Starting from the observation that an
army
is not a thing with an inherent unity, and that its integrity is always
in jeopardy, the more so when under attack by a skilled enemy, we go on
to review two approaches to military strategy, one which aims directly
at the physical destruction of the enemy, and the other which aims at
destroying the enemy's organizational integrity. Following
Collins we suggest that armies in combat suffer defeat due less to
physical destruction than to the collapse of their organizational
base. After a brief consideration of the first strategy, we go on
to more fully elaborate, with a pair of examples, the strategy of
"imposed organizational dis-integration." We suggest a
micro-translation of this strategy, delineating how it works at the
social psychological level, to examine the social psychological bases
of what is taken to be sound military strategy.
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