The Concept and Framework of Pre-emptive Strategic Development Operations*
By Rene Toomse
The manner in which today’s adversaries wage wars has changed in such a way that Western nations, with their technically superior armies, find it difficult to win wars by ways and means that have worked before. Warfighting against modern insurgents has turned out to be exhausting and endless. While counterinsurgents normally have far better technology, training and weapons than insurgents in on-going conflicts they cannot win quickly and decisively. Many strategies so far have proven impossible to achieve. The “quick in – find – fix – defeat” mindset should, according to current doctrines and policies, work with all the traditional principles of war. Yet still the enemy is not willing to surrender. Something is different in today’s battlefield, perhaps even in the nature of war itself.