Accession Number:

ADA280396

Title:

The Iran-Iraq War Failing to Address the Center of Gravity

Descriptive Note:

Study project

Corporate Author:

ARMY WAR COLL CARLISLE BARRACKS PA

Personal Author(s):

• Hoffman, III, Hugh F.

Report Date:

1994-05-31

Pagination or Media Count:

79.0

Abstract:

This monograph argues that a strategic center of gravity analysis is the primary task a nation must accomplish before prosecuting a war. The author, LTC Hoffman, uses the Iran-Iraq War as a vehicle to illustrate how such a strategic analysis might be done and what happens when nations fail to make their enemys strategic center of gravity the object of decisive action in war. In doing so, LTC Hoffman presents a holistic model for a strategic center of gravity that can be used as both an analytic and a heuristic tool. Using this model to analyze the two belligerents in this long and fruitless war, he demonstrates the thought process involved in the employment of his five necessary conditions of a center of gravity. He concludes that strategic centers of gravity are almost invariably composite systems that comprise critical subcomponents of the four elements of national power the government, the military, the polity, and the economy.

Descriptors:

• *WARFARE
• *IRAQ
• *IRAN
• FOREIGN POLICY
• EMPLOYMENT
• STRATEGIC ANALYSIS
• TOOLS
• POWER
• VEHICLES
• GRAVITY
• MODELS
• ECONOMICS
• NATIONS
• CENTER OF GRAVITY

Subject Categories:

• Military Operations, Strategy and Tactics

Distribution Statement:

APPROVED FOR PUBLIC RELEASE