When I was at NATO, the term "Arc of Instability" was used to describe the areas surrounding Europe - North Africa, Middle East, Central Asia and Russia. That term seemed appropriate, included fronts and flanks and encompassed all sorts of threats and problems.
If east is a flank, then NATO's front is to orient either toward the north sea and the Baltic or the Med. If those are their orientation options, then perhaps they need fewer tanks and a bigger navy? Should the Swedes and Norwegians or my Tunisian friends be nervous? Maybe NATO should start talking about the "eastern resource area"? Nobody will know what that is about ...
Clausewicz knew the meaning of the front and flank... perhaps Military War Colleges should reinstitute an appreciation of On War and use resources spent on "WPS Perspectives" as an offset.
"As danger is the general element in which everything moves in War, it is also chiefly by courage, the feeling of one's own power, that the judgment is differently influenced . It is to a certain extent the crystalline lens through which all appearances pass before reaching the understanding.
And yet we cannot doubt that these things acquire a certain objective value simply through experience. Everyone knows the moral effect of a surprise , of an attack in flank or rear. Everyone thinks less of the enemy's courage as soon as he turns his back, and ventures much more in pursuit than when pursued."
A Russian attack on NATO's Eastern Border would certainly not be an attack on a NATO flank.
If NATO is confused (or self-deluded) about using proper language in terms of front and flanks, then how goes the thinking process when it comes to the idea of operational depth? In the days of Napoleon, operational depth was the distance of a cannon shot. The "front" was measured in distances of a few km at most. Even through WWI, depth was measured by artillery range and accuracy. WWII brought air power, but each significant raid was a major combat and logistic evolution; hundreds of aircraft, etc. and each a discrete event. Point is... Today with fast, smart, long-range missiles -- flying in swarms, no less -- there are no true "rear" areas; no such thing as operational depth anymore. If the other side knows the location of a target, getting hit is but a matter of minutes. In this sense, fronts and flanks can still be defined, but they don't matter as much. And considering that long-range, fast, accurate missiles are also sea-launched, even the "rear area" of the Atlantic is a key theater of risk and combat.
Those are good points with respect to the battle space. However, the goal of many conflicts is to attain territory. In this case I think the territory to be gained by the Russians and lost by NATO would appear to be to NATO's east.
That said, many NATO countries have already given up the "home" front to a different kind of invasion. It will be interesting to see if a Muslim governed Europe will still be a target of the Russians.
Fun fact, "eastern front" is deprecated generally even in what remains of academic military history. I have seen with my own eyes how the very phrase makes certain well-known moguls of the genre wave their hands at conferences and insist we have nothing to learn from 1914-1917, or 1919-1921, or 1939-1945. Another good reason why I will not be pursung a PhD.
Papers on those topics are simply unwelcome, as they are about cisheteropatriarchal white people. To win a panel spot, you must have something to say about gender, or marginalized communities. Mind you, I am exactly that historian who says "hey, no one has written a paper about Maori assault tactics, what an opportunity," but that doesn't seem to matter anymore unless I can identify something genderqueer about the Battle of Gate Pā.
Back in ancient history, when I was an undergrad, I saw the Fellini movie “Satyricon”, about the reign of Nero in Rome. Today’s “academics” environment reminds me of the insanity of that film. As it turns out, I retired from a well-known Federal R&D Center just on the leading edge of the mass identity delusion we now observe. I got bit in the butt just a little bit when trying to help, in a grandfatherly way, a new female engineer with the manner of her speech as she had a serious Valley Girl way of talking. That conversation, in the intentional presence of my division head, resulted in my getting an adverse note added to my personnel file. You don’t want help, honestly and politely given? OK. I’ll retreat to my office and you’ll get only the labor that you paid for.
Speaking of finding something genderqueer about a famous Māori battle, my guess is that today you could make up something totally out of whole cloth and no one would dare challenge you. A whole new area of expertise, and it’s yours!
And I'll bet that they'll never want to calculate the harm they cause when they encourage good people to STFU, hunker down to avoid the Woke blowback. Sadly as the oldsters leave they are not being replaced in recruiting. I kind of thought I sensed what was coming when I retired in 1991, but I really had no clue.
Let's face it, those cisheteropatriarchal white people are the root of all evils since we were ejected from the garden!
When I was a newly separated officer working as a manager for a "big-5" consultancy in the 90s, we had new consultants billing out at $85/hr, dozens of them on a big project. One of the girls had a penchant for exceedingly short skirts and tight tops. Despite the pleasant surroundings for us cisheteropatriarchal (jeez I like that term, definitely stealing) people, one of the partners had a word with her about it ("they're paying for your mind, not a floor show" to paraphrase) and he was "counselled" about it, although she did change a bit.
A family friend was VP HR at a local bank. As a woman she had much better luck rendering similar advice to employees.
Come on Sal. Fess up. The answer to the question imbedded in the center of your article was written by Kamala Harris, right? It was a remarkable word salid. I will take it a step further. I have a sneaking, paranoid hunch that the General actually IS Kamala Harris. Has anybody actually laid eyes on his birth certificate?
With leadership like this, how can we possibly lose to the evil Eastern Bloc?
First, I appreciate that you are not on the good general’s staff, and therefore has no obligation to believe the unbelievable. But then, that seems to be one of the tenets of your blog. Salute! Second, may I suggest that NATO’s southern flank includes the immensity of Africa and that both Putin and the PRC are doing their best to outflank us?
BTW, most of us here in America do not appreciate the immensity of that continent. Just for fun, go to the web site TheTrueSize.com, select the U.S., and then slide it over to map it onto Africa. Africa is large enough to encompass the area covered by the U.S. plus India plus China. Lots of room for things to go badly.
" NATO’s southern flank includes the immensity of Africa and that both Putin and the PRC are doing their best to outflank us"
Not to worry. NATO's southern flank is ably covered by AFRICOM, whose various headquarters's (plural) and the majority of its assigned personnel are conveniently located well within a day's drive of NATO headquarters.
When you talk about the Germans and their frustration, it’s there with the Navy, too.
We had a Luftwaffe exchange pilot with us back at VF-101, was an F-104 pilot. Manfred. Great guy.
Anyway, we’re having an All-Instructors Meeting, and we’re trying to hash out some new syllabus stuff. It’s going back and forth, do it this way; no, we tried that, do this; no, we tried THAT, do this! On and on, ‘round and ‘round.
Finally, Manny can stand it no more. He jumps up, yells, “You Americans! I don’t see how you EVER won the War!”...and stomps out of the Ready Room...it was priceless!!
I remember close order drill and marching in boot camp. Without precise language from our Company Commander (and his will to auto-correct morons) none of us would have become sailors. Imagine the possible confusion of "Eyes flank!" or "Left front march!". Egad, close order drill. I was an OCUICS (Former EWCS(SW)) at OCS in Newport in 1981, aspiring to become an Ensign. I got called out during formation, "Mister Flowers, front and center. Mister Flowers is a former Senior Chief with 16 years service. He is going to demonstrate how to do an "About face" movement. "Ah-bout FACE!" This was old hat. Piece of cake, I thought. But I realized I was thinking instead of doing. ("Which foot? Which foot?" I was asking myself.) The formation was dead silent, all eyes on me. A full 1 second had passed. I panicked instead of doing and pivoted on the wrong foot, turned the wrong way. "Good Lord!" the DI said, "There is no hope for any of you sons of b_tches. Back in ranks, Flowers." The moral of that story is that language must be precise and that lessons in it be repeated often enough in order to elicit the proper response. On that June day in 1981 it had been 5+ years since I had done an About Face. Never was called on again to execute that maneuver.
Too funny!!! I can still execute all that boot camp marching stuff. But when they taught knots...well, lets just say i can tie my boots (unbridged laces of course) but thats about it. Funny what sticks and what doesnt...
Yes, funny what sticks. I think I can still do the 16 count manual. But I have no desire to. Am pretty sure that in 25 years I'll still leap out of my rack if I hear the GQ, collision or chemical alarm. Wish the 4-letter words hadn't stuck.
"...I understand how a very few highly emotional people can’t let go of their grandfather’s nightmares..." Failure to accept reality creates opportunities to lose and living nightmares for a new generation. This makes them sound like the Japanese gaming Midway.
As long as Russia has a Navy, and allies in the Balkans (Serbia) and Middle East (Syria) NATO has multiple fronts.
When I was at NATO, the term "Arc of Instability" was used to describe the areas surrounding Europe - North Africa, Middle East, Central Asia and Russia. That term seemed appropriate, included fronts and flanks and encompassed all sorts of threats and problems.
My brother in Christ, could you tell me please, how did these regions became instable?
I think the instability began when Alexander the Great died without naming a successor.
lol
Let's just compromise and call it the Putin Front.
If east is a flank, then NATO's front is to orient either toward the north sea and the Baltic or the Med. If those are their orientation options, then perhaps they need fewer tanks and a bigger navy? Should the Swedes and Norwegians or my Tunisian friends be nervous? Maybe NATO should start talking about the "eastern resource area"? Nobody will know what that is about ...
To be fair, a good part of the current invasion seems to be coming from the south ...
CDR - “burr” vice “bur”.
vs not vice
nudge vs fussbucket
Either way, we must just refuse the flanks
Thank you Sal for another outstanding post.
Clausewicz knew the meaning of the front and flank... perhaps Military War Colleges should reinstitute an appreciation of On War and use resources spent on "WPS Perspectives" as an offset.
"As danger is the general element in which everything moves in War, it is also chiefly by courage, the feeling of one's own power, that the judgment is differently influenced . It is to a certain extent the crystalline lens through which all appearances pass before reaching the understanding.
And yet we cannot doubt that these things acquire a certain objective value simply through experience. Everyone knows the moral effect of a surprise , of an attack in flank or rear. Everyone thinks less of the enemy's courage as soon as he turns his back, and ventures much more in pursuit than when pursued."
A Russian attack on NATO's Eastern Border would certainly not be an attack on a NATO flank.
If NATO is confused (or self-deluded) about using proper language in terms of front and flanks, then how goes the thinking process when it comes to the idea of operational depth? In the days of Napoleon, operational depth was the distance of a cannon shot. The "front" was measured in distances of a few km at most. Even through WWI, depth was measured by artillery range and accuracy. WWII brought air power, but each significant raid was a major combat and logistic evolution; hundreds of aircraft, etc. and each a discrete event. Point is... Today with fast, smart, long-range missiles -- flying in swarms, no less -- there are no true "rear" areas; no such thing as operational depth anymore. If the other side knows the location of a target, getting hit is but a matter of minutes. In this sense, fronts and flanks can still be defined, but they don't matter as much. And considering that long-range, fast, accurate missiles are also sea-launched, even the "rear area" of the Atlantic is a key theater of risk and combat.
Excellent points. We should also consider speaking about the cyber, aerospace, and maritime fronts as well.
Those are good points with respect to the battle space. However, the goal of many conflicts is to attain territory. In this case I think the territory to be gained by the Russians and lost by NATO would appear to be to NATO's east.
That said, many NATO countries have already given up the "home" front to a different kind of invasion. It will be interesting to see if a Muslim governed Europe will still be a target of the Russians.
Fun fact, "eastern front" is deprecated generally even in what remains of academic military history. I have seen with my own eyes how the very phrase makes certain well-known moguls of the genre wave their hands at conferences and insist we have nothing to learn from 1914-1917, or 1919-1921, or 1939-1945. Another good reason why I will not be pursung a PhD.
If we have nothing to learn from those time periods, do these pinnacles of learning also refuse to study them or admit their existence?
Papers on those topics are simply unwelcome, as they are about cisheteropatriarchal white people. To win a panel spot, you must have something to say about gender, or marginalized communities. Mind you, I am exactly that historian who says "hey, no one has written a paper about Maori assault tactics, what an opportunity," but that doesn't seem to matter anymore unless I can identify something genderqueer about the Battle of Gate Pā.
Back in ancient history, when I was an undergrad, I saw the Fellini movie “Satyricon”, about the reign of Nero in Rome. Today’s “academics” environment reminds me of the insanity of that film. As it turns out, I retired from a well-known Federal R&D Center just on the leading edge of the mass identity delusion we now observe. I got bit in the butt just a little bit when trying to help, in a grandfatherly way, a new female engineer with the manner of her speech as she had a serious Valley Girl way of talking. That conversation, in the intentional presence of my division head, resulted in my getting an adverse note added to my personnel file. You don’t want help, honestly and politely given? OK. I’ll retreat to my office and you’ll get only the labor that you paid for.
Speaking of finding something genderqueer about a famous Māori battle, my guess is that today you could make up something totally out of whole cloth and no one would dare challenge you. A whole new area of expertise, and it’s yours!
And I'll bet that they'll never want to calculate the harm they cause when they encourage good people to STFU, hunker down to avoid the Woke blowback. Sadly as the oldsters leave they are not being replaced in recruiting. I kind of thought I sensed what was coming when I retired in 1991, but I really had no clue.
It was worse by 95, but I could see the writing oin the wall at the trade school as early as 85
Let's face it, those cisheteropatriarchal white people are the root of all evils since we were ejected from the garden!
When I was a newly separated officer working as a manager for a "big-5" consultancy in the 90s, we had new consultants billing out at $85/hr, dozens of them on a big project. One of the girls had a penchant for exceedingly short skirts and tight tops. Despite the pleasant surroundings for us cisheteropatriarchal (jeez I like that term, definitely stealing) people, one of the partners had a word with her about it ("they're paying for your mind, not a floor show" to paraphrase) and he was "counselled" about it, although she did change a bit.
A family friend was VP HR at a local bank. As a woman she had much better luck rendering similar advice to employees.
General Gotthard Heinrici has entered the chat....
Come on Sal. Fess up. The answer to the question imbedded in the center of your article was written by Kamala Harris, right? It was a remarkable word salid. I will take it a step further. I have a sneaking, paranoid hunch that the General actually IS Kamala Harris. Has anybody actually laid eyes on his birth certificate?
With leadership like this, how can we possibly lose to the evil Eastern Bloc?
Kamala can cast a spell on a soldier and turn him into a frog.
at least she at one time had a marketable skill, as opposed to her boss, who never has had
Don't underestimate her, Pete. She can turn them into toads.
She flies on Broomstick 2.
1. "The purpose of NATO is to keep the Americans in, the Russians out, and the Germans down".
2. "... a graduate of Princeton and Yale". No further comments needed there.
3. To our German friends: we realize Rosenfeld had one good idea, and are using it. We're defending you to the last Ukrainian undermenschen.
I hate it when people “flunk flank”.
Thank you Mel Brooks and The History of the World Part I.
“I’m sorry sir, I flunked flanks!”
“You flunked flanks!? Get the flunk outta here..!”
First, I appreciate that you are not on the good general’s staff, and therefore has no obligation to believe the unbelievable. But then, that seems to be one of the tenets of your blog. Salute! Second, may I suggest that NATO’s southern flank includes the immensity of Africa and that both Putin and the PRC are doing their best to outflank us?
BTW, most of us here in America do not appreciate the immensity of that continent. Just for fun, go to the web site TheTrueSize.com, select the U.S., and then slide it over to map it onto Africa. Africa is large enough to encompass the area covered by the U.S. plus India plus China. Lots of room for things to go badly.
" NATO’s southern flank includes the immensity of Africa and that both Putin and the PRC are doing their best to outflank us"
Not to worry. NATO's southern flank is ably covered by AFRICOM, whose various headquarters's (plural) and the majority of its assigned personnel are conveniently located well within a day's drive of NATO headquarters.
When you talk about the Germans and their frustration, it’s there with the Navy, too.
We had a Luftwaffe exchange pilot with us back at VF-101, was an F-104 pilot. Manfred. Great guy.
Anyway, we’re having an All-Instructors Meeting, and we’re trying to hash out some new syllabus stuff. It’s going back and forth, do it this way; no, we tried that, do this; no, we tried THAT, do this! On and on, ‘round and ‘round.
Finally, Manny can stand it no more. He jumps up, yells, “You Americans! I don’t see how you EVER won the War!”...and stomps out of the Ready Room...it was priceless!!
I remember close order drill and marching in boot camp. Without precise language from our Company Commander (and his will to auto-correct morons) none of us would have become sailors. Imagine the possible confusion of "Eyes flank!" or "Left front march!". Egad, close order drill. I was an OCUICS (Former EWCS(SW)) at OCS in Newport in 1981, aspiring to become an Ensign. I got called out during formation, "Mister Flowers, front and center. Mister Flowers is a former Senior Chief with 16 years service. He is going to demonstrate how to do an "About face" movement. "Ah-bout FACE!" This was old hat. Piece of cake, I thought. But I realized I was thinking instead of doing. ("Which foot? Which foot?" I was asking myself.) The formation was dead silent, all eyes on me. A full 1 second had passed. I panicked instead of doing and pivoted on the wrong foot, turned the wrong way. "Good Lord!" the DI said, "There is no hope for any of you sons of b_tches. Back in ranks, Flowers." The moral of that story is that language must be precise and that lessons in it be repeated often enough in order to elicit the proper response. On that June day in 1981 it had been 5+ years since I had done an About Face. Never was called on again to execute that maneuver.
Too funny!!! I can still execute all that boot camp marching stuff. But when they taught knots...well, lets just say i can tie my boots (unbridged laces of course) but thats about it. Funny what sticks and what doesnt...
Yes, funny what sticks. I think I can still do the 16 count manual. But I have no desire to. Am pretty sure that in 25 years I'll still leap out of my rack if I hear the GQ, collision or chemical alarm. Wish the 4-letter words hadn't stuck.
Thanks for the Friday chuckle:)
Jibber Jabber! Stevie Wonder can see what a front is.
Maybe the good general was confused about his “flank” vs “front” because he checked in a OTAN command….
"...I understand how a very few highly emotional people can’t let go of their grandfather’s nightmares..." Failure to accept reality creates opportunities to lose and living nightmares for a new generation. This makes them sound like the Japanese gaming Midway.
As long as Russia has a Navy, and allies in the Balkans (Serbia) and Middle East (Syria) NATO has multiple fronts.