John L Jerz Website II Copyright (c) 2014

The Dragon's Quantum Leap (Thomas, 2009)

Transforming from a Mechanized to an Informatized Force

Timothy L. Thomas

Foreign Military Studies Office (FMSO), Fort Leavenworth, KS

Chinese observations of warfare in the information age have resulted in a widespread transformation and metamorphosis of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) from a mechanized to an informatized force.

This transformation has affected nearly every aspect of China's military from strategy to logistics to educational development.

This book intends to peel back the transformation process and uncover the impact of new modes of thought on several key segments of military development (culture, strategems, crisis management, deception, and reconnaissance among other elements) that digital age thought is affecting.

JLJ - Thomas ponders translations of certain Chinese military publications and provides insight to the Chinese way of thinking in military (and ever more informatory) matters.

PLA - People's Liberation Army [JLJ - what the Chinese call their armed forces, founded August 1, 1927]

p.53 Innovations and creative thinking, in the view of the PLA, are the keys to victory in future war.

p.90 War is a game of deception.

p.118 When US planners gather to make decisions for an upcoming operation, they generate courses of action... When Chinese planners gather to make decisions, they generate potential stratagems for use by the commanders instead of courses of action.

p.119 To win with stratagem in the information age, the People's Liberation Army (PLA) believes that a strategist must link technology, strength, and stratagem to control victory. A good strategist is a good thinker who is innovative, creative, and flexible in his use of stratagems. A good stratagem performs a host of cognitive tricks, to include deceiving, controlling, inducing, arousing, creating, innovating, or manipulating another person or an entire staff. [JLJ - looks like basic leverage to me]

p.121 The goal of campaign stratagem is to achieve higher efficiency and to move away from a situation of simple static strength. The transformation from static strength to operational efficiency requires the exploitation of friendly campaign strength, enemy campaign strength, and the campaign environment. This analysis is commonly referred to as uncovering shi, the sum of all factors that impact on the performance of the respective operational efficiency of two sides in a general confrontational situation. Campaign stratagem aims at creating a situation unfavorable to the enemy and favorable to the friendly side. Planning and creating this situation is an element referred to as the "core of campaign stratagem application."

A main element of campaign stratagem is the battle of wits.

p.133 Knowledge is respected in China as reflected in the maxim that "the source of stratagem is knowledge."

p.133 The use of a stratagem indicates that a force understands what the other side is about and how it thinks... The overall goal will be to control an opponent's "intelligence-judgment-decision" process.