Principles of the war

Famous strategists, from time immemorial, tried to determine the general laws governing confrontations between armed forces. Some of these laws, from their relevance and their universality, were set up in principles known as " Principles of the guerre".

Among these principles, it is necessary to quote:

  1. conservation of the liberty of action

  2. concentration of the efforts
  3. obtaining the effect of surprised
  4. the definition and the persistence of the goal to reach
  5. the support of moral the
  6. the quality of the administration
  7. economy of the
  8. means the unit of command
  9. the initiative and the offensive
  10. simplicity
  11. the destruction of the enemy forces

Military powers

The military great powers adopted, by possibly adapting them to national specificities, whole or part of these principles, on which they base their doctrines of use of the forces.

Principles and rules of the art of warfare

As already indicated, there exist several manners of presenting the principles of the art of warfare. The famous military historian Henri Bernard who was a long time the military professor of history of the military royal School (Belgium) considered that there were three basic principles from which various rules rose. We enumerate them below:

  • proportionality of the goals and the means

    • need of the information

  • liberty of action

    • the meeting of the forces
    • the inviolability of the line of communication
    • safety
    • dissimulation of the intentions to the enemy

  • the best performance or economy of the forces

    • the meeting of the maximum of means
    • the maximum of intensity
    • the co-operation
    • the unit of command
    • the choice of the moment
    • the choice of the place
    • the surprise
    • speed
    • continuity
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