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The fog of war (German: Nebel des Krieges) is the uncertainty in situational awareness experienced by participants in military operations. [1] The term seeks to capture the uncertainty regarding one's own capability, adversary capability, and adversary intent during an engagement, operation, or campaign.
Fog of war is often attributed to Clausewitz, but is in fact a paraphrase of what he said: ‘War is the realm of uncertainty; three quarters of the factors on which action in war is based are wrapped in a fog of greater or lesser uncertainty.’
Heedless of the phenomenology of perception, war and security analysts, borrowing Clausewitz's rendering of 'the fog of war', attribute the results and limits of perception to lack of a clear view of the terrain of battle. In Clause witz's terms, 'War is the realm of uncertainty; three quarters of the factors on
Fog of war is often attributed to Clausewitz, but is in fact a paraphrase of what he said: ‘War is the realm of uncertainty; three quarters of the factors on which action in war is based are wrapped in a fog of greater or lesser uncertainty.’
- Fascinating Trinity
- Passage 1: The First Fascinating Trinity
- Passage 2: The Second Fascinating Trinity
- Passage 3: The Third Fascinating Trinity
- Passage 4: Three Tendencies Must Not Be Ignored
- Passage 5: The Theory Is Floating Between Three Points of Attractions
- Passage 6: Focus of on War
- A Three-Dimensional Representation of The Fascinating Trinity
War is thus more than a mere chameleon, because it changes its nature to some extent in each concrete case. But it is also, however, when it is regarded as a whole and in relation to the tendencies that dominate within it, a fascinating trinity—composed of: 1. primordial violence, hatred, and enmity, which are to be regarded as a blind natural forc...
War is thus more than a mere chameleon, because it changes its nature to some extent in each concrete case. But it is also, however, when it is regarded as a whole and in relation to the tendencies that dominate within it, a fascinating trinity—composed of: 1. primordial violence, hatred, and enmity, which are to be regarded as a blind natural forc...
The first of these three aspects correlates more to the people; the second, more to the commander and his army; the third, more to the government. Clausewitz operationalises the three objective tendencies, the relations between which can be hierarchic, equivalent, or sequential, by stating that they subjectively concern mainly the people, the comma...
The passions that are to blaze up in war must already be inherent in the people; the scope that the play of courage and talent will enjoy in the realm of probability and chance depends on the particular character of the commander and the army; but the political purpose belongs to the government alone. In this paragraph, Clausewitz describes the gen...
These three tendencies appear as three different codes of law, deep-rooted in their subject and yet variable in their dimensions. A theory that ignores any one of them or seeks to fix an arbitrary relationship among them would conflict with reality to such an extent that for this reason alone it would be totally useless. The deep-rooted passions in...
The task, therefore, is to keep our theory [of war] floating among these three tendencies, as among three points of attraction. “Floating” means that the theory is free to move both horizontally and vertically in a three-dimensional space. The essence of war is dual: the three tendencies are part of its objective nature. Clausewitz succeeds in embe...
What lines might best be followed to achieve this difficult task will be explored in the book on the theory of war [i.e., Book Two]. In any case, the conception of war defined here will be the first ray of light into the fundamental structure of theory, which will first sort out the major components and will allow us to distinguish them from one an...
All the interpretations of the Fascinating Trinity to date represent the tendencies of the theory of war as independent variables. The idea that the theory is floating between three centers of attraction has baffled many who have interpreted. Strickmann declares that it is a tripolar system consisting of three poles, above which a theory of war is ...
- Lennart Souchon
- 2020
The fog of war (German: Nebel des Krieges) is the uncertainty in situational awareness experienced by participants in military operations. The term seeks to capture the uncertainty regarding one's own capability, adversary capability, and adversary intent during an engagement, operation, or campaign.
This 21 st century version brings with it new layers of complexity, uncertainty, and risks for populations and communities affected by conflict and violence. Misinformation, disinformation and hate speech are not new.
