The Evolution of Operational Art. From Napoleon to the Present

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Napoleon and the Dawn

of Operational Warfare

Martin van Creveld

INTRODUCTION

It is usually possible to analyse the conduct of wars, and especially the larger ones
among them, on three separate levels. At the bottom are tactics; that is, the use of
the available military means in order to win battles. At the top is strategy; that is,
the use ofallavailable means (not merely military ones) in order to win the war.
Somewhere in between lies the operational level, which might be defined as the
use of the available military means in order to win campaigns. Implicit in these
distinctions is the assumption that a war may very well see several campaigns
unfold at the same time. For example, during the First World War, it was the
government in London that ran the war as a whole; the commanders in France,
Palestine, and Iraq engaged in what little operational art there was; and the corps,
division, and regimental commanders took care of tactics. In this chapter, what
concerns us is the second, or middle, of these three levels.
Before proceeding further, it is necessary to emphasize one absolutely essential
point: whatever the differences that separate the three levels—and there is, however,
no doubt that they merge into each other to some extent—they have one thing in
common; namely, the fact that they both describe and prescribe how to deal with an
acting, reacting enemy; and that, as a result, the medium in which they move, so to
speak, consists of uncertainty. To paraphrase a famous sixteenth-century phrase
referring to the tendency of Swiss mercenaries to melt away when they were not
paid,pas d’enemi, pas de la guerre;pas d’incertitude, pas de guerre aussi(no enemy, no
war; no uncertainty, no war either). Any attempt to understand war at any level,
including the operational one, without taking this fact into account might just as
well be consigned to the dustbin before the first word is even put on paper.

FROM THE STONE AGE OF CAMPAIGNING TO NAPOLEON

During most of history, operational art did not exist. This was not necessarily
because the above-mentioned distinction between battle, campaign, and war as a