2 Clausewitz and the Non‐Linear Nature of Warfare: Systems of Organized Complexity

Beyerchen, Alan

doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199232024.003.0003

Cited by 5 publications

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“…Clausewitz explained friction with the help of game analogies and was a great supporter of regular, complex, and realistic planning exercises and war games. He compared friction itself to a game of cards, as there is an element of chance that can be managed with skill, leadership, and an ability to read opponents (Beyerchen :53). Clausewitz does not appear to think friction was unintelligible to those who had not seen war and also that games may be the best peacetime analog of war, at least in this respect.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, those interested in rational choice or other process models can use the example of the extent to which games change when costs and payoffs are uncertain and information is incomplete to demonstrate the concepts. And while not all will agree with Beyerschen that Clausewitz's On War is an excellent example of nonlinear theory with broad political science implications, any political assessment where information is incomplete and interactive and feedback effects are likely can benefit from a clear understanding of the implications of fog and friction (Beyerchen ).…”

Section: Educational Foundationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Dalig and Vadan Exercise: Teaching Students about Strategy and the Challenges of Friction and Fog

2013

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For classes which contain a discussion of strategy, war, political violence, terrorism, insurgency, peace operations, or ethno-nationalist conflict to name a few, students must have an effective, foundational understanding of the complexities of using military force. To that end, we have developed an operational "battlefield" exercise, the Dalig-Vadan Exercise (DVE), which allows an entire class of students to get a sense of the dynamics and complexities of command and execution of competing strategies without any military background, any particular emphasis on time, place, or context, and de-emphasizing the consequences of violence. Anchored on Clausewitz's friction and fog, the DVE provides students with a first-person encounter with decision making in a dynamic, multiparty, informational-limited, and time-sensitive environment that can be related to a wide range of courses and course material in international relations and related fields.International Studies Perspectives (2014) 15, 477-490.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Educational Foundationmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Dalig and Vadan Exercise: Teaching Students about Strategy and the Challenges of Friction and Fog

2013

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“…Regarding the structure and dynamics of complex systems chaos theory can be applied to provide insights into nonlinear phenomena (including random aspects). In chaos theory, determinism and chance are like two sides of the same coin, and there is no cause and effect relationship between them (GLEICK, 1987;ÇAMBEL, 1993;WILLIAMS, 1997;SPROTT, 2000;BERTUGLIA and VAIO, 2005;BEYERCHEN, 2007;LASKEY and COSTA, 2009).…”

Section: Final Considerationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In fact, "as technology has evolved, so has the need and desire to create better and more efficient weapons and associated launch systems that can break through or neutralize an opponent's defenses" (SLOFER, 2022). This is the case of autonomous technology (underwater, in focus) if used in a way that causes significant wear due to the possibility of penetrating the opposing defense ( Considering only the proportion of an attack by the use of weapons of the nuclear category, the consequences for the earth system would already be "catastrophic" -however, there are empirical and antagonistic opinions on the conception of such a circumstance due to the relativization of its concept (KAHN et al 1976;CAPRA, 1982;CAPRA, 1983;KAHN, 2007;BEYERCHEN, 2007 Indeed, there is a "self-regulation" feature of the Earth system (to its long-term dynamic equilibrium) however it is still not well understood by science mostly if the cause of the changes or disturbances are the human activities (SKINNER and MURCK, 2011). The human impact on the environment can overload the © 2022 Global Journals Autonomous Technology in Scenario by Rare Geophysical Processes (Underwater Focus) 2 One can only "imagine" the despair of the survivors of a nuclear catastrophe -according to the relativization of the conceptual conception; or not -considering themselves as human beings in crisis or under pressure.…”

Section: Final Considerationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Autonomous Technology in Scenario by Rare Geophysical Processes (Underwater Focus)

Ferreira¹

2022

GJSFR

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From an ecological perspective, scientific investigation of the “Earth system” reveals its complexity, evidenced by the interaction of geophysical processes –which occur in the “global atmospheric system”; in the “world ocean” –both favoring the “world climate”; in "the interior of the globe"; and, between each of these parts and outer space. Environmental risks (geophysical) exist due to the configuration of extreme circumstances (CAPRA, 1982; MCWILLIAMS, 2006; SKINNER and MURCK, 2011). In the nuclear age, and taking into account the possibility of employing emerging autonomous technology as a weapon of this category, a geopolitical risk exists (KAHN, 2007; NICHOLS et al., 2022). Crossing between risks (geophysical and geopolitical) can be imagined (WEICK, 1989; GAUB, 2020; MCLENNAN et al., 2021). Analyzing the plausibility of the coincident occurrence of risks (crossed–geophysical and geopolitical) as a critical uncertainty for scenarios –and due to the vulnerability of autonomous systems to the (sui generis) flow of fluids by unlikely geophysical processes –the present study ratifies the technology "in the sea” (underwater, in focus) as a possible threat to the “Earth-system”; in the conception of scientific thought for the 21st century.

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Xenowar dreams of itself

Sear

2020

Digi War

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What has war become in an age of recursive computation and the globalised technobiome? Combining speculative fiction, Clausewitzian theory and metadisciplinary analysis, this exploratory piece outlines the emergence of a war that is both new and familiar—Xenowar. ‘Xeno’ because this war incorporates the alien and the Other into a new, dynamic, topological trinity. Xenowar is the Clausewitzian trinity spun in recursive loops of alterity, where conflict diagonalizes into an inhuman, alien cognition. War persists, but Clausewitz’s wunderliche Dreifaltigkeit morphs to become topological. Combatants emerge from corporations and nations as the understanding of war as human activity evolves into the realisation that all human activity is now war. ‘Users’ are a ‘standing reserve’ for the Gestell . Simultaneously, the technological and biological merge, transforming conflict into three dimensions in a way that emphasises connection and shape, not geometry. This deforms war’s properties while preserving its form: asymmetry will be expressed as inhuman scales, and feedback loops will redefine geopolitics. Topological equivalence will mean the continuous mapping of States within Stack homeomorphism via oscillations of stretching and contraction. Westphalian deformations will increase turbulence at higher manifolds and dimensions. Equally, an inability to cut and paste borders of Stack topology will accentuate disconnection. Some Stacks may be enantiotopic to each other, mirror images but not superimposable. At other scales friction will spiral in recursions of homotopic functionalities across Stack infrastructures and diastereotopic data planes of invertible war: ‘recurgency’ will replace insurgency. State and Stack firewalls will constitute cosmotechnic event horizons of compression. From this black hole of Xenowar will pulse another type of Un-War, fought at the edges of the incomputable, an axiomatic reboot of Non-Turing mathematics and non-Abelian anyons of topological quantum computing. Sovereignty will not just be defined in the ontology of mathematical alterity. Life will prove non-computable. Adverserial relations will thus multiple via biolocial processes of mutation, while digital war’s front lines will recede to reflevive, recursive interstices. Consciousness is another limit upon which total war will press, and when war has co-opted consciousness what will we do—or even be?

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2 Clausewitz and the Non‐Linear Nature of Warfare: Systems of Organized Complexity

Cited by 5 publications

References 0 publications

The Dalig and Vadan Exercise: Teaching Students about Strategy and the Challenges of Friction and Fog

The Dalig and Vadan Exercise: Teaching Students about Strategy and the Challenges of Friction and Fog

Autonomous Technology in Scenario by Rare Geophysical Processes (Underwater Focus)

Xenowar dreams of itself

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