Friction (war)

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In military theory and strategic studies, friction denotes the sum of many seemingly small delays, errors and misunderstandings that make war events deviate from meticulous preparations. Friction can affect all aspects of the conduct of an operation as a delay, obstacle or fatality. The consequences of friction can range from the tactical to the operational to the strategic level.

meaning

Friction means friction and is originally a physical term from mechanics . The Prussian officer and military theorist Carl von Clausewitz (1780-1831) adopted this term and applied it to military theory. For Clausewitz, friction embodies all the difficulties and hostile countermeasures that distinguish real war from military planning. Because even the most precise planning cannot foresee all the things that can go wrong during implementation. He writes about it:

“Everything is very simple in war, but the simplest is difficult. These difficulties accumulate and create a friction that no one can properly imagine who has not seen the war. Imagine a traveler who thinks of making two stops at the end of his day's journey towards evening, four to five hours with post horses on the road; there is nothing. Now he arrives at the penultimate station, finds no horses or bad horses, then a mountainous area, rotten roads, it is dark night, and he is glad to have reached the next station after much hardship and to find poor accommodation there. In a war, for example, through the influence of innumerable small circumstances, which can never be properly considered on paper, everything is downgraded, and one remains far behind the goal. "

Examples

  • Every military unit consists of a number of people. Even the most inferior of them can cause delays through clumsiness.
  • Another source of friction is weather. Paths that have become muddy due to rain can also lead to delays.
  • Clausewitz also saw a cause of the friction in the immediate physical danger for those involved in armed conflicts.

literature

  • Carl von Clausewitz: Think strategy . Edited by Bolko v. Oetinger, Tiha v. Ghyczy, Christopher Bassford . The strategy institute of the Boston Consulting Group. 2nd edition Munich, 2003.
  • Carl von Clausewitz: About the war . Unabridged text. Munich, 2003.

Supporting documents and comments

  1. ^ Luttwak, Edward N .: The Grand Strategy of the Byzantine Empire , Cambridge, Massachusetts: Belknap Press 2009, p. 299.
  2. ^ Carl von Clausewitz: From the war. P. 36.