Farafinna is being attacked in various ways, such as: Ideologically, Institutionally, Cross-boarder crimes and killings , Media Infiltration, and Educationally. In order to combat this a nation must go through steps before committing troops to neutralize what threatens social cohesion. Ideally a commander chooses a course of action that minimizes damage to his troops while maximizing damage to the threat and to accomplish this, there is Military Strategy and its goals.

What is the goal of Military Strategy?

Assess all developing, real, possible, potential, and predicted threats
Determine realistic, sustainable, and viable concepts and visions for deterring conflict
Influence and shape the national, regional, continental, and international political and security or military environments
Conduct actions to defend against, destroy, degrade, or neutralize any threat the nation may face

Assess then determine, Influence then conduct; All of these must be combined so that realistic outcomes are accomplished.

Within the military strategy there are two types:

National and Operational and they work together to maintain a nations social cohesion.

What exactly are National and Operational Military Strategies?

The goals of National strategies are:

Assess all threats
Deter and prevent conflict
Influence and shape environments
Destroy and neutralize threats

Operational strategy defined by author Eeben Barlow, is “ the ‘strategic intent’ of a campaign or theatre commander, defined as a campaign strategy or ‘theatre design’. It must allow for the identification of operational objectives and the development of numerous options for striking and annihilating the enemy or threat. The state initiates operational level strategy within a defined area of anticipated operations when required.”

In his book on mobile warfare, Col Roland De Vries listed major areas that are needed to develop operational level military strategies, they are as follows:

The threats and how they are deployed and postured
The constraints on military action in terms of terrain, climatic conditions, access routes, obstacles,infrastructure, rules of engagement, population distribution, time, and distance (several of these form part of the assessment of the operational environment)
The aims, objectives, and focus of potential enemy(s) or threats
The state’s national goals and objectives
The state’s position with regard to allies, international relations, and regional activities
The regional military balance and the resources and capabilities available to the state
The manpower available to the state
The national consciousness and the will of the government and the populace
The importance and advantages of a proactive approach
The use of the media in enhancing and supporting the will of the populace and positively influencing the region and the continent

The above allows the military planner to plan and acquire the appropriate forces in order to see a military operation to successful completion.

It becomes apparent that just kicking out the “bad guys” is not so simple as it is made to appear in Hollywood. There are hours of planning, cross planning and looking at each of those plans to determine what combinations of events would make it fail and which combination of events would allow for success before committing troops and supplies to the conflict zone.

Understanding the above allows one to start seeing the big picture and what a nation’s commander must do before committing troops. You should consider these points as you read current news on conflict zones within Farafinna.

Source: Composite Warfare: The Conduct of Successful Ground Force Operations in Africa.