Assessing the New Joint Pub 5-0 Interpretation of 'Center of Gravity' Will It Help or Confuse Joint Planning

摘要

Theoreticians, doctrine writers, and warfighters alike have over the last quarter century employed Clausewitz's concept of the 'Center of Gravity.' By this phrase Clausewitz meant that if one identifies the enemy's 'hub of power and all movement,' then destroying or neutralizing it leads to the enemy's downfall. Unfortunately, the concept has been applied in many disparate ways by the U.S. joint community and the services, leading to tremendous controversy and inconsistency in its use. Now, the emerging Joint Publication 5-0 is offering yet another new definition to be applied across the military. It sees a force as a system-of-systems, and the Center of Gravity as the capabilities, characteristics, or sources of power from which the force derives it strength, freedom of action, and will to act. This enables effects-based operations by allowing planners to derive actions that directly or indirectly influence the center of gravity, theoretically 'the most direct path to mission accomplishment.' While the joint community has clearly settled on this definition, does it achieve what is purported. Does it resolve the previous controversies, or does it merely produce new ones. This paper examines these questions in a study of this new definition and how it supports or confuses the joint planning process.