, centers of gravity in counterinsurgency, and the independent variables used in the case studies. The second section of the manuscript consists of two case studies. The conclusion is the final section of the manuscript and provides a summary of insights into centers of gravity in counterinsurgency. Carl von Clausewitz's discussion on a center of gravity appears relatively late in On War. Clausewitz stated that: "[O]ne must keep the dominant characteristics of both belligerents in mind. Out of these characteristics a certain center of gravity develops, the hub of all power and movement, on which everything depends." Based on this statement, each belligerent has a center of gravity, and a center of gravity must be determined in relative opposition. In other words, each side's center of gravity emerges depending on its political aims in opposition to the opposition's political aims. Thus, Clausewitz explicitly supports the notion that multiple centers of gravity vary by time, space, and purpose. While Clausewitz's key statement on a center of gravity defines a single center of gravity, he allowed for multiple centers of gravity. He stated that it was a goal or ideal to analyze back to the fewest number or, preferably, to one center of gravity. Clausewitz outlined two aspects important when attempting to isolate a single center of gravity. The first was to examine the distribution of political power. For example, an alliance may have only one center of gravity if the members of that alliance only loosely share political interests. The second analytical aspect was the situation in the theater of war. "[T]he effect that events in a given theater will have elsewhere can only be judged in each particular case. Only then can it be seen how far the enemy's various centers of gravity can be reduced to one." Clausewitz added, that when an enemy's "resistance cannot be reduced to a single center of gravity...two almost wholly separate wars have to be fought simultaneously."

America's Two-Front War

America's Two-Front War
Author: U. S. Military
Publisher:
Total Pages: 80
Release: 2018-04-05
Genre:
ISBN: 9781980746935

This unique book examines the role of the American media in shaping coverage of military operations and wars. The Vietnam War demonstrated how critical American public support is to sustaining successful military operations. Empowered by their experience and effect on the American public during the Vietnam War, America's media has maintained a "second-front" against the U.S. military by targeting its center of gravity, attempting to influence American public support against military operations. As a result, the military has been forced to fight a "two-front" war. In addition to its battlefield strategy, the military must fight to protect its center of gravity--America public support. The thesis of this paper is that the U.S. military must reduce the vulnerability of its center of gravity to U.S. media assaults by operating in a manner consistent with public expectations of the military and by ensuring the American public understands military goals and operations. In short, if the public understands the military's mission, how the military has accomplished that mission, and the behavior of its forces, public support should be strong enough to withstand the media's assault.This paper begins with an analysis of the relationship between the military and the media and its effects on the American public. It provides a deeper look at how and why the American public is targeted by both the military and the media. Following that analysis, the paper examines public support for major military conflicts from Vietnam to the Global War on Terrorism (GWoT). This examination is not designed to document military-media relations as much as it is to show how the military has protected or lost its center of gravity. Since the conflict between the military and the media is unlikely to change, this paper concludes by addressing the means by which the military can ensure its behavior is consistent with public expectations and how to better articulate its goals and operations to the American public in order to secure its center of gravity and maintain public support.

Addressing the Fog of COG

Addressing the Fog of COG
Author: Celestino Perez
Publisher:
Total Pages: 169
Release: 2012
Genre: Military art and science
ISBN: 9780985587949

A collection of analyses on the concept and application of center of gravity. As military professionals set out to do their work, the planning done prior to beginning operations is crucial; and, if that planning hinges on identifying the center of gravity, how the concept is used, or not, could be paramount.

Making Strategy

Making Strategy
Author: Dennis M. Drew
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2002-04
Genre: National security
ISBN: 9780898758870

National secuirty strategy is a vast subject involving a daunting array of interrelated subelements woven in intricate, sometimes vague, and ever-changing patterns. Its processes are often irregular and confusing and are always based on difficult decisions laden with serious risks. In short, it is a subject understood by few and confusing to most. It is, at the same time, a subject of overwhelming importance to the fate of the United States and civilization itself. Col. Dennis M. Drew and Dr. Donald M. Snow have done a considerable service by drawing together many of the diverse threads of national security strategy into a coherent whole. They consider political and military strategy elements as part of a larger decisionmaking process influenced by economic, technological, cultural, and historical factors. I know of no other recent volume that addresses the entire national security milieu in such a logical manner and yet also manages to address current concerns so thoroughly. It is equally remarkable that they have addressed so many contentious problems in such an evenhanded manner. Although the title suggests that this is an introductory volume - and it is - I am convinced that experienced practitioners in the field of national security strategy would benefit greatly from a close examination of this excellent book. Sidney J. Wise Colonel, United States Air Force Commander, Center for Aerospace Doctrine, Research and Education

Defending America's Security

Defending America's Security
Author: Frederick H. Hartmann
Publisher: Potomac Books
Total Pages: 408
Release: 1990
Genre: History
ISBN:

Revised to take into account new geopolitical trends (including the pre-war stage of the US-Iraq conflict) as well as the latest changes in the US government, this classroom-oriented text examines US defense policies in the broader arenas of national security and international affairs. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR