{"id":15676,"date":"2023-10-12T20:59:46","date_gmt":"2023-10-12T17:59:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/?p=15676"},"modified":"2023-10-12T20:59:46","modified_gmt":"2023-10-12T17:59:46","slug":"no-military-plan-survives-first-contact-with-the-enemy-helmut-von-moltke-the-elder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/?p=15676","title":{"rendered":"“No military plan survives first contact with the enemy” Helmut Von Moltke, the Elder"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

“No military plan survives first contact with the enemy”
Helmut Von Moltke, the Elder<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the early 1800s, Napoleon Bonaparte sent an army to Spain in order to settle matters there, and deprive Great Britain of yet another ally. Spain is now a shadow of its former self, and as you might expect, its \u2013 regular army \u2013 will be defeated state by state. But this did not prevent the Spaniards from continuing to fight, in what would later be known as “guerrilla warfare”, i.e. “small war”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Almost a century later, German motorized formations would spill across northern Europe. The interesting thing is that Germany is still quite far from becoming a serious tank power. The detail that makes the difference is the close cooperation between the Luftwaffe and the motorized formations, which culminates in a completely innovative form of warfare, the blitzkrieg.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This extensive introduction, which describes just a tiny fraction of the ingenuity shown in military operations over the centuries, sets the context around current developments in the Middle East, with Hamas (07\/10\/2023) and Hezbollah (08\/10\/2023) to launch surprise – mainly the first – attacks against targets inside Israel. Although this event in itself is not unprecedented, what has impressed is the extent and intensity of the attacks, the indiscriminate targeting of military and non-military targets (civilians, wounded, etc.) but above all, the imaginative ways in which Hamas disguises these attacks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to the use of UAVs as flying artillery, which we have seen increasingly implemented in Ukraine in recent months, we have seen the use of powered paragliders, the widespread use of civilian-style vehicles (also a common feature in low-intensity regional conflicts), and even the manner in which these attacks were carried out is not what many would describe as “good military practice”. Even the timing of the attack should not escape attention, especially in a geopolitical and geostrategic environment that is in the process of being rearranged. Because where there are rearrangements, there are also “seismic” phenomena.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The current operations in Israel come to add to a long series of conflicts in recent years, which come to change or rather come to remind emphatically that war and military operations have never been structured under suffocating frameworks. On the contrary, war provides, in an extremely cynical way, the appropriate field for innovation and “revolutionary thinking” to materialize in a way that is not open to question.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is clear that military operations are entering the era of hybrid threats, which require conventional methods and weapons to be used in unconventional ways. The religious attachment to doctrines and beliefs which are now considered by many to be obsolete and the inability to adapt in time to modern conditions, is simply a recipe for disaster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are too many scenarios and contingencies that could be considered, and which are not present. But it is important to know that no plan, no matter how perfect, is going to “survive”. Adaptability, flexibility, innovation and unconventional thinking should be the main pillars on which the armed forces of the future will be built.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“No military plan survives first contact with the enemy”Helmut Von Moltke, the Elder In the early 1800s, Napoleon Bonaparte sent an army to Spain…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15677,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2362,2845,7],"tags":[2358,1372,153,3217,998,2511,1976],"class_list":["post-15676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-military-science","category-military-strategy-doctrines","category-research","tag-doctrine","tag-hamas","tag-israel","tag-military-doctrine","tag-spain","tag-strategy","tag-war"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15676","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15676"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15676\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15680,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15676\/revisions\/15680"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}