Study of Causality in Military Planning

Military practitioners are often asked to make plans that could have enormous strategic effects without having a good understanding of their operational environment. It is exactly this relationship between the plan, the environment, and the end state that is not well understood. Increased familiarity with scholarly theories of causation will improve military planners' and commanders' ability to understand and intervene in the world. Some literature suggests there is a gap between academic theory and military practice. Bridging this gap will create a richer learning environment for both parties. Craig Parsons describes four key arenas of causation on which military professionals can categorize their efforts. William Connolly gives great arguments against relying on direct cause-and-effect relationships while not undermining the importance of actions in search of a specific goal. Using Joint Publication (JP) 5-0 as a familiar base to combine these two theorists, military professionals can gain an understanding of the insights borne from political science. Likewise, political science theorists can gain some appreciation for, and interest in researching, the difficulties of applying a pristine theory to the messy operational environment in which military professionals are asked to perform.