Introduction

The term ‘operational art’, coined by Soviet military theorists in the interwar period, has received increased attention in military circles with the debate on comparative NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) and Warsaw Pact operational capabilities during the 1970s and 1980s.1 The interest in operational art also extended into the field of military history when the origins of operational art became the object of research. Some historians maintained that operational art first emerged in the American Civil War and Moltke’s campaigns in 1866 and 1870-1871 as a child of the Industrial Revolution. Proponents of this position hold that the invention of rifled guns and infantry arms, the railway and the telegraph permitted the widely dispersed manoeuvre of independent bodies of troops which is a salient feature of operational art.2