Very interesting thread.

The older I get the more I think that doctrine, as an end product, is much less important that the process of creating new doctrine and challenging existing doctrine. While I agree with Wilf that doctrine is "what is taught," I think it goes beyond that and can become a mindset with a lot of negative effects.

WM mentioned WWII France, which I think is a good example. Doctrine for them became a mindset that prevented the French military, as an institution, from perceiving changes and adapting to them in time. The "Powell doctrine" was similar in that it took a few wars for the institutional military to change. Dogmatic doctrine can suppress the innovation at lower levels that is always required in wartime.

When doctrine is allowed to become dogma, then there's a problem. ISTM that Col. Gentile and others worry that our new FM-24-based COIN doctrine is heading down that road.

On strategy-doctrine, I don't think doctrine "drives" strategy, but it influences what is perceived as possible and desirable - this is particularly true with "dogmatic" doctrine, which becomes, I believe, an unstated and sometimes unperceived assumption for decisionmaking. In WWII France, for example, ISTM that the static-defense oriented French doctrine probably influenced policymaker decisions, narrowed their view, and prevented them from properly assessing and meeting the German threat.


Wilf quoted Askenazi: "Don't ask my opinion. Tell me what you want and I will tell you if it is possible." Dogmatic doctrine will limit what one perceives is possible IMO. In that regard, I see doctrine as something more likely to limit strategic options than expand them. Therefore, I think doctrine (especially, official, published doctrine) should be be more wide-and-shallow than narrow-and-deep.