Ethiopian Defense University
Fundamentals of military thought (MilT 1011)
By
L/Col Gosaye Desalegn
Jan 2023
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Course Description
• The course ―Fundamentals of Military Thought required at undergraduate level;
that offered as basic knowledge for students; so that the students will be
– able to develop a critical understanding of the theory and practice of military thought
building, implementation and evaluation to bring shared development in defense force.
• it includes Concepts of military thought, General theory of war, Army/military
organization, Military doctrine, Military science and art.
• The selected areas of military thought comprise five chapters.
• The first Chapter essentially deals with general introduction about the concepts
of military thought, which is intended to give basic knowledge about the
developments and features of military thought.
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Course Description…
• The second chapter analyzes characteristics of war, political and social functions.
• The third Chapter examines the army as an organization formed to fight wars and its
institutional links with the society at large, the nature and characteristics of the
army are portrayed in relation to the different political systems in the Ethiopian
context.
• The fourth Chapter starts with the definition of military doctrine, the essence, basis
and content of military doctrine. It Discusses the origins and roles of Ethiopian
military Doctrine, its relation to Ethiopian Constitution;
• Finally the fifth Chapter discusses fundamental concepts of military science and art.
The meaning and origins of military science and art, sources of laws of Military
science and art, the direct and indirect laws of military science and art.
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Course Learning Outcomes
At the end of this course, you will be able to:
Define the meaning and essence of military thought of the national defense
force
Describe the meaning, characteristics, development and outcomes of war
and army
Differentiate the Ethiopian outlook on war, army and military science and art
List the essence, basis and content of military doctrine
Explain the meaning and principles of military science and art,
Describe sources of laws of military science and art, and the direct and
indirect laws of military science and art.
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CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION TO MILITARY THOUGHT
Chapter Learning Outcomes
At the end of this chapter, the students should be able to:
Describe the meaning, foundation and the developments of military
thought
Understand the basic feature, position and function of military
thought and the origins,
Discuss the essence of military thought of the national defense force
Explain the content and methods of military thought research
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1.1 Introduction to Military Thought
• Military thought is a field of study helping military students, historians
and other researchers to understand the concepts and thoughts on war
and on military issues in the past, present and future.
1.2 Definition
• Military thought is a high level and systematic rational knowledge about
wars and military problems.
• It reveals the nature, basic laws and the guiding rules of war and explains
the basic theories regarding building the armed forces and generally
determines the outcome of the study in respect of wars and military
problems.
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Definition …
• War and military problems are two concepts that are interlinked at the same time
different from each other:
• war is a historical phenomenon of society one of special forms in human social
activities and the supreme mode of fighting to solve contradictions in a certain
period between the two classes, two ethnic groups, two countries and two political
blocs by force for the purpose of both politics and economy; and
• therefore preparation and conduct of war is a central theme in military affairs,
such as organizing forces, training and conducting of operations; R and D of
military equipment; study and application of strategy and tactics; storage and
supply of war materials; planning and development of national defense
installations; mobilization, organization and construction of reserve forces, etc.
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Definition …
• War concepts reflect the war scenario constituted by contradictions between opposing sides,
and is a social status quo regarding peace; whereas, military affairs includes all activities being
engaged by the armed forces, the state administrative organs and the general public.
• The core and the principal aim of military affairs are to make preparations for war and
conduct of war.
• Generally speaking, various views and observations on warfare, methodology of war,
principles on the planning and conduct of war and the guiding thinking and principles of
building-up the armed forces are the basic contents in the study of military affairs
• theories of warfare and methodology are the soul and the quintessence of military thought
which is a theoretical summary of war and experience of military practice.
• It stems from practice of war and military activities, and in turn provides theoretical guiding
to the war and military practice, and advances with the development of war and military
practice, and forms an important part of military science.
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1.3 A Brief History of Development of Military Thought
• Military thought develops according to the historical
development and the development of warfare through the ages.
• Human being has gradually undergone various processes of
cognition of war and military affairs with the development of
social productive forces, the replacement of one mode of social
economy and political system by another, the enhancement of
scientific and cultural levels and the change in his ideology, and
increasing frequency and scales of wars.
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1.4 Basic Features of Military Thought
There are four basic features or characteristics in Military Thought:-
1 Class Character:-
• In a class society, the military thought that holds a dominant position in
any country is the military thought of the ruling class, which is necessarily
subordinated to and serves the politics of the country, and hence
branded as a class.
• In a class society, there are class differences between the people who
hold differing views on the cognition and the application of war laws
because they are from different classes with differences in standpoint,
views and methodology.
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2 Practicality Military:-
• Thought stemmed from war and the military practice and in turn gives
tremendous guidance to them, and it has been tested and developed in the
course of war and the practice of military affairs.
• The practicality of it is a dominant feature of military thought.
• There exists the discontinuity of war practice; people can sum up some new
military thought during the peace time by the way of simulated exercises and
scientific experiment, but there are great disparities between the simulated
exercises and the actual situation.
• In the meantime, military thought plays an important role in guiding war and the
military practice.
• Each war on a large scale brings about new military thoughts without which, as
a correct guiding line, there would be no any major victory.
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3 Impacts of Times:-
• Times are divided into several historical periods according to certain periods of
politics, economy, culture, science and technology etc.
• Any military thought is a product of the historical period in a certain time, which
has been affected by the backgrounds prevailing at that time.
• Each military thought in different historical period has its own characteristic that
gives a faithful representation of the mode of production, social system, material
production level and especially the existing development level of the military
technical equipment.
• Ancient military thought, for instance, was made on the basis of cold arms, while
modern military thought is very close to the wide employment of hot arms.
• Politics is one of the other factors that determine the development of military
thought.
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4 Inheritance Military:-
• Thought has been developed in the dialectical movement of inheritance
and development.
• The development is the strong vitality of military thought. This
development is not isolated but it develops on the basis of inheritance.
• The inheritance here refers to the reservations and the experience,
principles of the universal significance drawn from the traditional military
thought.
• Because of the diversity and the variations of war and the military affairs,
the inheritance does not mean to copy blindly or mechanically but to
inherit in its application and the development.
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1.5 The Position and Function of Military Thought
1. Provide the Overall Guidance for all Military
Practice
• Military activities engaged by the people cannot do
without the guidance of military thought.
• Success or failure of the military practice pins on the
scientific military thought that provides the correct
direction for military practice.
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The Position and Function of Military Thought …
2. Provide Basic Views and Methods for Recognizing and Studying Military
Problems and Carrying out Military Forecasting
• People always judge the concepts of rights and wrongs, and then decide
their course of action.
• To judge the war by correct military thought is a matter of generally
understanding the function and the nature of war in human social life and is
a matter of forecasting the war scientifically.
• At the same time, military thought, as the basics of military science,
provides not only a theoretical basis for solving the actual problems but
provides the basic principles and methods for studying military problems.
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The Position and Function of Military Thought …
3. Provide the Experience for All Situation
• War and military activities are closely integrated with all aspects of
human society and human life, so the study of military thoughts goes
beyond the scope of military affairs for studying wars and military
problems.
• Some important rules in the field of war and military affairs and some
important theory and principles it put forward have great significance
in politics, economy, foreign affairs, culture and science and technology
of the state.
• It is used for reference in all aspects in human society and human life.
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1.6 Contents and Methods of Military Thought Research
• The contents of military thought are divided in two levels:
• one is on a level with the military philosophy; the other is on a level with the
basic guiding principles of the military practice.
• The former mainly includes the views of war, the epistemology and
methodology of military problems.
• It is a product of combination of military science and philosophy which
introduces the universal law of the contradiction in motion in the field of
military affairs and the mode of thinking of the subjective direction as the basic
contents, and provides the tools of epistemology and methodology for us;
• the latter mainly includes the general policies and the principles of the war
guiding the army building and the national defense building, etc.
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Research Method of Military Thought:
a)The research should be made on facts of the actual
war and the military practice- the rules of all wars are
objective. In order to preserve oneself and destroy the
enemy and to make the subjective direction of war
score with the objective reality, the only correct
approach is to study and guide the war scientifically
with objective laws.
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b) Have politics in mind- …
• the research should be made on the political nature of war and the
military affairs.
• War is the continuation of politics.
• The political nature of war is an important basis for distinguishing the
nature of war and adopting different attitudes to different wars.
• It is important to know the political aim of war in analyzing war
politically.
• The peacetime politics and the wartime politics, the external policy
and the domestic policy of the state should be studied as a whole,
and the economic sources of war should be explored next.
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c) Have characteristics and development in mind-
• the research on war should be made concretely and historically, for there is no
abstract war in the world.
• Every war, which has its own special contradiction, is different from other wars,
with its own fixed time space as existing in specific circumstances.
• From the war history, we can see that every war is quite different from the other,
and there is no war that is absolutely the same as another.
• Thus our attention should be on the focus of characteristics and development.
• So long as it is researched concretely and historically, or according to the
differences between the periods and the nature, then we can understand the
characteristics and laws of each war and give the correct guidance to the war
practice.
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d) Have the overall situation of war and military affairs in mind-
• the research should be made completely and systematically,
in its entirety and include the whole process.
• Where there is war, there is the overall situation of war.
• War, however, is not an isolated phenomenon.
• It has the relation between internal and external causes,
between the principal and secondary aspects and between
essential and nonessential distinction of its surroundings.
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e)It should be researched by the view of the unity of opposites on the
basis of grasping various contradictions of war and military affairs-
• all contradictions of war are the unity of opposites that are related
to each other; are interdependent or varied from each other.
• They do not exist without the opposite.
• During the war, for instance, of various contradictions between
preserving oneself and destroying the enemy, offensive and
defensive, and the protracted war and the war of quick decision,
etc. should be observed with the views of dialectical materialism,
grasping the unity from opposites.
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1.7 Importance of the Study of Military Thought
• To understand war and related issues
• To carry out military activities
• To grasp knowledge on problems related with military issues and the
direction of solving them
• To forecast future trends
• To understand the role of other fields to the study of war and military
issues
• To Understand the evolving character of war that each war has its own
peculiarities, no identical war exists
• Tp Understand the political, economic, technological contexts in which
the war is conducted
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