Introduction

ABSTRACT

This special issue contains articles contributing to the understanding of the role military doctrine plays in strategic theory and practice. The authors scrutinize the function and development of doctrine, the use of force and the role of doctrine, alliances and doctrine, and small states and doctrine. The contributions are related to the wider scholarly and practical context of how doctrine is developed and implemented. The authors use functional, cultural and institutional explanations in their articles. They also give practical recommendations regarding how to increase the effectiveness of the doctrine development process, and the effectiveness of doctrine itself in relation to the use of force.

KEYWORDS:

• Doctrine
• strategy
• use of Force
• functional
• cultural

Notes

¹ See, for example, James A. Russel, ‘Innovation in War: Counterinsurgency Operations in Anbar and Ninewa Provinces, Iraq, 2005–2007, The Journal of Strategic Studies, 33/4 (August, 2010); Hew Strachan, ‘Strategy or Alibi: Obama, McCrystal, and the Operational Level of War’, Survival 52/5 (October November 2010), and Thijs Brocades Zaalberg, ‘The Use and Abuse of the “Dutch Approachˮ to Counter-Insurgency’, The Journal of Strategic Studies, 36/6 (2013).

² The conference was arranged and sponsored by the Norwegian Defence Command and Staff College, in cooperation with The Journal of Strategic Studies and the Norwegian Institute for Defence Studies. The NATO Standardization Office and the Allied Joint Operational Doctrine Community also became a part of the conference and provided presentations on the development and role of doctrine in NATO.

³ The two-volume collection of texts edited by Harold S. Orenstein is a typical example: Harold S. Orenstein, (ed.), The Evolution of Soviet Operational Art, 1927–91: The Documentary Basis. – Vol. 1: Operational Art, 1927–64 (London, Frank Cass 1995) and The Evolution of Soviet Operational Art, 1927–91: The Documentary Basis. – Vol. II: Operational Art, 1965–1991 (London, Routledge 1995). Influential books were also translated and published, such as Alexander A. Svechin, Strategy (Minneapolis, East View 2004 [1927]).

⁴ Sverre Diesen Reform or Defeat. The Landdefence’s Operative Idea at a Crossroad [Reform eller nederlag. Landforsvarets operative idé ved skilleveien] (Oslo, Forsvarsstudier 1988). Sverre Diesen was later to become Chief of Defence in Norway. See also Torgeir E. Sæveraas and Kjetil Henriksen A Military Universal Means? American “Maneuver Warfare” and Norwegian Doctrine Development [Et militært universalmiddel? Amerikansk “Maneuver Warfare” og norsk doktrineutvikling (Oslo, Oslo Files 01/2007) 112-124

⁵ See, for example, Elisabeth Kier, ‘Culture and Military Doctrine: France Between the Wars’, International Security, 19/4 (Spring, 1995).

⁶ Deborah D. Avant, ‘The Institutional Sources of Military Doctrine: Hegemones in Peripheral Wars’, International Studies Quarterly, 37/4 (1993), pp. 409–30.

⁷ See, for example, Rolf Tamnes, The United States and the Cold War in the High North (Oslo: Ad Notam, 1991).

⁸ See, for example, Timo Noetzel and Benjamin Schreer, ‘NATO’s Vietnam? Afghanistan and the Future of the Atlantic Alliance’, Contemporary Security Policy, 30/3 (December 2009).