"The Art of Maneuver" is an important theoretical study of an issue that is currently the subject of much discussion in professional military journals and symposia. The author takes a fresh, unbiased look at what soldiers consider the maneuver-oriented American army and finds that we do not understand the importance of maneuver as classical writers on the subject going back to Sun Tzu have understood it. In fact, we are culturally conditioned to see war as an attritional phenomenon-think of the emphasis on body count and the use of overwhelming firepower in Vietnam. A similar mind-set was operative as recently as Operation Just Cause, the U.S. invasion of Panama. On the other hand, General Schwarzkopf found maneuver warfare extremely effective in Operation Desert Storm. Leohard shows how true maneuver-warfare theory has been applied in campaigns throughout history. With a genius for apt analogy he shows how our obsession with fighting and winning set-piece battles causes us to overlook an enemy's true vulnerabilities. But as low-intensity conflicts promise to become the dominant warfare of the future, the importance of maneuver in attacking an enemy's critical vulnerability will render attrition approaches to warfighting ever more obsolete.

Preface / Part I. Maneuver-warfare theory. Framework for maneuver -- Evolution of maneuver theory -- The emans of defeat -- Construction of a theory / Part II. AirLand Battle. Development of AirLand Battle -- AirLand Battle in perspective -- AirLand Battle reduction ad absurdum -- Operation Just Cause -- Multipolarity and low-intensity conflict -- Solutions / Appendix A: arguing with success -- Appendix B: the course of postwar Army doctrine.