Alien

The publication of the 1982 version of Army Field
Manual (FM) 100-5, Operations, introduced to the
English-speaking world the idea of an operational level
of war which encompassed the planning and conduct
of campaigns and major operations. It was followed 3
years later by the introduction of the term "operational
art" which was, in practice, the skillful management
of the operational level of war. This conception of
an identifiably separate level of war that defined
the jurisdiction of the profession of arms was, for a
number of historical and cultural reasons, attractive to
U.S. practitioners and plausible to its English-speaking
allies. As a result, it and its associated doctrine spread
rapidly around the world.

This monograph argues that the idea of an
operational level of war charged with the planning and
conduct of campaigns misconceives the relationship
between wars, campaigns, and operations, and is both
historically mistaken and wrong in theory. Brigadier
Justin Kelly (Australian Army Retired) and Dr. Michael
Brennan conclude that its incorporation into U.S.
doctrine has had the regrettable impact of separating
the conduct of campaigns from the conduct of wars
and consequently marginalized the role of politics in
the direction of war. In essence, they argue that the
idea of the campaign has come to overwhelm that of
strategy.

This monograph argues that as warfare continues to
diffuse across definitional and conceptual boundaries
and as the close orchestration of all of the instruments
of national power becomes even more important,
the current conception of campaigns and operations
becomes crippling. To cope with these demands by
formulating and prosecuting "national campaigns,"
the authors propose that the responsibility for
campaign design should "actually" return to the
political-strategic leadership of nations supported by
the entirety of the state bureaucracy. This would mark
the return of the campaign to its historical sources. If
the United States and its allies fail to make this change,
they risk continuing to have a "way of battle" rather
than a "way of war."