The Manoeuvre Warfare Fraud ?

Below is a link to a 2008 article by William F. Owen called “The Manoeuvre Warfare Fraud.” Definitely worth a read no matter where you stand in the debate. This is a debate I am aware of, although I tend to stay out of. It is difficult in some discussions to add much of quantitative value, although I do have a chapter on Surprise in War by Numbers that people discussing maneuver warfare or MDO (multi-domain operations) should take a look at.

Anyhow the article is here: The Manoeuvre Warfare Fraud | Small Wars Journal

William F. Owen will be presenting an update of this article at the Fourth HAAC in October 2025. Hopefully it will be in person but he cannot confirm that yet.

One of the best articles I have read in the last year was by William F. Owen called the False Lessons of Modern War. I have blogged about it before: The False Lessons of Modern War – The Dupuy Institute. Would strongly recommend reading that article. 

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Christopher A. Lawrence
Christopher A. Lawrence

Christopher A. Lawrence is a professional historian and military analyst. He is the Executive Director and President of The Dupuy Institute, an organization dedicated to scholarly research and objective analysis of historical data related to armed conflict and the resolution of armed conflict. The Dupuy Institute provides independent, historically-based analyses of lessons learned from modern military experience.
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Mr. Lawrence was the program manager for the Ardennes Campaign Simulation Data Base, the Kursk Data Base, the Modern Insurgency Spread Sheets and for a number of other smaller combat data bases. He has participated in casualty estimation studies (including estimates for Bosnia and Iraq) and studies of air campaign modeling, enemy prisoner of war capture rates, medium weight armor, urban warfare, situational awareness, counterinsurgency and other subjects for the U.S. Army, the Defense Department, the Joint Staff and the U.S. Air Force. He has also directed a number of studies related to the military impact of banning antipersonnel mines for the Joint Staff, Los Alamos National Laboratories and the Vietnam Veterans of American Foundation.
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His published works include papers and monographs for the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment and the Vietnam Veterans of American Foundation, in addition to over 40 articles written for limited-distribution newsletters and over 60 analytical reports prepared for the Defense Department. He is the author of Kursk: The Battle of Prokhorovka (Aberdeen Books, Sheridan, CO., 2015), America’s Modern Wars: Understanding Iraq, Afghanistan and Vietnam (Casemate Publishers, Philadelphia & Oxford, 2015), War by Numbers: Understanding Conventional Combat (Potomac Books, Lincoln, NE., 2017) , The Battle of Prokhorovka (Stackpole Books, Guilford, CT., 2019), The Battle for Kyiv (Frontline Books, Yorkshire, UK, 2023), Aces at Kursk (Air World, Yorkshire, UK, 2024), Hunting Falcon: The Story of WWI German Ace Hans-Joachim Buddecke (Air World, Yorkshire, UK, 2024) and The Siege of Mariupol (Frontline Books, Yorkshire, UK, 2024).
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Mr. Lawrence lives in northern Virginia, near Washington, D.C., with his wife and son.

Articles: 1619

2 Comments

    • I had already been discussion with him over his previous article on “The False Lessons of Modern War.” So, I just went ahead and scheduled his presentation for the Fourth HAAC. Already developing a draft schedule for conference any time you are ready to sign up to give a presentation. 😉

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