The Art of Maneuver - by Robert Leonhard (Paperback)

About the Book

Leonhard exposes as folly our view of war as an attritional phenomenon, measuring success in body counts and tons of explosives spent.

Book Synopsis

The Art of Maneuver is an important theoretical study of an issue that is currently the subject of much discussion in professional military journals and symposia.

From the Back Cover

The Art of Maneuver is an important theoretical study of an issue that is currently the subject of much discussion in professional military journals and symposia. The author takes a fresh, unbiased look at what soldiers consider the maneuver-oriented American army and finds that we do not understand the importance of maneuver as classical writers on the subject going back to Sun Tzu have understood it. In fact, we are culturally conditioned to see war as an attritional phenomenon--think of the emphasis on body count and the use of over-whelming firepower in Vietnam. A similar mind-set was operative as recently as Operation Just Cause, the U.S. invasion of Panama. On the other hand, General Schwarzkopf found maneuver warfare extremely effective in Operation Desert Storm. Leonhard shows how true maneuver-warfare theory has been applied in campaigns throughout history. With a genius for apt analogy he shows how our obsession with fighting and winning set-piece battles causes us to overlook an enemy's true vulnerabilities. But as low-intensity conflicts promise to become the dominant warfare of the future, the importance of maneuver in attacking an enemy's critical vulnerability will render attrition approaches to warfighting ever more obsolete.

About the Author

Robert Leonhard is an active duty army officer currently serving as Professor of Military Science at West Virginia University. He is the author of The Principles of War for the Information Age, The Art of Maneuver, and Fighting by Minutes. He lives in Morgantown, West Virginia.