Some Thoughts on the Terms War, Military, Art and Science

Summary of Henrik Friman's article in RSAWSPJ no 3 2001.

During the - still ongoing - process of academization at the National Defence College, the use of a number of terms and concepts has come to the fore and been vividly discussed. It is no exaggeration to say that there is widespread dissension concerning the use and meaning of most of these central terms. This makes further discussion even harder, since the meanings of these terms and indeed the underlying concepts behind them are not always immediately apparent. If the exact meaning of a given term is not clearly defined, disagreement is likely to arise over the use of such obscure terminology and it cannot be used to good advantage in operational situations and/or for educational purposes. In this essay I will try to shed some light upon some of these terms.

Personally I don’t think it is necessary to find a precise definition of the signification or meaning of all technical terms, but an increased understanding of the terms would make further work easier. The terms I have chosen to look closer at are: (1) the art of warfare, (2) war science, (3) military art, (4) military science, and (5) operational art.

The definitions of these terms differ in several respects/dimensions, both within the framework of art and science and in the military sense/use and application of current terminology. Most of the terms discussed here have been culled from standard dictionaries and reference works; they can thus be said to reflect accurately the accepted general uses and underlying concepts with reference to the terminology under scrutiny here.

This essay does not pretend to offer any exact definitions; I am content with making a survey of and mapping out some terms in general use for the reader’s own benefit and further explorations in the field of relevant terminology.