Contemporary Theories Of Cog: The Clausewitz's Cog

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The Clausewitz’s CoG To better understand contemporary theories of CoG, one must first be grounded in the original theory of CoG, commonly attributed to Carl von Clausewitz. Following analogies of physics and using personal observations and experiences Clausewitz drew his theory of CoG (Echevarria II, 2007 p. 179). In On War, he defines CoG as ‘…the hub of all power and movement, on which everything depends… the point against which all our energies should be directed…’ (Clausewitz, 1989 pp. 595-596). It could be argued that Clausewitz as claiming that, ‘the first task… in planning for a war is to identify the enemy’s centre of gravity…’ recognized the CoG’s vital role in campaign planning (Clausewitz, 1989 p. 619). Concomitantly, Prussian be-lieved…show more content…
84). Some of the instructions, though, can be distinguished. According to Clausewitz, the opposing forces must first have a certain cohesion and unity present necessary for the analogy of a CoG to successfully be applied (Potter, 2013 p. 6). Clausewitz further provides several examples of CoG-s at different levels of war (Johnson, 2001 p. 7). In Book Six of On War, Clausewitz asserts, that CoG is physical: ‘…the real key to enemy’s country is usually his army’ (Smith, 2004 p. 136). Thus, he identifies the enemy’s army as the pre-eminent candidate for what one today could describe as operational-level CoG (Lee, 1999 p. 5). Nevertheless, it is important to emphasize that, Clausewitz cautions, that the description of the con-cept of CoG in Book Six, is incomplete and the revised idea will be offered in Book Eight (Lee, 1999 p. 6). Hence, it is probably safe to assume, that the CoG concept, explained in Book Eight and described below, is his conclusive…show more content…
Likewise, it al-lows operational planners to determine CV-s of friendly and enemy’s forces needed for successful operation (Laanemets, 2014 p. 4). On the other hand, some critics still argue that Strange simply converts CoG into centres of CC-s and this methodology tends not to support today’s complex environment composed of nodes (tangible el-ements such as people, materiel and facilities) and links (intangible elements such as ideology, political behaviour and command relationships) (Evans, 2012 pp.
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