ABSTRACT
The previous chapters have provided a conceptual lens through which we can examine Boyd’s presentations. The following chapters lay out in full prose what Boyd sketched out in his slides. They demonstrate that, although the idea of ‘rapid OODA looping’ is indeed an important theme in Boyd’s work and significant in its own right, in fact his work is much broader and more complex than ‘merely’ this insight suggests. In addition to developing an approach for fighting conventional war, with the rapid OODA loop notion as its conceptual heart, Boyd distills distinct ‘categories of conflict’, each with its own particular logic. They will also demonstrate that Boyd did not stop at the tactical and operational levels of war; on the contrary, he addressed the strategic and grand strategic levels as well and in considerable detail. Indeed, he is at pains to reconceptualize the meaning of these terms by putting them in the context of adaptability, as levels in the game of survival.
